Love Hurts 5 Ways
by Lady-Nyxx
Summary: It's a wish everyone wants. Some deny it. Others give up. But there are those who will stop at nothing to get it—even if it means that they have to suffer. Akimoto, a woman of a peculiar existence, made the wish to the universe and didn't know what she was in for.
1. It Will Be This Way No More!

**I'd like to welcome you all to _Love Hurts 5 Ways~_**

**Long authors note just for this chapter, so please bear with me X3**

**Before some of you want to ask me why I did my story a certain way, make sure you read this first. This is a crossover between 5 different anime, and because its more than 2, it would be hard to actually classify it. The story contains the anime: Inuyasha, Fruits Basket, Ouran High School Host Club, D.N Angel, and Fushigi Yuugi. **

**The primary world will be fushigi yuugi, it may not seem that way for a while, but believe me, it will be. Ouran is the other anime because, its also another significant world but its not limited to those two because, once again, this story has 5 anime in it. The story wont be in the fushigi yuugi universe for a while, but will build up to it, and once it does, it'll pretty much stay there for the majority of the story, so be patient please, THANX! Also, this is a story with OC's, so if u really hate those soooo much then turn back now, but please read my story before you knock it. Comments are appreciated, enjoy!**

**...**

**A few notes: **_"__Italicized writing in quotation marks means that some type of attack, spell, song, etc is going on."_

_Italicized writing without quotes is Aki's thoughts (or the thoughts of whoever POV it is)._

_**Italicized and bold writing shows a memory that is going on at the same time the present event is happening**_

**Non-Italicized bold writing within consecutive italicized & bold writing are Aki's thoughts in that memory**

**...**

**Yes, there is some modernized writing to make it seem like a real teenager is telling the story ****and we all know that teens do not all speak properly.**

**Yes there are quite a few anime in this story and if you are waiting for a particular ****one to show up, then you have to wait until the story progresses.**

**Last thing, yes, I know I started with a particular anime that is not one of the ones categorized, its like that for a reason that will be explained as the story goes on. SO PLEASE DONT ASK ME QUESTIONS ABOUT THAT**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these anime, the songs, and the spells that may be used by a character in the story**

**_Fushigi Yuugi_ and its characters is owned by Yuu Watase  
><em>Inuyasha<em> is owned by Rumiko Takahashi  
><em>Fruits Basket<em> is owned by Natsuki Takaya  
><em>Ouran High School Host Club <em>is owned by Bisco Hatori, and  
><em>DNAngel <em>is owned by Yukiru Sugisaki**

**Most of the spells Aki and my other OCs may use are from the anime _Sailor Moon_, _Bleach_, _Zatch Bell_, and the _Slayers_ series. **

**But I DO own the characters: Akimoto Tsubaki, Shokyoku, Kajou Tsubaki, Saruwatari Michiyo, Kyoko Fujiwara, Stella, the idea of Shadow Maidens, and Yosuke Hyuuga**

**I also own the spell "Tornado Fist" as well as other spells that may show up that you have never heard from any other show. If you don't know the difference either way, then don't worry about it~**

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><p><strong>~*Season 1: Prologue*~<strong>

I could feel my heart squeeze painfully in my chest. I could barely breathe—it hurt too much. My tears vigorously ran down my sensitive cheeks onto the ground below me, drowning all hopes I had at ever being happy. Why did this happen? How could he allow this to happen to me? This had to be some sort of sadistic joke—an illusion! My eyes had to have been fooling me—it wouldn't have been the first time that the universe made me see something that wasn't there.

But I _saw_ it...

No matter how much I tried to make excuses in my troubled mind, I just couldn't lie to myself enough to make everything that happened alright.

It would _never_ be alright.

Never again.

Was this some kind of sick joke that he—no—_they_ had planned for me? I thought the pain was all over when I arrived here. Turns out that my journey had been for nothing, I should have given up a long time ago. Now, I'm here all alone crying my eyes out after being betrayed by my best friend—the one I loved. Utterly. Brutally. Betrayed.

I tried to get up and get a hold of myself, to show the universe and the Darkness inside of me that I wouldn't submit just because my heart was broken, but my body wouldn't move. All I could think of is how I had come so far, how much pain I had gone through up to this point, and how I almost got my wish. But now…I don't know anything anymore…

I give up…

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><p><strong>From the Beginning~<strong>

"Ugh. I just can't stand it."

"Hmm?"

My best friend Saru and I were sitting at the overly crowded food court at the mall. Problem was, it was being invaded by a bunch of mocking, nauseating, lovey-dovey couples.

"Dammit, don't we get enough of this in school? Whatever happened to no PDA? Or common courtesy?" I complained. It was hard to tell whether or not the universe, my worst enemy, was just mocking me. No matter where I went, it was almost like every single happy couple was mocking me with their gushy happiness. There was no way in the world some miscellaneous faces could possibly know about the pain I had to endure my whole life, so my previous thoughts probably just sounded incredibly paranoid. Nonetheless, I wasn't oblivious to how much just seeing them made me want to sneer.

Saru giggled as she looked around—obviously something like this didn't bother someone like her. "I don't know, Aki. I think it's sweet. People deserve to be happy." Not that I was opposed to them being happy or anything, I was sourer of the fact that I might never be able to achieve their level of bliss. She looked back at me. "Besides, no one really even follows that whole PDA rule." _Understatement. _With all of that rule breaking going on, I was only slightly surprised that school administrators hadn't been handing out detention slips as if they were free lollipops. Even they knew that they couldn't control the chaos that was teenage hormones.

I leaned on the table and buried my face in my arms. _Well they should. I don't wanna see any of this crap. It's bad enough that _I_ don't have a boyfriend, now these guys have to rub it in my face. _I sighed. Yeah, I know, it sounds a bit petty and cliché to be complaining about not being in a relationship, but I just couldn't help it! Looking back on the many crappy years of my existence, I was allowed some type of happiness dammit!

"You know, jealousy isn't very cute." She added while tucking one of her perfect brunette curls behind her ear. A group of mildly attractive guys walked by as I started to say something to her. She flashed them a flawless smile and they all gave her _that _look—you know, the one that guys give girls they think are attractive—and gave me absolutely nothing. I narrowed my eyes at them. _Jerks, at least pretend to be interested_. So what if I'm not the most exciting looking or outgoing or overly optimistic like my cute, peppy friend Saru Michiyo here. Guys were always looking her way with her model slim figure, long brunette curls, easy gray eyes, light tan, fashion sense, her in-the-know-uality, and of course, that overly optimistic and positive personality. I, on the other hand, get barely any glances. I may not be supermodel pretty, but I don't think I'm _that_ plain looking. I have shorter than shoulder length, thick, dark brown almost black hair (with bangs that covered my eyes often), fair skin, crimson eyes (yes, I know that's freaky—I've heard it all before), and I dress comfortably (although I'm not opposed to dressing like a teen model, I simply don't have the money to buy the clothes). I mean,_ I_ like me, sometimes... But guys don't...well to be honest, most people don't.

Don't I just sound like the happiest person ever?

Giving an even bigger sigh, I could feel Saru staring at me. "I'm not jealous, just…fed up." Saying that I was jealous would have given the universe the sort of satisfaction that I didn't exactly feel like supplying it. Call it denial if you want, but I'll just leave as is.

"With what?" _Like you don't know. _Sometimes that innocent act she played tended to really get on my nerves.

"You know perfectly 'what'."

"Is this because you don't have a boyfriend?" She asked with a slight annoyed tone in her voice.

"Whatever," I mumbled bitterly.

"You know, instead of making a move, you went through all of middle school, high school, and knowing you, elementary school sulking over the fact that you're not in a relationship. You either need to get over it or finally do something about it," Without trying to sound like a total bitch, she quickly added, "You are an attractive girl Aki, I'm sure you can find someone. After all, this is our senior year, you can't be sulking on senior year."

I lifted my head and scowled. "I am not sulking, and don't pretend like I'm actually a visually appealing specimen to the opposite gender like you are. You have guys practically crawling at your feet," I scooted my chair back and stood up. "And don't have me sounding like I'm some desperate person who has absolutely nothing better to do than look for a significant other." _I am not the only lonely one in the world. What I am feeling is perfectly understandable, no matter how much it depresses me._

Saru frantically began to get up too. "No, Aki, that's not what I—"

"Saruwatari! What's up?" The voice of Kyoko Fujiwara unfortunately came from behind us and I groaned. Turning around scornfully I faced my ex-best friend and her boyfriend, Yosuke Hyuuga or as I like to call him, my ex-crush.

"Of course she ignores me," I mumbled, looking away the instant Yosuke looks in my direction. "It's not like I'm standing here or anything."

Saru gives me a quick look then flashes them a friendly smile. "Hiya!"

"So, Saru, wanna hang with me and Yosuke? Adam is coming too if you're interested. We are gonna see a movie." She said pretending to look at Saru but really at me. _Don't be a bitch Kyoko._

"I'm pretty sure it's the one you've wanted to see for a while. Then we are heading to the lake for a bonfire," he shrugged, "just 'cause."

Saru shook her head. "No it's okay, I'm good here. But maybe later—"

I quickly grabbed her arm and began to pull her away, with a little struggle but considering her petite size, wasn't an obstacle. A few steps later, Kyoko intercepted us.

"We were talking to her," She said sternly.

I glared at her. "Yeah? Well, you're done talking and we're leaving." _I do not want to deal with you right now._

She looked from Saru to me. Then suddenly her eyes went wide for a second after realizing her surroundings. She smirked, "Ah, I see. You're sulking." _Dammit I am not! _"Why don't you just get over yourself already. There are more people more unfortunate than you."

I growled. "Lay off Kyoko. You don't know me anymore." I glanced at Yosuke and I felt my face heat up. He did not need to hear this conversation.

"I know enough. You haven't really changed."

I let go of Saru and stepped up to the obnoxious five-inches-taller-than-me, bob-haired, bright, green-eyed blond who was just askin' for me to show her my fist the hard way. "Look, you got the guy so step off and leave me to my life, since you are no longer apart of it. And I. Don't. Sulk."

"Please, you used to cry so often that all of our classmates had to rent boats just to get to class." I clenched my fists and stepped closer. What she had said was an overstatement. As if I'd allow people to see me cry like that—it was a pathetic thought. However, she was more aware than others of how upset I was...both her and Saru were.

"Shut up." People began to stop what they were doing, and thanks to natural curiosity, began to crowd around us_. Jeez, I hate making scenes_.

"Aki…Kyoko, now isn't the time…" Saru said quietly.

"Yeah, this isn't cool guys." Yosuke chimed in.

"What's the matter Aki? Aren't you gonna freeze up just like you used to do when Yosuke talked to you?" My face began to heat up again. At this point, though, I couldn't tell if it was from embarrassment or anger. Before I could speak, she continued. "You know, you'll never find anyone." My eyes went wide. "You will always be searching and staying in the corner away from people all because you can't seem to help yourself. You always feel sorry for yourself and have others take pity. Guys don't like that and you are perfectly aware, yet you still insist on being on the outside away from the guys. Good luck actually catching one. Like you could at this point anyway."

I stood there, frozen, in totally embarrassment as people suddenly started talking amongst themselves.

"How pathetic…"

"…that long?"

"Is there something wrong with her?"

"…must be true, she's not arguing…"

"Self-pity? What a turn-off." A person could hear things like this all of their lives, and no matter how hard they made their outer exterior, it would always hurt. I'd never let them think that they had the power to make me break down and cry. _I_ was the one with the power to make_them_ all suffer. And if I weren't in a personal war to attempt control at that darker side of me, then I would have shown them my wrath.

Also, unfortunately, I was a slightly better person than that. Damn.

My blond nemesis switched her attention back to our seemingly diplomatic friend. "Saru, what do you think of all this?"

The girl shifted uncomfortably in her spot, "I don't know."

"Hasn't Aki given us self boy trouble since we were younger? Couldn't we have been doing something that we wanted?" Kyoko insisted.

Saru's eyes trailed off to the side to avoid my accusing eyes that screamed disbelief. "Well…yeah. I guess." I gave her a pained look. "I'm sorry Aki, but, this has been going on for a while. And we've done all we could and…we're tired. We have our own…problems and stuff y'know?"

I relaxed a little, unclenched my fists and lowered my head. For a few seconds, I didn't say anything. Then I looked up at them as well as the crowd and forced a confident smile, showing that I was not going to let them see how much they were actually getting to me. _You know, Saru, Kyoko, I could make a scene. I could do a bunch of stuff I may regret later, but then feel better after realizing that you bitches deserved everything you had comin' for you. But since I am the bigger person, you know the good friend who helped you guys through your problems over the years without complaints, as well as the person who has what's left of very little patience, I am gonna walk away..._I started to back up as I spoke up, sending such a glare with almost enough intensity to cut right through them. "You know, what? Go on and have fun with your boyfriends and girlfriends and such and I hope you all have the _best_ time possible. But I won't be there. You know why? 'Cause according to you jerks, I'll be off sulking like I always seem to be doing."

"Aki—" I started to sprint as fast as I could to the exit of the mall, not stopping at what Saru wanted to say to me. I seemed to be unintentionally running past everything: couples, feelings of love, true friends having fun. It always seems like these things are always passing me and I never get the chance to experience them myself. It was never fair...and I knew that and sometimes, I tried to sit and just accept it. But because of a fleeting dream from so long ago, and words belonging to a voice I could no longer identify, a part of me wanted to believe that the rotten deal I had been dealt wasn't meant to be permanent.

Was I wrong to think that? Or was I just fooling myself and giving into a fantasy?

Running outside and just kept going towards the setting sun, ignoring any other sound or piece of scenery, I had no real reason to stop no matter how tired I was getting. I was tired of everything. Seeing as how no one was around to judge my weakness, I allowed tears to stream down my face and past me as I ran. _I hate that this dark cloud is consuming my life! There was one thing I could more or less count on...and now even that was taken away._ I really wasn't all that surprised. After all, this consistency of my life was only hanging by a small thread...it was only a matter of time. _ All I'm doing is sinking deeper and deeper in misery and taking others with me. I want it to stop. _

Breathless, I threw my head back as I ran and shouted, "You hear that universe? There has to be something out there for me—some way to escape all this. And just find one person—just _one_ who can...I don't know..." I steadily began to slow down, up until a complete stop as I breathed heavily, staring at the ground, watching as my sweat and tears dripped all the way down. My body swayed a bit and although I was still, the world seemed to spin accompanying he headache I had acquired from my sprint. _What was it exactly that I wanted? _I mean...it wasn't that I didn't want things better for myself, I did. But...my rational mind was blocking my inner desires. It shouldn't have been so difficult for me to fathom what I truly wanted—or rather, what I deserved... Instead of thinking about it, I allowed the words to just slip past my lips in a whisper. "Someone out there... _real_ love that can dispell this curse...And, where I belong...'cause this, where I am can't be it—and I don't care what it takes." I brought the volume of my voice up once more, shouting to no one in particular. "I don't care what I have to do or where I have to go. Just let me find it!" Did it even exist? If not, then at least...I needed someone to tell me not to get my hopes up and wishing for an impossibility.

Just then, a bright red light flashed in front of me and engulfed my whole body. After my eyes adjusted to the brightness, I slowly opened them and in front of me was a floating, small, wrinkled old woman wearing some type of ancient robes. All I could do was stare.

"So you want to find true love huh?" _How does she know?_

I nodded slowly, still unsure of what to make of the whole situation.

"Speak child!"

"Y-Yes!"

"No matter what the cost?" She asked.

I slowly nodded again, my brain still unable to process everything that was happening. "Yes." _What am I doing?_

"And you are prepared to live with that?"

Without hesitation, "No doubt!" _What's going on?_

She turned around. "Well then, shall we get started?" She floated even further into theblinding scarlet light. I started to walk after her, still shocked about what was going on. What was going on? I had absolutely no idea. I was perhaps going crazy because I was following a complete stranger into a suspicious light. But…I didn't care. As long as my wish was granted, I really didn't care.

_I just hope I don't regret it._

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><p><strong>Please make sure to check out my Deviant Art page where you can see pix of this story and more X3 My pen name is the same...AKIMOTO-TSUBAKI, so please feel free to stop by ^^<strong>


	2. My New Life

**Remember:**

_"__Italicized writing in quotation marks means that some type of attack, spell, song, etc is going on."_

_Italicized writing without quotes is Aki's thoughts (or the thoughts of whoever POV it is)._

_**Italicized and bold writing shows a memory that is going on at the same time the present event is happening**_

**Non-Italicized bold writing within consecutive italicized & bold writing are Aki's thoughts in that memory**

**...**

**This is the last time i'll remind you guys of this, so please try to remember! ^_~**

**Thank you all for reading this story. I really appreciate it =D **

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><p>"Aki, look out!"<p>

Standing in the midst of a forest of tall tress, I gasped after hearing twigs and branched break. Then looked up as a huge, furry boar-type demon with spiky, erected fur and beady black eyes jumped overhead and had his sights set on me.

_**"Where exactly are we going?"**_

_**"You'll find out soon enough."**_

I jumped into some near-by bushes to attempt to hide from the beast, but it was no use. The moment it landed, it swung around again to charge at me. Just my luck, right? Frozen in place, partly from knowing that my chances at out-running it were slim, I raised my arms over my face in a sad attempt at protection.

_**The old woman finally stopped floating right when I was getting annoyed from all of the silence. The moment she turned around, I realized that she was OLD looking (extra emphasis on OLD, even borderline creepy). Kind of made me wonder the things she had gone through…but mostly who she was.**_

_**"Okay, girl, this is where I let you off." She told me with a harsh, not-so-inviting voice.**_

_**I gave her a confused look. "Off where? I don't even see anything." I decided to humor her by looking around, but all I could see was endless bright red light. If I remembered any part of Kindergarten, then it was bad of me to be following a stranger...but you know...this wasn't exactly a normal situation. **_

I felt a huge gush of wind suddenly pass me from the wilderness behind. The large boomerang-shaped object that swiftly passed me headed straight for the charging boar, instantly slicing the demon in the middle, dead in its tracks. _Omigosh, that thing coulda killed me!_My knees instantly gave way as I sunk to the ground in a wave of post shock and relief.

A rustle in the trees ahead put my senses on high alert once more. Out of nowhere, a figure jumped from the trees and landed in front of me. I squealed from being startled. Totally embarrassed, I feigned anger.

"Inuyasha! You scared me!"

_**"You will be sent to a world to achieve your wish. The world will be unfamiliar and dangerous, so if you want to find what you are looking for, you are going to have to stay alive."**_

"Don't give me that! You shouldn't have run off!" He yelled back. Inuyasha was a half demon with the blood of both a human and a dog demon running through his looked about my age, but was actually over one hundred years old. He had long, silvery-white hair and pointy dog ears of the same color sticking out from the top of his head (yes, I have felt them and they are very furry and fun to touch). He has piercing golden-yellow eyes that seem to just go right through you whenever you stare into them. He wore red feudal Japanese priest-like robes that often covered his mildly clawed hands, but showed his bare feet.

Yeah, I know, a _half-demon_ AND _feudal Japan_.The explanation may take some time, so sit tight.

He crouched down in front of me, scooting closer into my personal space. I leaned back to attempt to hide my flushed face. "Look, I told you that demons were nearby and decided to go on ahead. What's so wrong with that?"

_**"Huh? What kind of place are you sending me to? And my wish will be granted, right?" I asked anxiously. It seemed sort of stupid to follow some shady old lady, but again, not a normal situation. To add to that, I still wasn't completely sure that reality had hit me yet. So I was just sort of going with it. **_

_**"Hmm…perhaps."**_

_**"Perhaps? You're sending me into the unknown on a 'perhaps'?" This whole thing was totally sketchy and I had no reason at all to trust this woman. It almost sounded like she was sending me to my potential death. Gritting my teeth, I persisted. **__**"And who are you anyway? You don't expect me to just do what you say just 'cause you can do this fancy light trick do you—"**_

_**"Akimoto Tsubaki!" The woman roared.**_

_**I straightened up, "Yes, ma'am!"**_

_**"When you speak to me, you will show respect. Let me remind you child, that you asked me for help, so I expect some manners or else I'll just drop you off in that miserable state I found you in," She narrowed her eyes, "Is that clear?"**_

_**Scowling a bit, I reluctantly said, "Yes, ma'am."**_

"You idiot! Don't be so reckless!"

My blush went away after being replaced with a feeling of annoyance. "First, get outta my face. Second, don't be such a hypocrite. You are reckless all the time! Besides, I had good reason." Inuyasha had such a temper and he never let me do things on my own. He was too protective of me. Although, in this case, there may be good reason—I'd just never verbally admit to that since I didn't exactly condone it.

"Oh, save it." He scooped me up in his arms, lifting me from the ground and jumped into the air, into the high treetops. I wrapped my arms around him to hold on better.

_**"From this day on, you will call me Taiitsukun. I will do what I can to guide you on this quest. But I must warn you, this journey will not be easy."**_

**_I said under my breath, "That was implied, wasn't it?"_**

**_"What was that?"_**

**_"Nothing!" I quickly noted._**

**_"Yes, well, you will be needing this," I felt a tingling sensation arise from within me. The feeling began to manifest itself more prominently and centered in my chest. Slowly, a line of light appeared in front of me, from my chest, about the size of a foot. I slowly reached for it, noticing how the light emanating from it was warm, comforting. The light dimmed down and formed a black wand with silver "veins" covering it._**

"There are more demons following us." I told him as he leaped through the trees, making it too difficult to discern the tiny details passing us by.

"I know, they reek of human blood," I shifted in his arms, trying to reach for my wand that was in my back pocket. "Don't try it Aki."

_Oh isn't that cute? He thinks I'm going to listen to him. _"Of course I will. Plus, you have your hands full." I loosened myself and moved to a position where I could face the demons following us on the ground below.

"Just don't try Fire, alright?" He suggested with an attitude.

I rolled my eyes.

_**"I have unlocked your hidden powers, but it's up to you whether you use them to get stronger and protect yourself or not. You mostly have to figure out how to use it on your own," the old woman, Taiitsukun, told me. **_

Out of nowhere, a flying dark green gargoyle-like demon with scaly skin and huge wings was quickly flying up to us. I knew I had to hurry or else there would be trouble.

"Tch. Do any of these demons even have a Sacred Jewel Shard?"

I laughed nervously, "Probably not. My wands not sensing anything."

"Dammit Aki! We don't have time to go off chasing after random demons. Naraku is our main objective."

"I know that." _But I need this, Inuyasha. I have to get stronger somehow._

Noticing movement below us, I saw a large, light-yellowed, two-tailed, saber tooth cat demon with point black ears and black paws with fire surrounding them carrying two humans, a girl and a guy, both around my age. The girl had on black, demon-slaying armor with pink guards on various places. She wore a long ponytail and was carrying the large bone boomerang that went dashing past my head earlier. In back of her was a guy wearing black and dark purple monk robes, with a short and skinny pony tail sticking from the back of his head. He held a long, gold staff with a circle and rings at its tip, in his lap.

"Miroku! Sango!" I shouted to them.

"Aki, don't worry. We'll handle them down here." Sango replied back.

"We know you can take care of that one following you. So, good luck!" Miroku waved to me with a friendly smile before focusing on the demons in front of them. He lifted his right arm past Sango and unwrapped the beads around it.

_"Wind Tunnel!"_In his hand lay a small, dark hole that began sucking everything in front of it no matter how big. Trees shook and bits of the ground were all sucked into this deceivingly fearsome force. The demons running in front of them were instantly sucked in without any resistance. The moment they were through, he brought his hand back and replaced the beads.

I turned my focus back onto the flying demon that was getting closer and closer by the second. At least this one wasn't like the last that tried to not only play divide and conquer, but catch me off guard. This time, I was ready.

"You have shards of the Shikon Jewel! Give them to me!" It snarled.

I stuck my tongue out at it. "Bite me."

"Will you hurry it up, already?" Inuyasha complained.

"I'm getting there!" I aimed my wand at the demon.

_**I have powers now…**_

_**Powers? Yeah...there was no way this could be real. **_

**_"Because I am such a nice, generous person, I will give you one spell."_**

**_"Just one?"_**

**_"Didn't you hear me? I said you'd have to figure out these powers yourself. I'm just giving you a starting out present." I nodded. _I'm still so confused. I don't exactly know what I am doing. But I guess asking questions will only get me so far._ I'd have to find the answers myself. I looked at Taiitsukun. _Okay, maybe I'll just bombard her with more questions later._ I giggled to myself._**

**_"What are you laughing at?" She curiously asked._**

**_I shook my head. "Oh nothing. I'm just excited I suppose. I don't want to be like those other heroines who are freaked out and stuff when they are pushed with a whole bunch of responsibilities. So I'm gonna go for it. Tell me the spell and I'll go from there."_**

**_For the first time, I saw the woman's face relax and she smiled. "Very well then."_**

"Aki, what's the hold up?"

_**"Because you were born primarily as a Wind element, I'll start you off with that. But make sure that you discover the other elements before doing anything else complicated. Once I tell you the spell, you are on your own in the new world. However, this won't be good-bye forever. We will be meeting again."**_

"Calm down. I just want a clear shot!"

_**"I'm that much closer to getting my wish, so it's all good. C'mon Taiitsukun, tell me the spell!"**_

**_"Okay, the spell is—"_**

_"Saisu!"_. From the wand shot out a crescent shaped blast of wind emitting light energy. Hitting right on target, the demon was sliced in half horizontally with its two halves dropping to the ground like rocks. "Alright!"

"Good, now it's over," Inuyasha said with smug tone in his voice.

Just then, my wand began to glow at its tip—meaning that there was a Jewel shard nearby.

_So much for it being over. _"Inuyasha! There's a shard, and it's close!"

"Thought so, and there's one ugly demon left." I turned around to get a look at what he was staring at. A larger version of the demon I just killed hovered ahead of us with his arms crossed. "Aki, this one is mine."

I gave him a puzzled look. "But how are you gonna—"

"Shippo, catch her!" Inuyasha threw me into the air away from him, falling straight toward the ground. I shrieked at the sudden shock that death could be seizing me right then and there, quickly followed by the thought that if I survived, I'd kill Inuyasha. Luckily, a huge pink balloon with large eyes appeared below me to cushion my fall mid-air. As I bounced a few times, I regained my composure and breathed a sigh of relief.

I patted the pink balloon. "Thanks Shippo."

"No problem Aki!" The balloon said with a child-like voice.

I looked up at Inuyasha. "Inuyasha you jerk! What was that all about?"

He unsheathed his sword which transformed into a much bigger, more intimidating sword than it initially appeared to be, the top of the hilt also looked more impressive as it had flowing, thick fur covering that one spot. He landed at the top of a tree, facing the demon with his sword, the Tetsusaiga, pointed at it.

"I knew Shippo would catch you so don't act like that. Besides, I need my hands free to deal with this bastard." _One of these days, his bad karma will come and catch up with him. _

"You killed my pets and my children, I will slaughter you all, take your jewel shards, and use them to how I see fit." The demon bellowed.

Inuyasha taunted it further. "Ha! Yeah, right. Go ahead and try."

"Foolish half-demon, you think you can defeat me with that _toothpick? _I am using a shard of the Shikon Jewel, you cannot win!" I rolled my eyes again. Demons from this world were always so full of themselves. Seriously, it was the same self-righteous speech over and over again. And every time, they get put in their place. No wonder pride was a deadly sin.

"Let's see if you're talking so big after you get a taste of my _Wind Scar!_" With a swing of his sword, a huge wave of demonic energy and golden light overran the huge demon disintegrating it into nothing but little pieces. A small sparkling shard flew through the sky as it made its way to the ground.

I gasped. "Shippo, after the shard!"

"Right!" Slowly floating closer to the fragment, I realized that Shippo wouldn't be able to keep this form much longer. I shakily stood up and jumped towards it.

"Aki!" I heard Inuyasha shout.

Pretending like the ground wasn't rushing up under me, I extended my arm to grab the jewel shard. When I had it in my grasp, I tried to focus my energy into my wand. Pointing my wand at the trees, I had the image of the vines extending out and catching me. A green light shone from the tip and before I knew it, I was being carried safely to the ground on a huge vine. _Ha...that actually worked!_

When I got close enough to the ground, I jumped off facing Sango, Miroku, and Kirara, who by this point had reverted back to her cute little kitten form. I heard a _Poof!_from overhead and looked up as my little fox-demon friend Shippo dropped from the sky and into my arms. This, little boy with a fox tail, feet, and ears had the power to shape shift but could really only do so for a little while. That's why I had to jump to get the shard before another demon decided to come along and snag it.

I held it up for them to see. "Good job Aki! Your magic has certainly improved!" Praised Miroku. It better have gotten better, otherwise, I'd probably be the first pancake brought to this era.

Sango nodded. "That may be true, but promise to not scare us again like that." Though I had a smile on my face, it infuriated me only slightly that those guys figured that I was so fragile. Yeah, I was new to magic—no, I wasn't a cream-puff.

"Aki, you scared me when you jumped! Please warn me next time!" Shippo started to cry a little. _He's so cute! _Darn my inability to withstand all things adorable! It may have been true that I tried to keep up a strong front as often as I could, but that all just seemed to morph down into goo whenever there was something even remotely cute around. I started to hug him to make him feel better (like he was a stuffed animal). But then i swiftly remembered how there were others around and acted as if I didn't have a soft spot.

"Sorry guys, it was kind of…a last minute thing." _More like super last minute._

Inuyasha dropped down and re-sheathed his sword. "Sorry, my ass! What did I say about being reckless?"

I gave him a skeptical look to replace the deathly glare that wanted to arise first. "Says the guy who threw me in the air." Another pet peeve I had was people giving me orders as if I were a child or something. Besides, a little risk was needed if it was possible to get anywhere along in my training.

His face instantly flushed, making him cross his arms and turn away. I smiled with triumph as I made my point. Miroku patted my shoulder gently. "You know he yells because he cares. Right, Inuyasha?" Inuyasha snorted. Miroku faced me again. "Don't be upset."

I shook my head and did my best to wipe away any trace of a bad mood. "I'm not. It's cool. Although I don't exactly agree with your ways…I appreciate you for being worried like that." I began to blush myself, but only slightly. Saying thank-you had always been hard for me for some reason, and even more so now saying it to Inuyasha. Let's just say that with the life I had come to know, saying thank-you was sort of a challenge-there wasn't much of a reason for me to.

"Yeah, yeah," He looked over his shoulder at me.

Sango, Shippo, and Miroku laughed while I hid a wider smile. Looking up at the clear blue sky, a small wisp of peace washed through me...if only for a few seconds.

_So this is what my life has become, huh?_


	3. I Need this Recap

Dear Universe,

I just want to make sure I got my facts straight…

A couple months ago, I made a, then, ridiculous wish to you of wanting to find my true love no matter what the cost.( Yeah, it was a bit cliché, so sue me. I bet a whole bunch of you who are reading this private account did the exact same thing). Anyway, after making that wish, some scary old lady—and I mean SCARY—came out of absolutely nowhere saying how she would pretty much grant my wish—quite rudely I might add. But there's a catch: I have no idea what it is. Sorry to disappoint, but she kept me in the dark almost completely. All she pretty much did was give me a wand, a spell, and dropped me off in some totally foreign world. To tell you the truth, there wasn't even enough time to really process everything that happened. It was all like some big unbelievable blur. What I do know, is that nothing is that easy. Ever. It makes my insides get all queasy thinking of what that wrinkly old woman—Taiitsukun—has planned for me.

Just when things couldn't get any more bizarre, I ended up being stuck in Feudal Japan.

Feudal Japan.

By some cosmic miracle, I was able to refrain from totally spazzing out. Because come on, FEUDAL JAPAN! No cities, no phones, no computers, streetlights, etc. Just grass, trees, open space, and some sorry shacks people passed for houses—I assumed. After the moment of nostalgia was finally lifted—okay, maybe not _completely_ lifted—things got even weirder when I saw this guy who looked around my age pinned to a large tree by an arrow. Wearing a crimson red guy-kimono and long flowing silvery-white hair, he looked like he was sleeping peacefully and not dead in any way. Before my thoughts got any further than that, I noticed that he had white doggish ears on the top of his head.

Of course I stared.

I wasn't creeped out or anything, more like fascinated. The rationale that was going through my head was: well, I had just jumped universes somehow, along with going back in time, so this might not even be as weird as it gets.

Here's a brief summary of the events that unfolded after that: touching the ears out of plain curiosity led me to be seized by some village soldiers or whatever, after explaining myself the best I could, the old priestess, Kaede let me go. I tried once again to investigate the guy—who's name I learned was Inuyasha—once again, causing, for some reason, some nasty centipede demon (just as it sounds, LARGE centipede who's upper body looked like some spooky woman) to attack me. My new wand glowed which made the arrow on Inuyasha disintegrate, thus waking him up. Even BRIEFER summary: he killed it, Kaede dug up The Sacred Jewel of the Four Souls from some grave and gave it to me hoping Inuyasha wouldn't get it, I ran (without questions), Inuyasha caught up (darn half dog-demon speed), and with some glow of my wand once again, slammed him into the ground hard when I felt threatened—more so.

This was also somewhere in the time when I accidentally broke the jewel when I aimed that darn spell Taiitsukun gave me for the first time at a demon trying to fly away. I killed it alright. Too bad the jewel suffered too. Since then, I have felt obligated to get the rest of the pieces—that, and I had nothing else to do. Inuyasha came along too, since he wanted the jewel. We didn't get along that well considering he thought _I_ was a nuisance and I found _that_ annoying.

During our journey, we met Shippo, the young, and incredibly ADORABLE, fox demon, Miroku, the perverted, yet kind, monk with a cursed wind tunnel in his right hand, Kirara, the even more adorable and at the same time badass cat demon, and finally, her owner, Sango, the fierce demon slayer with a troubled past. Somehow we all came together and ended up going up against some big bad—and I mean downright _evil_—half-demon Naraku.

On this little adventure, we've not only met a bunch of colorful characters, but managed to recover some of the shards, and…wait for it…discover my powers! But things weren't all dandy. Instead of being handed my powers, I had to do a lot of concentration to get that darn wand to cooperate. After a couple thousand duds, I was finally, eventually, able to produce, a small wave of water, a few plants grow, a crack in the earth, and, surprisingly, a huge gust of wind. I assumed it was because of what Taiitsukun said about my element being Wind. I decided that was so because those born under the sign of Libra were Wind elements. With the support of my friends—as well as being hunted by a good number of demons—helped my wimpy "sparks" turn into a force to be reckoned with, so to speak.

Except Fire.

Damn that stupid element! According to element compatibility and stuff, the opposite of Wind is Earth, so _that_ should have been the problem, not Fire. But no, I had to get screwed over with a bunch of freaking explosions that come out of my wand or at my target whenever I try to use Fire. What the hell?

My group of friends and I have become pretty close, closer to any group of friends I ever tried to be with anyways. There is only so close people can get to me before they realize my...little problem. In fact, they don't don't even have to be consciously aware of it...it just happens. And I have noticed a little, how uncharacteristically agitated they get sometimes, either with me or one another. Thats really to be expected. However, I have been a bit surprised to the lack of intensity of their negative emotions. Usually, it's WAY worse, but for some reason, there is something partially blocking my effect on people. It's kind of weird...but in a good way. I'm not going to start doing flips for joy just yet. You could be testing me now to see how I deal with the situation. I'd just like you to know, universe, that I won't let my guard down.

Oh and then there's the whole Inuyasha thing...I don't know, but I guess I'm a bit attracted to him, but I'm justified here! He's pretty good looking and I can't count all the times he's saved my ass. Sure, I don't necessarily like all of the help as if I was some sort of damsel or something, but the fact that he goes out of his way sort of says something...right? *sigh* I'm not gonna get my hopes up or anything and this is probably just nothing anyway.

However...remember how I had, or rather, still kind of have an issue with not wanting to show to much emotion around people? I do that for the sake of no one ever using my emotions against me. Yeah, I know that whole scene at the mall tells you otherwise, but that was a special occasion. I was just frustrated and it was the last straw...so I lost a bit of my composure. I usually have more restraint than that. Well, anyway, when Inuyasha saw how much I didn't want to let my anger or anything show, he got really annoyed and, in a much louder way, taut me how it was good that I wanted to be tough, but it is okay to be angry because that tells your enemies to back off and that you mean business. Not that I have any trouble intimidating others, but, his advice did make some sort of sense...Once I was able to comfortably display a bit more of the negative emotions I'd bottle up to maintain my cool, calm, and collected facade, although not too much, I was able to use Fire for the first time, not perfectly obviously, and my other elements came out easier. Was I really the one holding myself back?

Either way, I'm thankful to Inuyasha for that, so of course I feel something for the guy. Ya know, when I'm not annoyed at him for playing babysitter.

And being the "average" teenage girl I am, I can't help but wonder what his feelings were.

But of course, just because it's me, I won't dwell too much on it since I'm pretty sure I already know the answer...

Great, this is just the right thing I need with some psycho demon—oh, I'm sorry _half_-demon—chasing and trying to brutally destroy us. And I need to collect all of those stupid shards.

(sigh) You're just enjoying this, aren't you?

Love Always, with a HUUUUGE amount of sarcasm,

Aki


	4. Rough Feelings? The Fire Within

"Hit him again, Aki!" Shippo shouted out. "He probably can't feel anything!"

It was really feeling like a peaceful day, sun shining bright, birds singing, no demons attacking, no women screaming, no smoke in the air, so we decided to totally destroy it by practicing my magic—more specifically, my Fire magic. Ugh.

I laughed nervously while slightly lowering my wand. "For some reason, I kinda doubt that Shippo…" _I'm really not doing this on purpose you know._Though Inuyasha was probably thinking otherwise.

To avoid seriously serious injuries, Inuyasha seemed to be the only target—ahem, _practice partner_—that would be able to walk away from this in one piece. He had scratches all over his body, as well as torn robes. If he didn't have the Robe of the Firerat, and if he wasn't a half-demon, this would have been tragic. I knew Inuyasha was strong, so he could take it, but I couldn't help but feel _a little _bad. After all, a bunch of explosions wasn't…well…fun. Especially for the person on the receiving end of the stick.

Inuyasha faced Shippo in fury. "What are you, a moron? Of course I can feel it!" He definitely wasn't the only one. The once beautiful, perfect, serene, green field we decided to rest on now had broken branches on trees, totally obliterated trees, burnt grass, and smoke—things we thought we had a break from today. The scents of burnt…everything really…filled the air all because THAT DAMN FIRE DOESN'T WANT TO WORK! Miroku, Sango, Shippo—who was cheering on Inuyasha getting tossed around like a rag doll—and Kirara were all resting and watching the practice in a "safe zone" I suppose. In other words, a place that I haven't desecrated yet. _Nature must REALLY hate me right now._Could you really blame it? Hell, I'd be mad if someone was charring me to a near crisp. Before I could think of a proper, not-so-awkward apology, Inuyasha added harshly, "If she didn't keep screwing up, I wouldn't be in this mess!"

_What? _I gripped onto my wand tighter, gritting my teeth from the much offense taken by his statement. Making sure to aim at his head, energy filled my wand releasing the fire that he just ignited. In an instant, a medium sized explosion, appeared on the ground at Inuyasha's feet (I was nice and decided to not get his head). The guy went flying, and cursing, into a bunch of trees grouped together, snapping each one of them in half.

Turning my back on him, I crossed my arms. "_Sorry,_" which was lathered with a layer of heavy sarcasm, "I must have screwed up again! My bad." _Now that__...was on purpose._

Miroku sighed. "You think he would've learned by now."

Sango nodded. "No kidding."

Snickering, Shippo skipped over to Inuyasha. "See? That's what you get for calling me names—" A hand reached out from the wreckage and grabbed Shippo's tail. He squirmed viciously. "I'm sorry Inuyasha! Please don't hurt me!"

Inuyasha sat up and brought Shippo up to his smokey face. "I'm sorry, run that whole confident speech by me again."

"What? I didn't say anything! It was the wind!"

"The wind, huh?" He brought a fist back, preparing for a fierce swing at the small demon. "If it's the wind, it probably won't be able to feel this!"

"Inuyasha! Just put him down. He's just a kid Mr. Hot Head, get over it." I commanded (_Hot Head...ha...it's a pun 'cause I just blasted him_). With noticeable hesitance, as well as a glare, he threw Shippo to Miroku, who effortlessly caught him.

With tears in his eyes, Shippo pointed at his bully. "You're such a big meanie!"

While scoffing, Inuyasha walked toward me. I stiffened. _Keep your composure_, Aki. He slammed a hand on top of my head—making me feel short compared to him—and looked at me in the eye. His golden eyes in a concentrated gaze. I tried to look away.

"Now," he began sternly, "what the hell were you trying to do?"

I gave him a cynical look as I replied as innocently as my tone would allow me. "Practice my magic. What else?" _You were the one acting like a complete ass._

He started to talk calmly. "Well could you do that," then his voice raised about ten times its normal volume, "WITHOUT TRYING TO KILL ME?"

"Please, that was sooo not a big enough explosion to kill you." He was a freakin' half demon. If a few small explosions like that had the power to do him in, then that would just be insulting...to him.

"So, you admit you were trying?" We narrowed our eyes at each other. _Get. Outta. My. Face. _In my world, most people never dared to get close enough to me and speak to me like that—they were usually smart enough to stay clear, whether I wanted them to or not. Either way, it showed that i wasn't just some weak puppy that could be bossed around.

Before any real fire was produced, Miroku intervened. "Okay, this is where it ends." He looked in my direction first. "Perhaps we should end practice for today. Is that alright, Aki?" With one last glare, I nodded, figuring that it was safer to not have Smokey the Bear come out of nowhere and scold me for torching the half-demon and causing a serious forest fire.

He then switched to Inuyasha. "Maybe it wouldn't be the best idea to anger someone who can produce something that could potentially kill you."

"Right," He scoffed skeptically, "she can't even _control_ that power." _What? Can't control? _Hearing him say that clicked something inside of me that felt unfamiliar, a sort of boiling that proved to be a great outlet for anger should I let it. The split second I released it, the tree behind the group sitting down suddenly burst into flames, making them scramble away from it the quickest they could. Inuyasha instantly grabbed me and jumped away about twenty yards from the instantly combusting tree. Seeing the raging blaze snapped me back into the right state of mind.

"W-where did that fire come from?" Shippo stuttered.

I noticed Sango in a train of thought. "Maybe…" Her eyes trailed to me as did everyone else's.

I blinked. _Did I do that? Seriously?_ "My Fire powers _do_ work!" Looking up at my protector with triumph in my eye, I continued, "In your face Inu-" It was then that I noticed his hands squeezing my arms protectively. Looking up into his eyes, I noticed something soft and concerning in them. "I-Inuyasha?" _What's up with him? _His touch was making me slightly uncomfortable.

He spoke somewhat softly to me, yet still maintaining its commanding tone. "You can't control your powers. Not well enough to fight."

My eyes widened from disbelief. "That's not fair!" Like he honestly had the right to determine whether or not I was allowed to do something. The nerve of that guy! "My magic _is _controlled enough to take down demons and you know it!" His hands relaxed and lowered on my arms. I began to flush and tense up at the notion. However enough of my body was functioning enough to have enough sense to pull my hand away. "I've already been in a good number of battles and I'm still alive."

"I don't want you in any fight, Aki." _Why is he acting like this? _The guy had been so harsh only a few minutes before and now he was acting like I was something so fragile as if I were made of glass. This behavior had been happening a lot recently and I didn't know whether or not I should make heads or tails over it.

I stepped away, increasing the distance between us. "You don't decide that." _How else can I get stronger? You get to fight all the time and build your skills._Standing on the sidelines was not my thing.

"Look, can we come to some kind of understanding?" Miroku suggested as he broke the tension between us. I exhaled loudly and looked down at the ground while Inuyasha turned to the side away from me. "Tonight is the night of the New Moon. So hopefully, there won't be any fighting at all." My head shot up.

_That's right! The night of the New Moon…_Every month during the new moon, Inuyasha turns into a human because of his human genes. When this happens, he loses all of his demon powers. All of them. His sword, the Tetsusaiga, won't even transform in his hands. Until sunrise, he's stuck in that state. Totally vulnerable. Which is why engaging in battle with a demon—say, Naraku—would pretty much be suicide. Not that I couldn't handle myself, though.

I sighed. Sango continued from where Miroku left off. "Don't worry Aki, tomorrow we can practice some more," she winked, "then you can tell Inuyasha off when you take down a huge demon by yourself." I nodded slowly, knowing that were doing the best in dealing with whatever kind of relationship Inuyasha and I had. But I really wished that these people would stop babying me. I wasn't weak. Yeah, so I wasn't in my profession as long as all of them had been, it didn't mean that I was incompetent.

"Maybe…you're right." I gave a small fake smile, pretending as if I was okay with ending the conversation there. _These guys are too protective of me. I can take down a demon no problem. Why don't they have faith in my powers? _In a way, it hurt to know that they all thought so little of me. If they knew what I was capable of—the part of me that I wasn't revealing—then they'd know that I wasn't someone just anyone could mess with. If only I had what it took to control that part of me though.

Shippo jumped onto my shoulders. "I think that you're strong Aki."

Giving a more generous smile, I hugged the tiny fox-demon. "Thanks, Shippo." _You may be the only one._

* * *

><p>The night sky was clear. The infinite number of shimmering stars placed in the sky like a beautiful work of art would have made the perfect romantic spot…you know, if the guy you were a little interested in wasn't being a complete and total ass. Since that whole episode at the training grounds, we've been ignoring each other like two immature children.<p>

We all sat on the floor of an abandoned shack we found after walking a few miles. Sango, Shippo, and Miroku have been trying to fill the awkward gap between us by talking about miscellaneous stuff that had absolutely nothing to do with anything. So I ended up completely tuning them out.

As they slept soundly in the shed, I sat there, wide-awake, staring at the now human Inuyasha. He looked similar to his normal half-demon state, except his white hair turned a silky black and his eyes had gone from golden-yellow to a really dark brown almost black. The fierceness never left them though. Not for a second. His claws turned to regular nails and his fangs just became human teeth.

And no demon powers. Hell, even I could probably defeat him if I really wanted to.

Despite all of this, he still had the stubbornness of a wall made from both brick and steel.

Much to my chagrin, he was just as awake as I was. _So, it's a stare down he wants, huh? _Without saying anything, I began to explore those eyes of his. Slowly, a warm feeling engulfed me making just sitting there unbelievably uncomfortable. Those human eyes still had the ability to penetrate me just like his golden half-demon eyes. Damn.

I groaned. "Stop looking at me like that."

He didn't stir. "Why don't you just fall asleep already?"

"Why don't you?"

He scoffed and spoke a little louder. "You can't still be mad." _Says you._

"Will you be quiet? People are trying to get some peace around here." I leaned against the wall staring outside the window at the moonless night.

"Aki—" Suddenly, my wand started to glow at the tip, shining with such energy only emitted when a bunch of shards are nearby. I gasped. _Naraku! _As I slowly looked up at Inuyasha, he gave me a look that said 'Don't you dare go anywhere.' Or perhaps that look said 'I'll go, you stay.' Whichever way it was, it still had the condescending tint to it that I couldn't stand.

Getting up to my feet, I held my wand at the ready. Inuyasha shot up the moment I turned toward the exit. He jumped in front of my path to block the way.

"You aren't going out there alone!" He roared. _If it were up to you, I wouldn't be going anywhere at all during any time._

"Well, you sure as hell aren't gonna go," I stepped closer. "Out of my way."

"No!"

"I can do this!" Inuyasha extended an arm out and grabbed mine, using enough force to keep me me from going off. He may have been a human, but he was still a guy and my muscles and everything were weaker than his, putting me at a disadvantage when it came to brute strength. All I could do was stand there, wand lowered but still glowing. His notion was so unexpected that i was stunned. A part of me wanted to be mad at him for holding me in such a way, but i knew he was only doing it out of concern. Every inch of me wanted to just drop my guard right there—and my wand.

But I just couldn't do it.

There wasn't any time to be feeling mushy stuff now. I was the only one who could do this—I _had _to do this.

Besides, if we stayed in that position long enough, Miroku and Sango's senses would have picked up that somethingw was going on. And there was no way in Hell that I'd get caught in some soap opera moment...no matter how much I sort of wanted to stay there, even with how uncomfortable I was.

Bringing my wand up once more without a word, I instinctively touched the glowing tip to Inuyasha's side sending an peculiar shock of some kind throughout his body. I somehow felt the surge go through him as my wand kept connection. When I felt it was enough, I took away the wand to witness him fall to the ground with a _thud!_

* * *

><p>Running out of the shed into the dark night, I looked back at Inuyasha and how I positioned him on the wall to make him more comfortable. I don't know what I did, but it needed to be done. Right when he hit the ground, the others' eyes shot open, and they all sent me looks of confusion and alarm. There wasn't enough time to explain the whole situation, and I couldn't risk the trying to stop me either. So I had no choice but to repeat whatever spell it was, producing some deep blue electro waves that put them to sleep on contact. <em>By time you all wake up, I'll prove that I'm neither weak, nor a burden.<em>

I'm sorry guys.

Looking forward into the dark woods, I hoped that each of the elements were on my side this time. Including Fire.

_I may not be a demon, half-demon, demon slayer, or a monk. But dammit, I am a woman and a force to be reckoned with! Look out Naraku! 'Cause you're gonna get the fight of your life!_


	5. The Difficult Truth

I had no choice, I had to keep running. My spell on the others wouldn't last long—I assumed. This whole magic thing was still new to me, so anything different that popped out of that wand was probably not going to be a guaranteed success. It's a lame fact, but there you go—well, at least until that whole "training" bit was out of the way.

The cold wind flew by my face and my hair, but I barely felt it because of the adrenaline coursing through my body. I clenched my wand tight, allowing the light from its tip to guide me through the eerie darkness. A thought at the back of my mind kept stabbing at me as I got closer and closer to fighting the biggest baddie I've come across since being here. Naraku wasn't just "some demon" he was the worst of the lot. Aside from being powerful, he was also sneaky in the worst kind of way. Fifty years ago, he put Inuyasha and Kikyo, the powerful priestess who he was in love with as well as the previous owner of the jewel, against each other. Thus ending with her death as well as Inuyasha being in a state of suspended animation against a tree for fifty years.

Since then, Naraku has gotten stronger by absorbing other demons—and more recently, using the jewel shards' power. To add to his list of crimes, he also put a curse on Miroku's family, which resulted in the Wind Tunnel consuming the males before him, putting Miroku next in line to be sucked up. Sango had to witness the deaths of her family because Naraku possessed her little brother, Kohaku, to murder them in cold blood. Now, Naraku forces the poor boy to work for him, only keeping him alive with a jewel shard in the back of his neck. A friend of ours, a wolf demon named Koga, lost his tribe—except for two—to a demon created from Naraku named Kagura.

Naraku uses the insecurities in people's heart's to mess with and eventually destroy them. When he doesn't allow them the "pleasure" of being emotionally tortured, he just kills them without a second thought. He's hard to defeat considering he gets stronger and stronger by the minute and he always seems to have something about him that prevents anybody from being able to kill him. Whether it's a barrier, a miasma, or even his demon goons, he tends to have the last laugh during our encounters. Every time, though, Inuyasha ends up protecting me and getting hurt. I never liked seeing that happen—always feeling weak and defenseless. I am not supposed to ever feel weak and defenseless. It's just not my thing. Never has been. Even back home, people know me as being intimidating, tough, and independent. So, you can imagine how much of my pride was wounded when I needed protection by Inuyasha and the others.

_This is suicide._

I chose to do the stupid thing and keep going along with my plan of fighting the demon. I was kind of hoping that the cliché thing would happen and my friends would swoop in at last moment and save my ass before he kills me. Sure, that will lead into a huge lecture from the doggie-eared one himself, but I'm used to that, so no big.

Out of nowhere, a chill from the back of my spine caused me to stop suddenly observing my surroundings suspiciously. _What is this? I couldn't have reached Naraku already._ A night without the moon's light made scanning anything in this forest proved rather difficult. Whatever it was, it was watching me from somewhere. The presence was everywhere—as if the enemy was surrounding me, but instead of attacking, it was just watching. Focusing energy on the light, my wand began to shine more brightly to allow me to see clearly. Extending my arm out to the wilderness, I gasped when I realized just what was watching me. Well, I couldn't exactly say that I could explain completely what was watching me. There were a bunch of…shadows? Almost transparent shadows with glowing yellow eyes shifting from side to side, just watching me. _Okay…this is creepy._

I started to walk slowly forward heading towards Naraku, while keeping my wands light on the shadow creatures. _It's so weird. It's obvious that they're watching me, but…they aren't doing anything. Do they want to attack? Are they waiting for an opening?_The creatures (didn't necessarily want to call them demons since they very well couldn't have been) didn't make any sounds, but the chill they emit is still very noticeable. _Well, if they aren't going to attack, then I'm just gonna ignore them. I can't afford to be distracted now!_

The slow, brisk walk turned into a full-on sprint as my wand sensed the presence of the jewel become stronger and stronger. Eventually, the cold feeling left, making me believe that I wasn't being watched anymore. This relaxed my nerves a bit, but not enough while knowing what I was about to face.

When I wasn't paying attention, the road seemed to slope down quite steeply, making me slip and roll down the hill. The world spun around me as my body was harshly rolling down the grass and rock terrain. I felt cuts being edged into my body, totally helpless to stop it. The moment finally came when I reached the bottom, flat on my face at the bottom of the long hill. While struggling to get up, I heard a laugh so sinister, it paralyzed my body.

"It certainly is a treat when they come to me all alone," The voice hissed.

I slowly brought my head up to face the demon that I have been pursuing. He stood there in a white-furred baboon costume. The mask had the appearance of a light-blue baboon face—only his mouth was showing.

"You have been searching for me, woman?" He asked with a smirk. I tried to focus on the situation and grasp onto my wand, thinking of my first attack—only…my wand wasn't in my hand. Frantically looking for it, I noticed that it was right under Naraku, glow fading now that it has reached its mark. My face drained of blood when I realized that I was defenseless.

I tried to remain cool, but couldn't quite hide that I was afraid. "Yeah, I guess you can say that. I figured it was my turn to take a crack at ya. No fair in having the others get a turn and not letting me have one." I glanced down at my wand again, trying to formulate some kind of plan to get it back.

Naraku must have hinted onto my fear and only laughed again. "Your words and your face say to different things. You are terrified of me." I scoffed. _I'd be less terrified if I only had that damn wand!_

My wand suddenly came rolling towards me as I looked up in confusion. "You're going to need that, right?" He had kicked it to me. _He's mocking me!_

Quickly snatching it up, I forced myself to stand, wand pointed towards him—shaking. "Don't insult me Naraku. You just made a big mistake giving this to me."

"You think so?"

"Y-yeah," I stuttered, "But it would be less insulting if you took off that ridiculous mask." A moment of silence passed before he coolly chuckled.

"As you wish," He grabbed his mask with his hand and chucked it to the ground next to him, revealing his true face. Naraku was a pale, human-looking demon with piercing red eyes, and long, wavy black hair that flowed down his back. Despite his normal-ish appearance, I knew he was evil to the core. "But, it won't do you any good!"

He swiftly came at me while one of his arms morphed into some kind of thick, brown, slimy vine. Dodging the first attack, I turned to face him again as I brought up my wand and used my energy to control one of the trees to smash Naraku. The tip glowed a light green causing a tree to completely bend, trying to whack the demon. Right when I thought it landed on him, he appeared behind me and used his vine-arm to throw me into the trunk of a nearby tree. He grabbed me once more and slammed me to the ground, hard, followed by dragging me into a hard boulder.

Ignoring the pain, I thought about using water from the moisture in the air to fight him with. Glowing a light blue, water began to materialize in the air above me while I was swiftly jumping from Naraku. In one swish of the wand, a wave of water rushed towards the demon, pushing him back into some trees. Without giving him a chance to recover, I lowered the temperature of the water to make it freeze, trapping him in his place.

Concentrating more power into my wand, I commanded the earth to swallow him up. With a wave, a huge hole opened up under him dropping him straight in.

_That was too easy._All was silent as I listened for any type of disturbance. The ground shook below as three huge brown vines shot up and grabbed me, binding my arms at my side. He squeezed so hard, that I felt I would burst. Naraku shot up from the ground with an un-phased smirk on his face.

"You got cocky, girl. You didn't honestly believe that you killed me, did you?" _No, not really. Hoping on it, but not really._

"Instead of playing with me, maybe you should be a little more serious while fighting me."

* * *

><p><strong>Inuyasha's 3rd POV~<strong>

Running through the forest, Inuyasha ran in a fury. It didn't matter that he was just a human, his rage fueled his speed. He was aware of what Aki did and what she planned on doing. If he didn't get to her fast enough, he'd lose an important friend to that damn Naraku.

"Inuyasha, you have to calm down," Sango yelled from Kirara. "In this state, Aki would do better in a battle against Naraku than you would."

Inuyasha growled. "Yeah, well, not well enough."

"We know she's in danger, and we'll get her out. You have to stay hidden," Miroku pointed out from the back of Sango. Inuyasha knew the dangers of his enemies finding out his monthly vulnerability, but it was worth exposing to keep someone from dying.

"Like hell I will!"

"You'll just tire yourself out by running. You aren't a half demon now, you need your strength." Sango had a worried tone in her voice for both the rash Inuyasha and the absent Aki.

"I'm starting to feel an ominous presence." Miroku closed his eyes and focused on the road ahead. "It has to be Naraku."

Shippo started to whine. "What if Aki got hurt? Naraku won't go easy on her! What do we do Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha gave him a sharp look before looking at the road ahead. "Naraku will die if he harms her." In one way or another, he'd _die_.

"Kirara, Inuyasha, STOP!" All members of the party suddenly ceased in their tracks at the sound of Miroku's warning.

"What is it Miroku?" She looked back at him as he jumped off the enlarged cat-demon. Walking to the edge of a steep hill, he used his golden staff to hit an invisible barrier of some sort that instantly repelled it. "A barrier…" she observed.

Inuyasha ignored the barrier and tried to run into it anyway only to be repelled violently with a bolt of lightning and energy, knocking him onto the ground.

"Inuyasha, are you alright?" Miroku asked with concern.

Cursing under his breath, he ran up to the barrier being careful to not touch it again. He gasped. "She's down there!"

"What?" Sango and Miroku ran beside him to see what he was staring at. Down below, they saw the evil Naraku trapping Aki in his "vines" with her trying to struggle out.

"Damn. He got to her before us." Miroku stood back and attempted to try and break the barrier, but Naraku's barriers tend to be tough—the only thing able to break it being the Tetsusaiga. Unfortunately, Inuyasha wouldn't be able to use it until the sun came up and that wouldn't be for several more hours.

Inuyasha began to continuously punch the barrier despite the obvious pain it was giving him. Miroku grabbed his arm, trying to force him back. "Inuyasha, we can't do anything! Naraku saw this coming and only wanted Aki in there."

"We aren't leaving her!"

"I know, we'll do everything we can to break this barrier, but until then, we can't waste our energy."

Sango tried to reason with him as well. "Besides, you have to stay out of sight. We can't let Naraku know the night you turn into a human." Her voice got soft. "Besides, maybe we have been underestimating that girl. She could be a lot stronger than he think. For now, all we can do is believe in her."

Inuyasha didn't want to listen, but he knew what they were saying made sense. Seeing Aki fight was tough, but knowing she was fighting by herself—against Naraku—was worse. He remembered their fight earlier in the day, how she was upset that they wouldn't let her fight on her own, without protection. She was so determined to do things her way, to get in there and risk her life the exact way they did any time they had to face a demon. He couldn't stand Naraku, and knew that he could probably snap her like a twig, but he knew that the girl was special. He certainly didn't expect her to use magic when they first met. Now, she would have to do something totally unexpected to escape from him.

* * *

><p><strong>Aki's POV~<strong>

"Don't you understand, you're no real threat to me." I noticed a sinister gleam in Naraku's eye as he looked at me, top to bottom. I would have shivered if he wasn't binding me so tight. "I will admit that your power does fascinate me. How would you feel being absorbed by me?"

"I gotta say, I don't favor the idea." Grasping onto my wand to a point where my hand was sore, I realized that I had to think of something fast. _Please! I need something…anything! Just get me out of this mess!_The wind began to blow fiercely, whipping my hair all over the place as well as tugging on the roots of trees. Naraku seemed bothered by it because he was looking around looking for the source of the mysterious wind. It blew even more violently causing Naraku's grip on me to weaken as my body lifted up with the wind. I focused my energy on my reliable element Wind, and concentrated on using it to my advantage. In one second, my wand sucked in all of the magical wind preparing for what was coming next.

"_Saisu!_" The deadliest gust of crescent-shaped wind energy shot out at Naraku completely slicing him in half. Using the wind to slowly lower myself to the ground, I realized there was something moving up the hill behind him. It was too dark to see what it was, and I didn't really have the reassurance of time to make sure that I could check on it.

_That was cool and all, but I still don't think he's dead._The half with his head suddenly started to glare at me something fierce. I stood on guard ready for whatever might happen.

"You, woman, are pressing your luck. You cannot kill me." His bottom half stood upright as his top half started to float towards it. As creepy as that was—like really, it seemed like something from a zombie movie—I couldn't allow that to be the big distraction that ended up getting me killed.

"We'll see about that!" I quickly ran back with my wand towards him. _Please, let this work! _With a flash of red, Naraku unexpectedly exploded, breaking his body up into tiny, slimy brown pieces.

"Well, it wasn't exactly what I wanted, but if it works—" The pieces quickly flew at me and attached themselves to my body. They were sticky and felt like a combination of slime and leather (if that makes sense). The substance piled up more and more to a point where I could no longer move. Soon enough, a huge blob was consuming me and even though I knew I was still holding my wand, I couldn't feel it anymore. Naraku's head floated in front of me with a demented smile.

"This was a valiant attempt at trying to destroy me, but you will always just be a weak, little girl." I struggled to keep my head above the blob that was working its way to my head.

Feelings of doubt began rushing into my mind. _What am I even doing here? Did I really have a good reason for this? Maybe Inuyasha was right, maybe I wasn't ready for this. There isn't even anything I can get out of this. It's not like I could have gotten his shards or anything. I'm so stupid!_Everything was starting to go dark as the substance took over my head.

_Okay, I'll admit, my pride got me into this. But I'll be damned if I get killed this way! _I could faintly hear Naraku's laughter.

For a split second, the memory of a beautiful teenage girl with long fiery orange hair flashed in my mind. She was giving me a warm smile as her amber eyes displayed such kindness only she could deliver.

No. I couldn't disappoint her. If she saw me now, then she'd come rushing to save me just like Inuyasha and the others would. But then I'd feel ashamed that I couldn't be as strong as her—as strong as I promised her I'd be.

_I have some pride, I'll admit that. I'm an idiot to have gone into something without reason. But I have these powers for a reason, I still have to find what I've wished for. I'm not giving up! _I felt heat well up inside of me, just waiting to escape. I had to release it.

"_Fire, grant me all the power that you possess!_" A bright flare of hot-red energy unleashed and burned the demonic substance surrounding me, totally disintegrating it. Naraku had a shocked expression riding on his face as he witnessed my escape.

The tip of my wand continued to glow bright red as I felt the warm-tingly energy flow through me. _Ha! See this is why I have confidence!_

I managed to form a whip of fire at the tip of the wand, stretching at about ten feet.

"What's wrong Nay-Nay? Upset that I barbequed your chances at winning this fight?"_Okay, I may not be fighting to kill this guy—at this point, I'm fighting just to get out of this fight. I'll take this as a win any day!_

"Why you…!" I happened to notice that the parts of him that were destroyed never came back. I would have been a fool to not take this opportunity. The moment I cracked my whip, a wave of fire triumphed over Naraku, charring his detached head.

"You've got nothing left to fight me with, Naraku! You might as well retreat before I make you even more unattractive." I knew in my heart that no matter how much I threw fire at him, he wouldn't die. Destroying his heart would be the only way to kill him, but unfortunately, we don't know where it is. But a victory is a victory. And I just wanted to get the hell out of there to live another day!

"This isn't over. You and your friends will fall by my hands, and mine alone!" He started to float away towards the sky. "Your shards will be mine, you are just delaying the inevitable." When he was almost out of sight, I heard him whisper, "Send Inuyasha my regards…" Followed by a sinister laugh.

Continuing to look up at the night sky, I sank to my knees. A strike of pain occurred to me from my forehead. I brought my hand up to feel the bump—that I knew was there—only to find that I was bleeding. Warm blood was trickling down my face and I didn't even realize it. Now that my adrenaline was dying down, the pain that I had been inflicted through the night was starting to become evident. I had cuts everywhere, my jeans were torn up, and my black, long sleeved shirt was…well, starting to lose its sleeve. I must have looked like crap.

"Aki!" A familiar male voice called out to me. Looking up, my heart warmed to see my friends running down the hill towards me. _How long have they been there? _I struggled to stand up through the soreness and walk steadily towards them. Inuyasha ran up and held me without warning. But this time I was much more accepting. My body couldn't completely hold itself up, so I leaned into his hug, loving how warm and inviting it felt. The others came up in back of him with a mix of concern and relief painted on their faces. Finding that the two of us were becoming the center of attention, my face heated up instantly and I pushed him away, standing on my own and fighting against the pain, bringing up my wand to blast Inuyasha away with a swift, concentrated gust of wind. Sending him shooting across the area into a group of trees similar to before.

"See guys?" I said weakly while pretending to act innocent. "I can take care of myself. And you doubted me—"

"You idiot! Why would you do something so stupid like that?" He was yelling in my ear as he spontaneously ran up and shook off my attack. But I didn't particularly care.

"I told you why. I just…had to." It was kind of unclear to me if he was referring to me going after Naraku, or blowing him away for no good reason.

"Look at you, you almost got yourself killed…"

"Oh…these are just cuts, it's no big." I noticed that the others began to back up and hide themselves behind some bushes to give me and Inuyasha privacy. _Gee, thanks_ guys...as if i didn't feel awkward enough.I told him, "I finally made the fire come out…"

"It wasn't worth it!" He said with a kind of force that was, at the same time, comforting. I knew he cared about me on some level. That's why he acts like an ass a lot of the time.

But I'm a big girl now.

"Yes, it was," I looked into Inuyasha's deep, dark brown human eyes. "Now I know I can protect you guys too, and anyone else important to me. Things will get better." He said nothing in response to that, just continued to search my eyes. That's when an odd message flew threw my head.

_You can't find it here._

I didn't know what that meant, but I felt happy—really happy—knowing that I had friends like these, even despite my having a negative effect on them sometimes. It made me totally ecstatic knowing that I finally had all the elements down...for the most part. Inuyasha may not have approved, but Akimoto is finally in the game, and she doesn't plan on losing!

* * *

><p>We eventually returned to the shed—only after both Sango and Miroku had a chance to lecture me. It was only a couple of hours until the sun came up and Inuyasha got his demon powers back until the next new moon. He sat there, crosses legged, above me as I slept on a futon. I was the only one in a futon considering I was the only one who got banged up that night. I told them I didn't want it—that I didn't want to be pampered just because I had some cuts and bruises here and there. They insisted, and I didn't think it was smart to tick them off any more than I had that night. I figured it just wouldn't be good karma.<p>

Sleep finally consumed me as I was whisked off to Dream Land. Only…it wasn't an ordinary dream…

I saw a girl with long, black hair and brown eyes wearing a white and green sailor fuku. She was in front of the Thousand Year Old Tree, with Inuyasha pinned to it the way he was when I first found him. She had the Sacred Jewel _inside_ of her—the centipede demon that attacked me took it out of her. The girl used her hands to take the arrow from Inuyasha's chest.

_What?_

As the dream went on, I saw the girl, whose name was whispered to me as Kagome, went on adventures with Inuyasha and the others. She had the power to sense jewel shards like my wand could. Not only that, I saw another woman. She looked like Kagome, or rather, Kagome looked like her. This girl was different, though. More collected, calm, and mature. She wore the same priestess clothes that Kaede wore. I felt like it was the woman from fifty years ago, Kikyo, but I wasn't completely sure. The question was why her and Kagome looked so similar, why Kikyo would even be around when she was supposed to be dead, and why Kagome had the jewel inside of her (before she shattered it anyway).

That girl, who seemed she was from modern Japan, was really close to Inuyasha. I saw them laughing, saw him protecting her, saw them joking around with the others, saw how she used her spiritual powers to help them, saw how she accepted help from the others as she grew stronger. They were so very close…I feel even closer than they were to me now.

They were happy.

A tear unexpectedly runs down my cheek. Then another. I found myself crying all because of a dream.

When the dream was over, I found myself standing and looking at my friends in the shed as they slept—they same way I left them before I dozed off. The thing is, in my spot was the girl from my dream, Kagome. She slept soundly in the futon as the human Inuyasha slept upright and cross-legged. Sango, Miroku, Shippo, and Kirara were all sleeping without a care in the world…

"As if what we went through never really happened…" I muttered.

"And it didn't, not technically."

"Taiitsukun! What are you doing here?" I turned to face the small, wrinkly old woman floating there as she often did. Before I could pry further, what she had said had sunk in.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well," She began, "it did happen. In a sense. You still have the bandages from your wounds, you still have your magic as well as the experience with it."

My head was spinning—I didn't understand what she was saying. "Then what you said doesn't make any sense."

She closed her eyes. "What you had experienced for the past few months were what _could _happen. You did meet them and share their experiences. There is no doubt about that."

"Then…why is that Kagome girl there? Why is she in my place?" I looked at her snuggling up to Shippo who was sleeping with her.

Taiitsukun shook her head. "You were in her place."

"What? I don't understand."

"Well, if you don't interrupt me, I could tell you why!" I flinched at the sudden outburst. She sighed. "Impatient girl…Anyway, you lived in a scenario where you met them, and that girl Kagome didn't exist. You wished that you can find your true love, so I sent you here. You made friends and created a bond with that Inuyasha boy, right?"

Glancing at him, I nodded. "Well, have you two come so close that you want to be with him forever? Do you truly love him?" Do I love him? I thought about our time together, the things he went through. He was tough, but he cared about me. I knew he did. And I cared for him. I just wasn't in love with him.

"No. I can't lie and say I do. I would also be lying if I said that I didn't want to be here, with them." I tried to fight back tears that I knew were coming again. "He isn't my true love. He's Kagome's true love. They belong together. I saw their happiness, how perfect they are for each other. Even though they fight, they support and trust each other to a point that he and I never could. This…isn't my destiny."

"You saw it?" I nodded again. Her voice gave off a tone of confusion.

"Yeah, in a dream. I saw how they met and everything. There were similarities to our stories, but she'll never be me like I'll never be her. Kagome belongs here. I don't…"

Taiitsukun went silent and thought for a few minutes. It made nervous—her not saying anything. I decided to speak up. "I failed, didn't I?"

She looked over at me and I continued. "Whatever test this was, I failed, right? I didn't grant my wish. I couldn't get the guy. So…just send me back home."

Eyes widening, she started to shout, "Send you back home! Send you back home? That's absurd. You never came off to me as the giving-up type."

"I-I'm not."

"Then why are you telling me to take you back?" I tried to speak, but then she kept talking "If you have a wish, you have to be determined to see it through so that you get it."

"So…it's not over?" I asked hopefully. _I'm still in the game? I still have a chance?_

"It's not over until you slip up, and although you've made mistakes, you haven't slipped up bad enough." I felt a smile crawl across my face, but just as quickly, it faded.

"What about my life here? My friends? What do I do?"

"Now that you leave this world and onto the next, their memories of you will be wiped clean. They won't recall ever having you in their life." Well that stung. I had made all that progress just to see it go down the drain. _They were my friends. And…_I glanced at Inuyasha one last time, witnessing his transformation back to a half-demon with the rise of the sun. _I don't really want to leave them! _Plus, I didn't want them to forget.

"Do they really have to forget? I mean what's the harm in letting them keep their memory?"

She gave me a sharp look and I gulped. "Do you question me, child?"

"No, ma'am!"

"It is done because there is no point in letting more people suffer than necessary. _And _since you were technically never here in the first place, why should they remember you?"

Relaxing a bit, I looked away. _That does make sense. It still hurts though…_

"So, shall we be on our way?"

Giving one final look at my old friends, a wish went through me of how much I wanted to say good-bye. _But I guess that's out of the question too._I had to be strong about it. Nobody said this road would be easy. I can't say that nothing came out of this. Losing friends was…awful…but I have gained skills that I never thought I would before. So I'll keep going. Eventually, I will get my wish.

"Yeah, let's go."


	6. An Interesting Family

_**"Mom! Dad! I'm leaving for school now!" I yelled down the hallway, reluctantly walking to the awfully quiet kitchen knowing exactly what to expect.**_

**_There they were: the scene of two adults—my parents—sitting silently at the table. My mom, in her baggy silk pajama top and bottoms, complimented with frizzy bed-head, had a small cup of coffee in her hand, while she neglected it by staring into space. Dad, who was already in a dark grey suit and ready for work, was reading some papers, mumbling to himself. I sighed. _Another happy morning…**

_**I decided to try again—by shouting. "I'm going to school now!"**_

_**"Dammit we heard you!" Mom roared. I swore that I saw a vibration in her coffee at the time of that outburst. I used to jump when she yelled at me like that, but I was all too used to it to even flinch.**_

_**"Oh…well, I just wanted to tell you." I was definitely going to skip breakfast at home just like I did every day. That was the only real reason as to why I left for school earlier than I had to. I was lucky enough because my school served breakfast right before classes began. Besides, staying there would have been unbearable. If there's one thing I hated, it was being in a room filled with awkwardness and tension. It would have been nice to have a homemade breakfast, but even I knew that was asking for too much. For my Mom, it was just coffee, while my Dad went without. As you could see, nutrients were completely lacking in this family.**_

**_"Just…go. You are giving us a headache." She said finally deciding to take a sip of her probably luke-warm beverage. "We have work to do."_No you don't. I see you there drinking coffee.**

_**"Daughter," My Dad chimed in with disinterest, still focusing on his papers, "is someone taking you there?"**_

**_I silently growled as I looked away shamefully. Even if the two did notice, they probably didn't care. _**

_**Forcing a smile, I told them, "Yeah, Saru and Kyoko said they were gonna come and get me. Oh, I think I hear them now!" As fast as I could, I dashed towards the door, slipping my shoes on.**_

_**"Bye!" No answer from them. Opening the door, there wasn't anyone there waiting for me. I sighed heavily again while closing the door behind me. "You could at least call me by my name…"**_

* * *

><p>"You've been awfully quiet, child."<p>

Blinking my eyes, I snapped myself out from the daydreaming and remembered where I was: back in the endless bright red light following the demanding Taiitsukun. "What?"

"I said that you're quiet. The last time we met like this, you wouldn't stop with the irritating questions." _That's 'cause the last time we were here, you practically kidnapped me without any real warning._

It wasn't long ago that I had to leave my friends in the Feudal Era. Trying to forget the pain of leaving them caused, I had to focus on what was important: getting my wish granted. Maybe the first few months resulted in a dud (in Taiitsukun's eyes), but I'm determined to make this work. Wherever I ended up next, losing hope wasn't an option.

"Well, I guess I'm just not as curious this time." I said smugly.

She stopped to turn and look at me, her seemingly angry, wrinkled face looking directly at mine. The last time she did that, if I recalled right, she gave me a bunch of directions before dumping me.

Clearing her throat, she spoke with obvious annoyance in her tone. "Curious or not, there are some things that I didn't mention last time." Making sure she didn't yell at me for interrupting her like last time, I decided to continue listening without the tempted "Like what" question at her.

"First off, you cannot tell anyone your wish. _No one_. The only time you can mention your wish out loud is to the person that you are looking for. And it has to be them. No exceptions."

My eyebrow cocked up. "What harm would it do?" _Couldn't resist._

Luckily, she seemed to ignore it. "If you were to _tell_ someone, it could greatly influence the outcome altogether. This is _your_ wish, so you have to achieve it on your own without outside help."

"That's fair, I suppose."

"The second thing is that you should restrict the number of people you tell your powers about." While opening my mouth to say why, she shot me an intimidating look that shut me right up. "You don't need to draw any unnecessary attention to yourself. Other than the group of people you befriend, no one should know. The last thing I need is for you to be the talk of the world, giving me a harder time when it comes to a memory swipe—should there be one. If you encounter any trouble, just use that sleep spell you stumbled across with that half-demon fellow. Focus more on the spell and you can affect as many people as you need."

The memory of how I "stumbled" onto the spell replayed in my head, recalling exactly what state Inuyasha and I were in when it happened. I couldn't help but flush a little. Then something occurred to me.

"When I last did that, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing—"

"But you do now."

"Ye…ah…I guess. But I don't really know the time limit of the spell…"

She scoffed. "Foolish girl! One of the basic rules of magic is that you have to control it, don't let it control you. If you want something to happen, don't hesitate! There should be no question as to what come out of that wand. You should never be surprised. Know what you want, then make it happen."

When I used that spell, I was totally confused and had just decided to go with it. It was a huge surprise and I just let it be as it was—almost as if there was no control there, just blind hope. In any story having to do with magic of any kind (that I've read), the conjurer knew what they wanted to happen and allowed their ideas to manifest into a spell of their choosing. Those people who were unsure often ended up in some deep trouble for not having more faith in their powers. It was said "with magic, all you got to do is want something, and then let yourself have it!"

"I understand."

Taiitsukun's face started to form a small, sinister grin. I cautiously took a step back. "Well, now that all of that is said and done, we can get down to the point."

"Which is…?" A giant hole appeared under me, and I gasped. For some reason, though, I wasn't falling. There was a very evident uneasiness at the pit of my stomach. _Crap!_

"Granting your wish of course," She floated up to me and got in my face. "We'll be seeing each other again soon. Best of luck to you."

"Taiitsu—" The moment she snapped her fingers, the law of physics was reinforced, causing gravity to make me plummet into a cold darkness screaming my ears off. When I realized what was happening, I figured screaming wouldn't really do much good.

I didn't bother to look and see if the hole I fell in was still there, it didn't matter since there was a light coming up below me, signaling that my inter-dimensional tunnel was coming to an end. As the light got closer and closer, I saw that the light was a hole showing what I figured was the next new world. The peculiar thing was that it seemed to be showing some kind of flat, light grey surface. Identification was totally out of the question no matter how much closer it got. I really didn't understand until it hit me. _Really _hit me.

_Crash!_

There were obvious voices shouting around me, but all I could focus on was the hole in the ceiling of some place. My whole body ached, no doubt reopening some of the wounds Naraku inflicted. For a second, I was sure that I felt someone under me, but it was like they suddenly poofed away. All I could feel was the various planks of wood and other wreckage made by my fall.

When the world finally went back into focus, I shot my upper body up and shouted to the hole while showing my fist at it. "What the hell Taiitsukun! Who the hell even does things like that? I—"

That was when I realized that there were two guys staring at me. One looked like he was about my age, with pale skin, soft, purple eyes, and dark grey hair with long bangs wearing a black school uniform lined with white and a white tie. To be honest, he looked as if he was lacking a bit on masculinity while at the same time, not losing his charm. The other guy looked a few years older, maybe in his twenties, but he was pretty good looking. He had black hair with a space in between his bangs showing most of his forehead, as well as a cute mini cowlick sticking up in the back. His dark, almost black eyes were kind and inviting, although at the moment, were filled with confusion.

That was when I realized that I probably crashed into their house. No, I was certain that I crashed into their house. _Double crap._

While I sat blushing and at a loss for words, the grey-haired one spoke up. "Miss, are you…okay?" His voice sounded as sweet as honey when he spoke.

"Uhhh…" Was all I could manage.

"Miss?"

I snapped out of it and started to ramble uncharacteristically. "OMIGOSH! I am sooooooo sorry! I promise that I didn't even know this would happen. I am reaaaally sorry about this! I'll try and fix it somehow…wait! I don't know how to fix a ceiling... I'll pay for it somehow. No….that won't work either—"

"Would you like me to replace that bandage for you?" The guy with black hair kindly said as he pointed to my forehead. Feeling the wound, I realized that it had indeed opened back up and was starting to bleed once again.

Calming down, I said, "Yeah, thanks." _He's being awfully hospitable for someone who just crashed into his house. Is he an idiot or something? Or is he just that nice? _The man got up and headed into another room, leaving me and the other guy. I couldn't help but blush some more from the situation. "Sorry, I usually don't spazz out like that…" I was still wondering why these people weren't freaking out from some random girl turning up out of nowhere.

"That's quite alright Miss—"

"Tsubaki. Akimoto Tsubaki. But I usually go by Aki. And you are?"

"Yuki Sohma." _That's a cute name. In a feminine-ish sort of way…_"That was Shigure Sohma who went into the other room. May I ask how this all happened?"

"Uhh…well, I—it's a bit difficult to explain, " I told him while laughing nervously. That was when I felt some kind of lump moving under me.

"WILL YOU GET THE HELL OFF OF ME! I CAN'T BREATHE!" Gasping, I shifted a bit to see what, or who I was sitting on and all I could see was an orange cat who had its paws covering its mouth. I quickly scooted over and picked up the small creature that was gasping for air.

"I can't believe that I landed on a cat!" Looking over at Yuki, I gave the best apologetic face I could. "This is your cat, right? I am soooooo sorry that I almost squished it!" Then I blinked a few times and gave the cat another look. _Did this thing just talk? And...is it glaring at me? _

Yuki immediately lost the sweet tone in his voice and looked away. "It's not my cat. You can continue using him as a cushion if you like, Miss Tsubaki."

Assuming he was joking, I gave a brief laugh and looked the now growling intensely cat that was, I swear, glaring at Yuki as well. "I just like you to know that I really like most animals, especially cats, and didn't mean for this to happen. Even if you are…" I smiled sneakily, "a _talking_ cat." That fact was waaay too juicy to let go. Both Yuki and the cat's eyes widened after making that statement. "What? You didn't honestly believe that I forgot he said something. Heck, I wouldn't even have known if he didn't."

Yuki closed his eyes and gave a controlled, yet anxious laugh. "Miss Tsubaki, I'm sorry, but you're mistaken. Cats can't talk. Especially stupid ones." In less than a second, the cat leaped towards Yuki and started to slash at him. Without much effort, Yuki dodged each attack. Without either of them noticing, I gave the most skeptical face I could. _Yup, no cat is that conscious of what's going on around them. I don't care how smart it is. Something is definitely up._

_Magic perhaps?_

I tried to think of all the ways this could be possible: an enchantment, possessed body, or maybe even a demon. None of those possibilities would have been much of a surprise considering the things I saw in the Feudal Era. Despite the fact that it was a cat, it was _extremely_ apparent that these two clearly didn't like each other.

Without any warning, there was an evident _poof!_followed by a bunch of white smoke. Realizing a while ago that carrying a wand around would be a HUGE pain the ass, I managed to find a way to make it disappear into a space and make it materialize when I needed it. Knowing that, it instantly appeared in a string of light into my hands, ready for anything and everything. But I definitely wasn't expecting _this_.

Standing in front of me was a nicely built guy around also around mine and Yuki's age with bright orange hair—the same color as the fur on the cat—accompanied by short bangs and piercing reddish-brown eyes. And he was not…wearing…_anything_. Nothing. At all.

My face instantly heat up and turned my body around the fastest I could. _OMIGOSHOMIGOSHOMIGOSH!_Was all I could really muster in my head. Since that was true, I figured speaking may come out as complete loud and obnoxious gibberish. I was honestly getting dizzy just thinking about what I just saw—from knowing he was still standing there!

"Look…" The guy started with an irritated tone in his voice. I could tell that there was a bit of embarrassment in there too…somewhere. "Can you just hand over my clothes?" _Clothes? _"You're sittin' on them."

Quickly snatching them up, I threw them behind me without even bothering to look. The throw was a bit pathetic considering my whole body was a bit stiff still. Luckily, he didn't have a comment on the toss, which made me feel a little better…but not much. The feeling was so bad that something snapped in me again. Wind formed in the room and started blowing things around. It was too hard to focus to make it stop. The wind calmed down the moment Yuki leaped across the table and put his arms on my shoulders.

He looked back at the dressing guy and sternly said, "Kyo, you idiot. You scared the poor girl." _Completely stupefied would be a better description._ Talking, for me, was still quite the obstacle.

"Shut up you rat. It was her fault anyway for fallin' on me!" He sounded really annoyed at this point. I also figured I was right about these two not liking each other. Not only that, but that guy—Kyo—was most likely that cat that was just here.

Hearing him say what he did finally allowed my vocal chords to work. I maneuvered around Yuki to face the angered Kyo. "Hey! Don't blame me, I—" My word's trailed off the moment I actually _saw_ him. His features were blurred before, but now, him as a whole, finally hit me. _Damn, he's hot! _He was wearing a skin-tight short-sleeved black shirt and olive green cargo pants. That combination plus his looks, made my stomach do flips all over the place. I mean that boy was _fiiine_.

"You what?" He asked harshly while looking at me. _He has fangs,_ I noticed. _Sexy._

Shaking my head to clear those thoughts, I tried my best to form a proper sentence. "I—I…"

"Well?"

I looked away. "N-nothing" _Damn, damn, damn! Why does this always happen? Whenever a cute guy is around, I freeze up! I hate, hate, hate that! C'mon Aki, speak! Just don't look at him._"It wasn't really my fault…"

Yuki tried to comfort me. "It's okay, Miss Tsubaki. Don't listen to that guy. I'm sure this was out of your control." _You got that right! Damn Taiitsukun._He narrowed his eyes at Kyo. "Can't you be a bit more hospitable?"

"Can't you stop bein' a pain in the ass?" He countered.

"Now, now you two. We have a guest." Mr. Sohma said next to me. I jumped a little. _Where the hell did he come from?_His kind eyes fell on me as he offered me my wand. "I'm guessing this is yours, my dear?"

Reluctantly taking it, I nodded. "Yeah, thanks." _I'm still waiting for someone to tell me what the hell is going on in this house!_

"Now hold still, this will sting just a bit…" He rubbed my wound with some kind of cloth with stinging a liquid. I winced at both the tingle and the strong smell. _Alcohol. Coulda used this to clean the wound up in the first place._While unrolling a new roll of bandages, he casually talked. "It's nice to have a visitor around as cute as you. Can you tell us where you come from?"

I was shocked that he didn't ask about the wand, the wind, or the wreckage in my house, so I answered him the best I could without sounding suspicious and without freezing up from Kyo being there. "Well…I come from America, I guess…" It wasn't a lie. I had been living in America since the seventh grade. _Just not the same America that may exist in this world._The whole ordeal was the result of me getting hold of a bunch of money from a contest that I had won after the completion of sixth grade. America seemed like the best opportunity for me, so I took it. Saru and Kyoko had come along with me, Saru had family in America, and Kyoko came along as well, although her situation was different since she went back to Japan every month to visit her family (her family was loaded). And last year, Saru's family allowed me to use the money I earned to rent a room directly next door to them in our apartment complex using the money I earned from my job at the local bookstore.

He had a puzzled look on his face as he applied the bandage. "Odd, you don't look American."

"I'm mostly Japanese with a bit of Native American—Cherokee to be exact. That part of my heritage is lost to my family unfortunately."

"Who cares about all that? You should be askin' how the hell did she came through the ceiling like that! Seems suspicious to me." Kyo commented. "And look," He walked over to where I was, making me get stiff, and looked up at the damage. "The roof wasn't damaged. It was just the floor of the second level. How do you suppose that happened?" That was when he gave me a dirty look, causing me to want to both clobber him and…other things.

I kept my cool considering talking around him was already difficult, and the fact that I wasn't looking for enemies after _just_ getting there. "I honestly couldn't explain the mechanics of it even if I wanted to," I told him, while looking away.

"Stop interrogating her." Yuki ordered.

"Make me! You damn rat!" The two of them faced each other, fists up and ready to fight. My stomach began to twist with guilt. _This has to be my fault..._Those two were probably friendlier to each other before I had crashed into their lives. It wasn't good for me to sit there witnessing such animosity when I could have just got up and left them alone. It was just as I thought...The weakening of my curse in the Feudal Era was just temporary and now I had found more victims to fall prey to its effects. At this rate, I could already tell that my stay in that world would not be enjoyable—not with my conscience eating at me for yet again bringing misery to those around me.

After tending to my wound, Mr. Sohma coughed. They looked at him. "Aki will tell us things when she is comfortable to. No need to pressure her. Besides," His eyes glistened, "don't you two think that we owe her some kind of explanations ourselves? After all, she did see everything." Kyo and Yuki relaxed as they slowly sat down, never taking their eyes off each other. _Wow, it's like you can actually see the tension in the air._

_I should probably just leave..._

"Mr. Sohma?"

"Please, call me Shigure. You make me feel old when you call me that. I'm only twenty seven after all" He flashed an attractive smile.

"Huh? You mean you're not their father?"

"Heavens no! We're all cousins part of the prestigious Sohma family. And don't mind Kyo and Yuki, they quarrel like that often." _What? _I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he said that. From the start, I thought that I was the one who was making them act so hateful towards one another. Wouldn't have been the first time that I had that affect on people. But still... _That doesn't seem healthy to constantly fight like that. Are they really family? _"But I am curious as to what your thoughts were to what you saw." He looked at me with interest.

"Which part? The Kyo being a cat part or the…" I stopped myself after seeing the look the hot one himself gave me. The decision was made that if I was ever going to get through a conversation around there, I was going to have to avoid looking at Kyo. "…other part?"

Shigure laughed. "Either is fine—"

"The point that Shigure is trying to make is that you saw something that was supposed to be a secret." Yuki calmly explained after cutting off Shigure.

_Yeah, I can see why you would want to do that._"I don't mean to pry or anything, but what exactly was the thing I saw that was supposed to be a secret?"

"Hmm…where to start…Well, Kyo isn't the only one in the family that can transform. Yuki, and I as well as ten other Sohma's can turn into one of the animals from the Chinese Zodiac."

Kyo became offensive. "Why are you telling her this?"

"Simply because she already saw it and you both know as well as I do that this girl is observant. She never even considered the possibility of you being a regular cat, Kyo." Kyo's only response was to look away without a retort.

"Besides, you stupid cat, you were the one who talked in your cat form. It's your fault that she found out." Yuki calmly said.

I noticed Kyo blush the moment that was said. All he could reply with was, "Shut up!"

To break the obvious tension, I asked, "So Shigure…thirteen signs? I thought there were twelve."

"In modern telling's of the zodiac, there are. But in actuality, the Cat, is the thirteenth, less heard of sign." Glancing over at Kyo, I noticed that his eyes showed a bit of pain at the sound of Shigure's words. _I wonder what that's about. Is he upset that the Cat doesn't get recognition? Or is it something else? _Shigure continued. "The story about that is actually quite interesting. I'll make sure to tell you about that another time when those with sensitive feelings aren't around."

"I don't have sensitive feelings!" Kyo shot up and roared.

"Oh, Kyo. I didn't even mention your name. Feeling a little insecure are we?" He taunted.

"N-no." He turned and started to walk away with his arms crossed. "Tell her the damn story if you want, I don't care!"

"Hmm…nah." That's when Shigure momentarily stuck out his tongue as he teased. "It wouldn't be as fun that way." This caused him to growl a little. "Be a good sport Kyo. After all, Miss Aki here will be staying with us for a while."

"WHAT?" The three of us said simultaneously.

"Well, do you have anywhere else to stay?" I shook my head. "Plus, we can't have someone who knows about us prancing around can we?" He said while chuckling jokingly. _What exactly does he plan on doing with me? _"Then it's decided then!" This was going by much too quickly..._How the heck can I survive living in a house with a guy like Kyo? I won't even be able to be my normal self around him. I'll just freeze up! But…what choice do I honestly have?_

"I guess…if it's alright." _Are these the people I can tell about my powers to? I guess I'll have to find out. Which reminds me…_ "Hey, what causes the…changes?"

"Being hugged by someone of the opposite gender. Or if the majority of the opposite gender's body goes into contact with one of us."

Yuki sighed. "You could have made that explanation a bit less perverted sounding." He then added, "Are you sure this would be alright? I mean, _I'm_ okay with it, and anything the cat dislikes is always welcome to me, but what if—"

"You worry too much my dear Yuki. We'll deal with those problems later." _Problems? What kind of problems?_Shigure took hold of my hand as he put his attention back onto me. "I'll try to make this place feel as close to home as possible Aki." Thinking about my situation with my parents, I couldn't help but think, _Oh, please don't do that._

I tried to give a sincere smile. "Thanks."

"It's no problem at all. Is it Kyo?" I mustered up enough courage to look Kyo in the eye as he turned back around at us. In that moment, it seemed like something clicked. I couldn't tell what. He suddenly softened up.

"Yeah, fine, whatever." He scratched the back of his head nervously. "I'll start working on fixin that hole."

"Thank you, Kyo," Shigure said with a certain amount of amusement.

Kyo began to walkaway only stopping to look back at me momentarily and saying, "Sorry about bein angry like that…" _So he _can_ be a decent person..._

Looking away was a reflex at this point, so I quietly thanked him without sounding like a gawking idiot. So, not only was I going to live with an insanely good looking, hot-tempered guy, I was going to live with his mortal enemy, the semi-mellow Yuki and the nice, but a bit-off Shigure. Mixing them all together made a family full of people who changed into animals (and back into naked humans) for a reason completely unknown to me. The rest of the family was probably just as colorful if not more so, than these guys here.

I groaned. _What did I get myself into?_


	7. Dear Universe, WTH!

Dear Universe,

WHAT THE HELL!

Why would you put me in the same house as some insanely hot guy? You know how I am around guys like that! It's impossible to be tough and sarcastic when I turn into goo around Kyo like that. Now he thinks that I'm some shy girl with the occasional outburst. Occasional outburst? A normal Aki outburst would usually end up with a few broken bones and explosions, not just some yelling. I absolutely hate that!

It also turns out that Kyo and Yuki are both a year younger than me. I usually don't go for younger guys, but…c'mon, it's Kyo! He kind of reminds me of Inuyasha. Damn! It still stings a little that I won't see him again. But now, you've introduced me to Kyo. Does this mean that I'm meant to be with a guy with this tough-bad-boy-with-issues type? I'm not completely sure.

After learning about the "Sohma family curse", I learned it was called, Shigure enrolled me into the local high school that both Kyo and Yuki go to. So now I have to wear this frilly, girly school uniform. I hadn't been in Japan for a while, so I momentarily forgot what it was like to wear one of these. I was REALLY grateful to public American schools that we could wear whatever we wanted. This whole ordeal just reminded me of one of the lesser reasons as to why I wanted to leave my school in Japan. Anyway, it looks like a typical sailor uniform, with a frilly skirt, mostly dark blue except for some white lining here and there along with a white handkerchief. Not really my style, but…there you go.

After explaining to Shigure that even though I'm seventeen, I was a senior—just young for my grade. It's just the result of being born in October and starting school early. Yuki and Kyo were a grade down from me, meaning that we weren't going to be in the same class—which was unfortunate considering they were the only people I knew at the time. While on that subject, even though Yuki is a bit girly looking, he is cute in a charming way. He kind of strikes me as one of those princes in a fairy tale. That was no surprise especially when the guy has his own fan club filled with girls who absolutely _adore _him. Some of the girls there don't like me much just because I'm living with him. If only they knew I wasn't attracted to him as much as I am Kyo.

Luckily, I haven't pissed him off as much as I did on that first day—mostly because I can barely speak around him anyway. He offers to be my escort in a lot of places since I don't know the school or the town.

You just love teasing me don't you? You get a joy out of watching me freeze up like an iceberg.

It's been sort of weird not fighting anything. Taiitsukun told me to try not to mention my powers. Well, why tell them anything at all if I'm not using them to begin with? It feels like things have been too quiet, though. Almost like someone is just waiting for something to happen. I kind of have my suspicions that Shigure knows that there is something different about me. He saw my wand, and probably that gust of wind I produced the day I got here. Is he really just pretending to not know, or is he waiting for me to say it? Dude is really putting me on the edge with the constant guessing.

I suppose you enjoy that too.

Meeting new friends outside of the Sohma family has proven as somewhat of an issue. I was never very good at it before, which made this _that much_ harder. It's not really a concern for me, but as a result, people either think I'm real shy or just really antisocial. Whenever I tried to regain my intimidating status, Kyo manages to show up to turn me into this soft-spoken sheep. Gosh, I hate it so much! Something has to go down to where I can show my true colors: as a girl who can stand her own ground.

I've had the honor of meeting some of the other members of the Zodiac, but it would take up waaaay too much space in this entry to describe them all with detail. I was definitely right before in saying that they are _all_ colorful characters.

One that is worth mentioning at this moment is a guy named Hatori Sohma. Tomorrow, he is apparently gonna wipe my memory of ever knowing about the family secret. I suppose I had to agree to it so that I don't cause any more problems for the family.

Do I like it? No.

Is it ironic? Totally. ( I sure hope that Taiitsukun is reading this somewhere)

Will it be fun? Absi-darn-lutely!

Love Always, with a HUUUUGE amount of sarcasm,

Aki


	8. Shadows from the Past

**Shigure's 3rd POV~**

"So, Hatori, is it done?" Shigure asked.

Hatori Sohma stood in front of a closed sliding door with a solemn look on his face. The twenty seven year old doctor looked straight into Shigure's eyes with his good one, that was uncovered—as opposed to the other that was covered by his long black bangs—with concern.

"I couldn't do it," Hatori told him in a monotone-ish voice.

Shigure looked at him with confused amusement. "Has the girl grown on you?"

"It's not really that. When I said I couldn't do it, I meant it can't be done." Hearing this put a momentary look of shock onto Shigure's usually easy-going expression. Without breaking his controlled stature, Hatori noticed and continued. "It's almost like something is protecting her, making it so that I can't even touch her memory."

While sighing and scratching the back of his head, Shigure sighed. He knew the girl was special, though he didn't know how, but he didn't think that she could prevent a memory swipe. _She's a peculiar one, that Akimoto,_ he thought to himself. _I am now quite curious as to what she is hiding_. The moment she arrived, her whole presence was not only mysterious, but suspicious. Hatori's news only confirmed his suspicions of her.

Shigure laughed to himself. "Akito is not going to like hearing this."

Hatori cleared his throat to get Shigure's attention. "Not that I mean to interrupt you talking to yourself," He said sarcastically without losing a hint of monotone, "but there's something else."

"What?"

"When I realized that nothing worked on her, she smiled in a way that seemed like she wasn't surprised."

Chuckling again, Shigure glanced at the door behind the doctor where the girl was located."You don't say."

* * *

><p><strong>Aki's POV~<strong>

To be honest, I had a feeling that wasn't going to work. The universe was twisted, no doubt about that, but erasing my memory would have just been plain _messed up_. I couldn't help but smile when I saw the look on Hatori's usually-together face when he realized that I still remembered everything. One of those "Kodak moments", ya know? If I actually thought I was threatened of losing my memory for real, I would have just conjured some magic storm and got the heck out of there. Since that wasn't the case, the only real down side to that whole thing was that now he was going to be suspicious about me just like I knew Shigure was. _I guess I'll just grin and bear them snooping around me for now. Can't really turn on them or anything, after all—and despite the fact that they tried to erase my memory—they were housing me. I may just end up telling them just so that they finally get off my back. _

Sighing, I looked to the door Hatori left out of just to see Shigure open it up and emerge smiling in that inviting way he always seemed to be doing. Funny thing is that it never gets any less charming.

"Shall we go?"

"Just like that? Hatori isn't going to try again?"

"No," He walked over to me as I stood up, ready to go. "If it's not going to work, then it's not going to work. No point in stressing on it." That seemed like a lie to me. If there wasn't a point of stressing about it, then there wouldn't really have been a reason to erase my memory in the first place. He was using my being used to his nonchalant attitude to try and fool me from the truth. Somebody doesn't want me to know about the Sohma' secret. The question was, who?

"I guess that's true. I hope Hatori isn't too upset about it." _As if he'd ever show it. _

"Of course not my dear." He placed his hand on my back in a gesture to move forward. "Shall we go home, then? Unless you like staying in your uniform. I have no complaints." I nodded, ignoring that semi-lecherous statement.

We walked out of Hatori's office only to pass by the guy himself. I flashed him an apologetic smile, not knowing what to say. He acknowledged it by nodding and looking away before returning to his work. Hatori was the family doctor, I heard, passed down after his father. He was the only real doctor that the Sohma's were permitted to see. Not only that, he was cursed with the spirit of the Dragon—in his case, a sea horse since the curse seemed to be weakening. During my time here, I've learned that the Sohma family was actually a very strict family. They weren't really allowed to get close to people outside the family, for obvious reasons. Consequences for doing so were never usually good. Yuki told me a while back that the reason as to why Hatori could barely see out of his left eye was because he wanted to get married to someone. The head of the family, some guy named Akito, wouldn't allow it, so in anger, injured Hatori's eye. The guilt weighed on the poor girl so heavily that her memory eventually ended up being wiped. Thus proving further that knowing the Sohma's was only going to end in suffering.

I really didn't want to put the family out, but I wasn't going to accept forgetting. If this whole thing was indeed a curse, then perhaps there was a way to break it. Why not? It should be possible, especially with the use of magic. _I wonder…_

"AKI!" A familiar happy voice yelled out to me and snapped me out of my thoughts. Things truly came into focus as the hyper figure slammed into me from the back trying to hug me. Not too long after, there was an apparent _poof!_ followed by its usual white smoke.

I turned around to find a small, cute rabbit clinging onto my lower leg. Sighing, I couldn't help but smile. "Momiji! Why do you always do that when you know the outcome?"

* * *

><p>"Aki! What are you doing here at the main Sohma house?" He asked after he reverted back to human. Momiji Sohma was a young happy-go-lucky boy who was cursed with the spirit of the rabbit. He had styled blonde hair and wide light brown eyes. While wearing a cute bunny back-pack and acting like a kid, he was actually only two years younger than me. He went to the same high school that Yuki, Kyo, and I went to but chose to wear the girls uniform (everything being the same except he wore shorts instead of a skirt). To be honest, the kid was absolutely adorable! There was almost never a time that I didn't want to snuggle up with him like a stuffed animal. He's always cheery and barely ever frowns. He sort of reminded me of how Saru used to be before high school changed her…<p>

"I had an…appointment with Hatori. But it's over now!" I told him cheerily.

"You still remember everything?" Asked the attractive boy next to Momiji.

"Yup! Surprised Haru?" Hatsuharu Sohma was another in the family who was cursed. He possessed the spirit of the bull—or in his case, cow. He had soft, grey eyes as well as organizing-ly messy black and white hair (white on top with black at the bottom). Even though their maturity levels tend to significantly differ, him and Momiji are the same age. Most of the time, this guy was a laid back, nice, lazy guy, but when he went "black" he turns rude and violent. Hopefully, that won't happen again—even if it was mildly entertaining. He had this distant aura surrounding him the majority of the time, shrouding him in mystery. _Gosh, what is it with these Sohma's? Why are they all so freakin good looking?_

"A bit." He responded shortly.

"How did you do it? How did you escape Hatori? Did you use your superpowers and fly over him then defeat the ninja's standing your way only to achieve victory but losing poor Shigure in the process?" Momiji had such the imagination…

"Umm Momiji, I'm standing right here," Shigure noted.

Momiji giggled. "Oh yeah! I knew that! I was just kidding. Imagine if it was true though! Aki would be even more awesome!" I couldn't help but blush at that statement. The kid always flattered me, not that I deserved it. Not only that, he wasn't far off from the scenario I would've pulled off had Hatori actually had the power to erase my memory. I probably would've had to pull a "super hero" and beaten up whoever I needed to in order to escape.

Laughing nervously, I tried to change the subject. "It was nice seeing you two here, but Shigure and I have to get home. After all, that homework won't complete itself!"

"Omigosh! That's right Haru! We have to complete that paper the teacher gave us!" Momiji then started to flail on the ground comically. "I don't wanna do it! I don't wanna! Haru do my homework for me."

"Sorry, no."

"Aww…" I walked slowly away with Shigure as the two had their scene.

When we got closer to the entrance, I saw Kyo standing there, waiting for us. My stomach then did that fluttery thing that happened whenever a cute guy was in my sights. Walking was harder since my strides went stiff, but I tried not to show it as I got closer to him.

"Ah, Kyo! What are you doing here?" Shigure asked him.

"Nothin really. I just knew you two were here and…" He looked at me with a softened look on his face like he was sad about something. His gaze started to fall the longer he looked at me _What's…wrong with him? _That's when I realized.

"K-Kyo," I tried to say confidently. "I still know everything." It was still too hard to look him in the eye. MAN did I feel pathetic.

"You mean, Hatori didn't do it?" The excitement in his voice was apparent when he said that. I blushed even more than I was when I realized that he was worried about me forgetting him.

I chuckled a little. "Didn't, couldn't. You know how things go."

"Are you happy about this Kyo?" Shigure teased as he nudged him in the arm with his elbow.

Kyo quickly pulled away and looked away. "I didn't want her to forget, so what? None of you guys did either."

Right when I felt that my heart would leap out from my mouth, I felt a chill run throughout my body. I couldn't explain it. The weather was actually pretty warm, and the other two looked unfazed. So what was that sensation?

_Danger._

I quickly looked around to see what was stalking us. Keeping focus on the thought of my wand, I started to run in the direction of the feeling—past Kyo and around the corner.

"Aki!" Kyo's faint call rang out to me as I searched for what itched at my senses. The sensation was familiar, but I couldn't quite pin it down. It couldn't be…

_Naraku?_

No. There's just was no way. His memory should have been wiped along with the others. _But this feeling. It's so familiar…_

I ran as fast as I could try to find…whatever it was. Before I could get any further, the feeling diminished and my body warmed up once again. Gradually, I slowed my pace until stopping completely. Continuing to look forward, I tried to figure out what entity grabbed my senses so much that it urged me to go after it. _What was it? What's this awful feeling?_ There was a voice saying something, but I didn't hear a word it was saying. _So cold. It's not natural._ My mind was still all fizzed put by trying to focus on the coolness of the dark energy I felt. It really wasn't until someone was shaking my shoulders to brake me out of the trance.

It was Kyo.

I blinked. "K-Kyo."

"Aki, what happened? Why did you run off like that?" He forcedly asked.

"I…don't. I'm not sure." For some reason, the wind started to blow more than usual again. A whirlwind around Kyo and I surrounded us as my thoughts sank more and more into confusion. The moment I took notice, I tried to stop it with my thoughts, but that proved futile with my head all in a jumble.

Kyo protectively embraced me the moment he realized that the wind was blowing more fiercely, forming a mini cyclone ready to lift us off the ground and violently throwing us. "What is this?" He yelled out. But not a second after doing so, he transformed into a cat. He was now too light to keep himself from flying away, so I grabbed him and held his small feline body close.

This power was going too far. I growled before I boldly shouted, "_Wind I command you to cease this instant!" _As that was said, the wind didn't hesitate to stop—it just instantly stopped blowing. By this time, both Kyo and Shigure, who was standing and watching everything from not too far away, were staring at me with the biggest mixture of confusion and concern I've ever seen.

"Aki—" Kyo started to say before I quickly crouched down to release him. Only to take a few steps away from him.

"Dammit!" Was what I shouted before running away. _How the hell am I supposed to explain this?!_

* * *

><p>"C'mon Aki! Just come out already!" Kyo shouted from outside my door.<p>

I sat on my bed, cross-legged as I faced the door. _He and Shigure both saw that! What am I going to do? If I tell them, Taiitsukun may take me away again…and for good! She told me not to slip up! _I had to think of something before confronting either of them. My life wasn't exactly easy, not even in that world, but it was better that how things were in my world and I was already beginning to sort of tolerate, maybe even be fond of this world. It was too early to leave because of my stupid loss of control.

"Aki!" More pounding on my door by Kyo made thinking that much more difficult. _Speaking of which, why does the wind start blowing like that whenever I can't focus properly? Jeez, what the hell is wrong?_

"Kyo, leave her alone," Yuki joined in outside my door. "She doesn't want to speak to you. Can't you see that, you stupid cat."

"Look, you damn rat, was I talking to you?" _At least __if they start fighting, then their focus will be off me. _"This is between Aki and I. You have nothing to do with this!" _But if I'm the center of the problem, _I brought my knees up and buried my face into my arms, _then they'll never forget! _I let out a heavy sigh.

With becoming a teenager, I knew that there would be some drama, but it would have been nice to have some sort of heads up. Then again, who would have been able to see this whole having powers thing coming?

* * *

><p>The teacher droned on about the lecture more and more talking about…something. I wasn't completely paying attention. My mind was focused on what the heck I was going to tell those guys because it was completely obvious that I wouldn't be able to keep this up long. We live in the same house and go to school together. Somewhere along the way, our paths will cross—no matter how much magic I use to get away. To calm myself, I looked out the window to the P.E yard. It was pretty empty because the classes today where doing exercises or whatever in the gym. In order to avoid the cliché of being called on in the middle of class while daydreaming, causing me to stand up suddenly and say stuff that's totally irrelevant, I made sure to keep one ear to the teacher. The multi-tasking suddenly came to an end when I felt the chill again.<p>

My body started to shake as the temperature of my body lowered at the sudden spike of creepy energy. Looking around at the rest of the class, everyone was too focused on the lecture, or pretending to be, that they didn't notice at all. _Or perhaps, it's like before and I'm the only one who can sense this. _No one stirred. _I'm positive that's what's going on. Whatever this is, I have to put an end to this!_

I raised my hand.

"Yes, Miss Tsubaki?" The teacher asked.

"I don't feel well. Can I go to the infirmary?" With that request, the teacher eyed me suspiciously. I gulped. _Please._

"Very well." I shot up out of my seat, but tried to remain calm, so I briskly walked to the door, slid it open, stepped out, then closed the door.

Taking in a deep breath, I summoned my wand. It appeared in front of me in mid-air before I grabbed it.

"If I'm gonna do this, then I'll make sure that no one is conscious to see it." Focusing deeply on putting everyone to sleep, I raised my wand above my head, and felt the energy surge through. A deep blue light floated above, cracking at the sound of what looked like—but probably wasn't—electricity. Without a word, a bunch of "branches" of the blue electricity shot out in different directions. Into class rooms around, down the hall, in the gym, I felt the school being engulfed by my power. The sound dropping kids who were outside their classes, walking around rang in my ear. _I hope no one was on the stairs and that none of them hit the ground hard…Last thing I need is a guilt trip._

When I felt that my spell had bound everyone in the school, I sprinted past sleeping kids, and down stairs to get to the P.E yard I was staring at.

Upon my arrival, I was breathing hard looking for the culprit to my heavy nerves.

"Who's out there!" I shouted. "Come on out! I know you're there!"

_CRASH!_

The poles from the volley ball nets impacted the school building reducing some of the walls to rubble. More of them shot out at me with such force, that if I didn't dodge it, I could have just kissed my life good-bye right there. They hit the building in back of me shattering windows and shooting out debris. _What the hell? _

That's when I saw them. A bunch of shadows with sinister, bright yellow eyes staring at me. They were spread out all across the yard, swaying back and forth…

Like before.

_That's what's been going on! _I remembered those things from back in the Feudal Era. They were watching me in the woods before I went off to face Naraku. I probably forgot about them because they didn't really do anything. Those things were just looking at me then, so I figured that they weren't any threat. Boy was I wrong.

Some of the apparatuses, from the gym crashed through the walls and smashed into the ground. Cars from the parking lot flew up and around , landing on the roof, in trees, and just heating up so much, causing explosions. No doubt this would attract attention from someone outside the school in no time at all...which was bad.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" _It's like they weren't even trying to hit me. Just…causing destruction. _People were going to get hurt if I didn't stop them.

Using my power over Earth, the tip of my wand glowed a pale-golden color. The ground lifted up like a snake and shot out at the shadow figures, dispersing the ones that were hit. One of the shadows swiftly jumped up through the earth-snake causing some of the rocks to drop down towards me. Releasing my hold on the Earth, I jumped backwards just barely avoiding the life-threatening-boulders. As I sat there, windows shattered on their own all around me, the glass trickling to the ground like raindrops. I gazed at it in horror at the thought of those kids being hurt by these awful things. Not only that…

_These guys were totally ignoring me! _Gritting my teeth, I used my power to summon the fire-whip I used before. Running after the shadows, I lashed out, each one avoiding my attack. Each time the whip hit the ground in a miss, it would burst into flames. Getting fed up, I snapped the whip towards a group of them, sending out a wave of fire to ride out towards them, toasting them in their tracks. More windows shattered above me, but as I tried to get away, my foot got stuck in between some of the wreckage. The incredibly sharp glass was quickly dropping towards me and with me not being able to escape fast enough. I closed my eyes.

"Aki!" Two voices shouted out. With the feel of two arms linking around mine, I was quickly moved out of the way, only a few feet from the harmful shards. The whip diminished as my concentration was broken.

Looking at the glass on the ground, I looked to my saviors. "Kyo, Yuki!"

"Are you alright, Miss Tsubaki?" Yuki tenderly asked. I nodded slowly.

"What's happening here?" Kyo demanded.

I eluded his question to add my own. "I put this whole school to sleep. How are you two awake?"

"So it was you who did that?" Yuki asked sternly.

Without hesitation, I said, "Yes. I had to."

"We saw everyone in class instantly fall asleep as some weird lightning filled the room and touched them all." Kyo told me. "It didn't touch us for some reason." _You're kidding...that spell actually has favorites? Geez, why can't my magic listen to me...?_

"So, while looking around, we saw all of the commotion outside. We saw that you were in danger." Yuki grabbed my arm to help me up.

Dusting myself off, I thanked them before saying, "You shouldn't be here. It's too dangerous."

"Yeah, for you. Why deal with…whatever this is own your own?" Kyo was starting to raise his voice by this point. If I had any chance to get through this, I had to ignore the freezing effect he had on me. It was a life-or-death decision that had to be made on the spot.

My face grew serious. "Because right now, I'm the only one who can." That was when screams and shouts from the world outside the school broke us away from our conversation. An eighteen wheeled truck, which I prayed had no one in it, came flying out of nowhere towards the building behind us…where the others were sleeping.

Using my Wind energy, I jumped up higher than any human could, around thirty feet, and faced the truck. Believing that my powers would finally consistently do what I wanted, I summoned it around my body, no, the whole building below. The power circled as a dome shield to the area. At that moment, a dome of light hardened. Words came to my head.

"Behold the protective shield of my energy, _Seoshi!" _The remaining wind that surrounded gathered in my wand only to be released into one blow. "_Saisu!" _The crescent shaped wind-blast sliced the truck in half sending both halves on either side of me only to smash into the shield. The explosion protected the school, but caught me off guard, sending me plummeting towards the ground. "Help!"

"What can we do? We can't catch her normally or else we—"

"Then we'll have to work in sync to catch her. Think you can do it, you dumb cat?" Yuki cruelly taunted.

"Let's just go!" The two leaped up as high as they could, and wrapped their arms around mine without making much body contact. Losing my previous momentum, I was reassured knowing that hitting the ground now wouldn't be fatal. Unfortunately, the moment we hit the ground, the landing was a bit awkward so we ended up falling on top of each other. And with that, there was a _poof!_ followed by the white smoke and the leaving of clothes on the ground. A small, light grey mouse appeared from under the clothes as well as a familiar orange cat.

"You two okay?" I asked with concern.

"Yeah," Nodded Kyo.

"Yes, thank you Miss Tsubaki," Yuki gratefully added.

I smiled with relief. _Thank goodness. _Not forgetting what was going on, I scanned the area, over the destruction, wreckage, and fire, to see if those Shadow Creatures were still around. No sign of them, and the chilled sensation had vanished. Just like that.

"Are they gone?" I looked towards Kyo as he asked. "You can sense them, right? Tell us if they are still there." My eyes widened. _Huh, observant boy. _

"It seems like they are gone. For now." Focusing on the wand, I summoned it away, never taking my eyes off the grounds as the area began to be flooded by policemen and firefighters and plenty of other scared and confused others.

Yuki ran up to my shoulder. "What were those things?" I sighed looking at the damage—wondering if I really even hurt them.

"A problem."


	9. Us Against the World

While the boys got dressed, I decided to investigate the damage done to the school as discretely as possible. It was definitely a sight to see. Glass and gravel all over the grounds, craters on the P.E field, burnt bushes, destroyed cars all over the place—everything was pretty much a disaster. At least—upon releasing the sleeping spell and hearing a bunch of voices—I knew that, through some miracle, no one got hurt. No one in the school anyway...I hoped... This may have been because most of the damage to the school was either in parts without much people in it, or because the parts that did contain kids only got damaged on the outside. It was also a definite possibility that since people were asleep and not panicking like a bunch of chickens, they didn't, in all the confusion, put themselves in the line of fire. Knowing that everyone was probably okay made me feel very relieved—it took away some of the guilt of knowing that I was the reason for all of this. Now all I had to deal with was the millions of questions I'd have to answer if I stuck around any longer.

Terrific.

As expected, people were quickly exiting the buildings to see what happened. They were all so confused and riled up, asking questions amongst each other while avoiding the wreckage. _And I'm gonna leave before things get worse._

Walking swiftly and quietly, I tried to get to the school gate without being noticed. I figured there was too much confusion for anyone to notice a girl they chose to ignore in the first place_. What are the chances that someone would stop me now?_ Before I knew it, I ended up bumping into some big guy surrounded by what I figured were his friends.

_Dammit. I jinxed myself. _"Sorry." I told them while trying to get by.

The guy with sandy-blond hair looked down and smiled smugly. "Well, look here. We've got our little Miss Loner." Ignoring that statement, I tried to work my way through the stubborn group.

One of them stopped me by blocking my way. Attempting to maintain a growl, I looked up at him. "Just 'cause everything's a mess doesn't mean that someone will be desperate enough to be your friend. Why don't you come with us? We'll be your friends." They started to laugh menacingly.

I remembered seeing these guys around school every now and then. The only thing they really enjoyed doing was being jerks to people—by either being total pigs to the girls, or being bullies to guys. Boy did I want to teach those guys a lesson on multiple occasions. Back in my world, I was the intimidating one that no one wanted to mess with. I had this look I would give that would make any one cave then and there. I had just figured that my red eyes made the glare _that much_ more scary. The only time "the look" didn't work, was with Saru and Kyoko, since they had gotten used to it, as well as a couple others...

Usually, I would have left guys like these alone, but after a while, it was made apparent that they had no intention of stopping. Unfortunately, whenever Kyo was around me, I couldn't do the tough thing, making it impossible for me to confront them. Not only that, these guys never had the guts to come up to me (to harass) while being surrounded by a bunch of Sohma's. Now I could tell that there was nothing stopping them from their true colors—not even a half-destroyed school.

"No thanks," I said quietly. They refused to let me through. "Excuse me, but I am trying to get by."

One of them put their arms around my shoulders. _If he doesn't get his filthy hands off of me, I swear he will NEVER have children. _"Don't be shy. We can all escape in this confusion and have some fun." _I'm not being shy, you dumbass, I'm restraining myself from committing a homicide. _Maneuvering under his arms, I attempted once more—or for the last time—to peacefully escape. People around is were looking, but like many people in the world, decided not to involve themselves that something that wasn't their business. You know, how it's something around the "yell FIRE, whenever you're being attacked or raped so that people would actually give a damn" thing.

"What? You think you're too good for us? We may be all that you've got!" _Strike one._ I'd be damned if they were all I had. The morons sure were full of themselves.

"No one else bothers to even be with you—well, except for those weird Sohma's. Then again, they're only with you 'cause you're living with them. You little skank." _Strike two. _True or not, I sure as hell did not want to hear it from the likes of them.

He forcefully grabbed my wrist, bringing me to him as if I was his own "thing" to command. "You can't resist us. Whether you want to or not, you're too weak to get away. And _no one_ will help you." _Strike three. **No one** touches me like that.  
><em>

"Funny, I was just about to say the exact _same_ thing." Without hesitation, I brought my leg up and kneed him in the crotch, hard. My physical capabilities were really nothing to brag about. In fact, I was pretty much sad when it came to anything physical. So without my advantage of magic, I didn't stand a chance against a group of thugs who were all bigger than me. So what was my only option? To hit him in the one vulnerable spot that made me very much thankful to be a girl. And if I wasn't so pissed off at the moment, no doubt I would have smiled sadistically for my accomplishment.

He gasped for air and he dropped to the ground, grabbing between his legs to attend to the source of his pain. The rest of his group circled around him, helping him up. "Dude, you just got owned by a girl!"

"No I didn't! She just surprised me—that was a cheap hit!" He erupted. This made more people to be tempted to stop and look. At this point, I really didn't care anymore (okay, I _did _care on some level with my mild fear of crowds and all). But the fact was, I wanted them to hear what I was going to say.

My voice got low and lacked any and all softness to it. "Give it up. I didn't surprise you. I kicked your sorry, jerky ass and you know it. If I were you, I would just cut the crap now and stay there before I make you eat the disgusting hand you touched me with." I began to raise my voice for all to hear. "And as for the rest of you, I am not a shy person. It's just not me. I hate being shy and feeble. This person," I told them while pointing to myself, "is the real me. Okay, take away some of the violence, and you're a bit closer to the real me. Not only that, stupid rumors these chumps have informed me of is only a result from the stupid bits of gossip you people begin to assume about someone you don't even know! Have any of you even tried to talk to me? You know, without being dared or something?" Looking around, I saw guilt glances from people. _That's what I thought. _I'll admit though, I was being a bit unfair. From my experience in life, people had a good reason to stay away from me, and I wanted them to for their sakes. But those people had known me for years and thus could make judgments like that. In either case, yeah, it sucks for me, the loner, but for one thing, it was messed up for people to assume things of me for only knowing me for the little time I was in that world, and for the other thing, it was NOT OKAY for people to assume I was weak. Kyo or no Kyo, I needed to get back my reputation of being tough and independent before little incidents like this ever happened again.

Feeling a breeze pick up, I ignored the warning and continued at the bullies."You guys make me sick most of all. Where do you get off picking on people like that? I couldn't stand it at home, and I sure as hell can't stand it here!" The breeze increased into a gust that was very evident to the students. Skirts started to fly up, causing the girls to hold them down, while some of the guys found it hard to stand still with the wind blowing them around. "Then you get the nerve to mess with me! _Big mistake._"

"Aki!"

"Miss Tsubaki!" Yuki and Kyo were in the crowd in back of me, but I didn't allow that to stop me from what I was doing. The stunning lack of teachers in all this chaos was truly a mystery.

"Why you little bitch!" My victim called out. He started to run at me, planning who knows what, but I certainly wouldn't allow him to get there. Raising my power, an enormous force of wind shot out and blew the poor bastard into a wall, as well as blowing past other kids who were nearby, leaving him unconscious and them in shock.

Looking at the path the wind made in front of me, I just stared at the knocked-out bully. There was still a breeze acting up a bit, but it had calmed down slightly until someone decided to put a hand on my shoulder. Turning around quickly, all wind ceased when I saw that it was Kyo.

"Aki, let's go." He told me calmly. Without arguing, I agreed. Taking my hand, rather forcefully and without much resistance from me, we to the exit, Yuki close behind. As we ran, I knew that I could feel the rejecting eyes of the teens I left behind.

Now it was starting to feel like home.

* * *

><p>I shifted uncomfortably in my spot as the three guys I lived with, stared at me without any words. Finally, I found the right words to say. "I'm so sorry you guys. I can't believe I just <em>lost<em> it like that. It's never happened before."

Yuki gave me a sympathetic look. "That's quite alright Miss Tsubaki. We don't blame you for anything that happened."

"But I do!" I slammed my fists down onto the table. Slowly relaxing them, I further explained myself. "I haven't been completely honest with you guys—about my powers, or my personality. Keeping the latter bottled up kind of made me mentally explode from all the pressure, as you saw with those bullies back there. I wanted to be myself," I looked over at Kyo, "but I couldn't because of you—I-I mean you…you…re—you're school! Yeah, going to a new school with new people and stuff," I _smoothly_ added. "Getting shy like that kind of made everything malfunction. And those things that showed up—"

"Yeah! What was the deal with those things?" Kyo interrupted. He had an obvious tone of concern in his voice, but I wasn't completely sure about who the concern was towards.

I looked down guiltily. "They were probably there because of me. In the last place I was at, they were there, but they didn't do anything. This time when they show up, they attack everything but me. The next time, I think I will be their target for sure. I just wish I knew what they were." _And because of them, with the help of my mental time bomb going off, I'm probably banned from the school. I couldn't possibly ask Hatori to erase _all_ of their memories. Well whatever...I didn't like it there much anyway. And I'm sure the last thing that will be waiting for me is a welcome wagon.  
><em>

"We promise to help you as much as we can Miss Tsubaki. At least_ I_ do. I'm not so sure about the cat here." Yuki eyed Kyo as he said that.

"Shut up! You da—"

Shigure coughed. "So, Aki, about those powers…" He had an interested tone in his voice, unlike the concerned tone I would have appreciated that only Yuki and Kyo seemed to be giving. Alas, Shigure is Shigure, couldn't really hate him for that. And being Shigure, this was probably like Christmas to him—finally finding out my secrets after all this time.

"Oh, yeah. Well, a while ago, I uh, acquired these powers. So now, I am a…." _Huh. What would be the right word for what I am? _"A sorceress? Yeah, that sounds about right. I'm a sorceress. Or at least a sorceress in training."

"Well, now everything makes sense!" Shigure exclaimed triumphantly. _I'm sure he doesn't really get it, not all of it anyway. _It'd take more than just the revealing of my powers to get anyone to really understand.

Sighing, I chuckled a little. "Yeah…Well I am sorry for keeping that from you. I thought something bad would happen." _Something bad might still happen. _That was a pretty safe bet.

"Okay, so you have magical powers. I understand hiding that, but why hide who you are from us?" Kyo asked while leaning his head on his palm. "At school, okay you're new. But here with us, you should have been comfortable enough to be yourself."

My eyes went wide at hearing that. I got what he was saying. _Ha...comfortable enough to be myself, he says. That's a laugh. _Even the Akimoto Tsubaki that I had revealed to those bullies and the school wasn't necessarily the real me. It was only the me that I wanted people to see in order to avoid from looking weak, or sad, or vulnerable. With the effect I had on people, I'd be in danger to show anyone my true self. As my friends and people I was staying with, if anything, it should have been them who I trusted the most with who I was. Instead I hid more than just my powers from them. As it stood, no one really knew the real Akimoto Tsubaki. They only knew whoever that person was that I had been masquerading as. I can't honestly say that I felt good about the way I was, I've always hated that quality about myself. I mostly hated the fact that I've never been able to open up to anyone except the one person who I cared for who really accepted me. But they were long gone from my life.

These guys have every reason to not like me and to not trust me. I was still a stranger to them, while they have nicely allowed me to live with them. Look who's the jerk now.

"Ever since I could remember, I had never been able to be honest with anyone, and I still sort of can't. Someone had told me a long time ago never to trust anybody, that people would always hurt me. I took that to heart and kept people away. It's kind of a double-edged thing, ya know? It's a bitter reality. I'm damned if I open up, and I'm damned if I don't." Aside from my lack of interest of people, they stayed away on their own free will. Most of them never even tried to get close. When they did, it usually ended up in a broken friendship—they became unhappy, and lost interest altogether. And that was the nice side of things. The not so nice part was my negative energy on people.

I couldn't help but look away from them. "There's a dark aura around me." Feeling like they were giving me peculiar looks, I continued. For not knowing me that long, these people who had showed me kindness deserved to know at least this about myself since it affected their well-being. "I know it sounds weird, but it's true. Some kind of negative aura has always been around me...like, a physical, more or less_ , legitimate _one. When I was younger, I used to be able to see it. I was in the center of a dark ring that pretty much effected anyone who got close. Causing anyone that it agitated to feel misery or anger beyond all belief... Perhaps other people couldn't see it, but it kept them away. I'm pretty sure it's still there, but…dimmed, I guess. It's really hard to explain. But because of all that, it's been hard to really be me to anyone. No matter how much I wanted to be. Things have been…" I paused to think about a word to describe my years if isolation. "…difficult."

The three of them still started at me even after I finished. That was the first time that I had opened up like that. Saru and Kyoko were my "friends" once upon a time, but we only really talked about trivial stuff such as school, shopping, and stuff like that. Whenever I tried to talk about how I felt, they would talk to me about how I was using self-pity to get sympathy. And when I _didn't_ talk, I didn't "trust" them. Honestly, those two were living contradictions. _I hope these guys don't think that I'm giving them the self-pity thing, because I hate it when people feel sorry for me. I hate it even more when people think that I want them to feel sorry for me._

"Miss Tsubaki, I—"

"Rat, Shigure, you two have to leave." Kyo commanded. _What the heck?_

"Why you stupid cat, who are you to order me—"

"Yuki!" That was the first time I had ever heard Kyo call Yuki by his first name. This must be serious. _Is he gonna scold me? I hope not. But if he does, I think I've gotten over my "fear" of hot guys. So, now I can argue back! _

Yuki was taken aback at Kyo's abrupt demand. He seemed to be at a loss of words, so Shigure stepped in. "C'mon Yuki, Kyo wants us out. Best to not upset him." I kind of expected him to tug on Yuki's collar to get him out, but both he and I knew that he was much too mature for that. So, Yuki walked out slowly after eyeing Kyo a few extra seconds.

The moment they were gone, I looked at Kyo not knowing what to say. What should I have said?

"According to legend," He began. "the rat tricked the cat by telling him that the grand banquet for the animals of the zodiac was on a different day than what it was supposed to be on. Since the cat missed out on the banquet, it has never been allowed to attend one." He started to grit his teeth. "Because of that, I've been treated like some kind of outcast to a family full of outcasts. The cat has never truly been a part of the Zodiac, that's why no one really knows about it. Most of the family doesn't even want to acknowledge me. My father hates me and my mother…" On an uncharacteristic impulse, I really wanted to reach out for his hand. But out of fear of what his reaction would be, I restrained myself. "probably killed herself because of the freak I am." _I knew that those with the curse had it bad, but…I didn't know that Kyo was in this much pain. He knows what it's like to be alone. He also knows…what it's like to lose someone because of who you are. _

My hand twitched a little, and then my arm moved on it's own to gently place my palm over the back of his hand. The notion made us both blush a little, but it was understandable. I was just relieved that he didn't pull back. _We're kindred spirits, he and I. _It was hard to tell on what level his pain and suffering was to mine, but, for the most part, he actually seemed to get where I was coming from. And he knew that I wasn't looking for sympathy, just like I knew he wasn't. "Kyo," Was all I could say.

Before there was any progression to what seemed like the beginning of _something, _a rather loud voice came rushing in. "AKIIII!" A blond hurricane came dashing in and knocked me down to the ground. A poof of smoke later, and low and behold, a bunny was there.

_Dammit Momiji. You're sweet and all, but you have the worst timing EVER._

"What's up Momiji?"

"Aki, I saw what happened to the school, can't believe I fell asleep and missed what happened, but when I saw it, I thought you were hurt! I'm so glad you're okay!" I blinked at him as I sat up. He really was worried, wasn't he? Without saying anything, I brought the bunny close and hugged him, feeling the nice, warm fur up against my body. Momiji was like a small, furry ball of happiness—something that I really needed.

Just as that happened, another storm came in and knocked Kyo over. "Kyo, my love! Momiji told me what happened at your school! Are you hurt?" The girl handling Kyo was Kagura Sohma. She was cursed by the spirit of the boar. Even though she was a girl, she could hug Kyo freely because they were part of the same curse. Made me sort of jealous to tell you the truth. Kagura was a year older than me, with short, dark-brown hair and grey eyes. Other than her extreme emotions, the most evident and slightly infuriating thing about her was that she loved Kyo. So whenever she was around, Kyo was pretty much off-limits. She's a nice girl and all (most of the time), but she has some issues when it comes to sharing. Good thing college keeps her occupied most of the time.

Here comes the fun part, she's normally a sweet, shy girl. But around her beloved Kyo…

"KYO I WAS SO WORRIED!" She started to punch him endlessly followed by throwing him around the room like a rag doll. "YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU! PROMISE ME YOU'LL NEVER GET HURT!" Poor guy. But a person had to admit, watching this was way better than cable.

I couldn't help but laugh.

* * *

><p>"Remind me again, why are we out here?"<p>

"Jeez, I already told you."

"Humor me." A mocking smile played on my lips.

Kyo sighed. The four of us were staying at a Sohma-owned log cabin in the mountains for a few days during out vacation. And by vacation, I mean time away from school as they fix the damages. There still wasn't any word as to if I was expelled or not. When thoughts like that drifted into my head, it made me feel better to just remember Kagura "handling" Kyo and laugh it off.

"You need better control of those powers of yours. Otherwise, it might actually be you destroying the school instead of those creatures." He stood in front of me with his arms crossed. Standing in an opening in the forest relaxed me a bit from all that hectic stuff that went on in the city. The lame part in this whole thing was that Kyo and I weren't even going out. After that whole sentimental thing, we're still at friend status.

"_You_ are going to teach _me_ control? Well, isn't that the gnome calling the munchkin short." That witty remark earned me a blush from him. Triumphant, I smiled even wider. _I guess it's okay that we're just friends. At least I know that with Kyo, it's true friendship. It's not one of those phony ones. _The best part about this friendship? I had lost the getting-stiff-around-a-hot-guy thing. It's totally gone. I was finally cured. That meant that I was free to be as sarcastic and harsh as I pleased. No being shy around here.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, I don't know. Seeing you with your temper doesn't really put all that much confidence in me that you can teach _me_ about self-control." Chuckling a little, I added, "No offense."

"No need for the 'no offense' comment, Miss Tsubaki. You're absolutely right." Yuki sat next to me on a large rock, reading a book. _He's studying and we're out of school. What a guy._

Kyo growled. "No one asked ya, you damned rat!"

Yuki ignored him. "Are you sure that you don't want me helping you out? I mean, I don't mind helping you out at all."

"That's really nice of you, Yuki. But I figured that this would be too entertaining to pass up." Facing Kyo, I bowed sarcastically. "Teach on, oh wise, self-controlled one."

Punching me playfully in the shoulder, he spoke. "I'm serious. Think about it like this. If I were to hit this tree," demonstrated by hitting the closest tree, "nothing happens. But if I were to really try…" Punching the tree again, with way more force, leaving a crater that tempted the tree to topple over. "…well, you get the point."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah."

He groaned. "If you learn to control your powers better, then you can get stronger. Try concentrating the elements into a single…uh…themed attack."

Raising an eyebrow, I asked, "Themed attack?"

"Like a fireball, er, something like that." Realizing the way his sentence sounded to me, he blushed and trailed off his words.

"I think I get'cha. You mean, make a more concentrated spell to handle the power better." It was like my _Saisu _spell. Normally when I use wind, it's all over the place. But will that spell, I know exactly what it's doing. Maybe Kyo was right. To cause less casualty damage, it would be smart to develop some more orchestrated spells. I groaned from thinking of all the work I'd have to invest into this.

"Don't be like that. You already have the powers, you just have to concentrate." Kyo was starting to sound a bit impatient. Even though it was a bit funny, I decided that he was trying to help me out there, so I should do my best at this

Taking a deep breath, I focused. Thinking about what Taiitsukun told me about me controlling my powers and not getting controlled, was a significant reason as to why I had to do this. Several times now had my Wind element taken control whenever I got upset. If that continued, it would be virtually impossible to hide my powers when I absolutely needed to. With Kyo's help, I can do this! Probably.

Extending my arm out, and closing my eyes, I allowed the wind to come to me.

"That's right. Nice and easy." He calmly said. _The Wind is my element. It belongs to me. I cannot submit to it! _Just like that, a mini tornado lie in my hand, bringing a slight breeze between the both of us. I smiled with success. But before, I could start leaping for joy, as if I'd do that anyway, something weird happened. The tornado disappeared just as four circular lights appeared on the ground surrounding me. One was red, another was light blue, the next one was a yellow-green, and the last was light grey. In a way, they were like mini searchlights, each one giving off their own unique beam of light.

"Aki!" Kyo dashed towards me.

"Wait!" I commanded him. Stopping dead in his tracks, he looked at me with confusion. "Yuki, you hold on too." Even though he was behind me, his feet scraping across the ground is what gave off his movements. "I don't think these lights are here to hurt me." Just looking at them made me feel very calm and centered. A warm updraft emitting from them lifted my body off the ground a little as the lights got closer and closer to merging under me. The moment they all came together, they fused to become a large circle of bright white light, with me hovering in the center. _This feels so familiar…_ That's when the light flashed and extended its blinding beam to the heavens, parting the clouds in its circular shape. My whole body felt tingly as it slowly absorbed the light. An odd energy lowered me back to the ground as the light diminished. When both my feet lightly touched down, everything seemed back to normal—lights gone and all. But I felt different…

"Aki…"

Looking over my body the best I could, I realized that I was still the same person—I still looked the same—on the outside, but I definitely felt different on the inside.

"It was like the day I got my wand…a-and my powers. That's what it felt like: A sudden burst of energy that I never knew I had. It was so warm and _real_. I feel so…" Quickly extending my arm, allowing my wand to appear, I used my power to create a baseball-sized fireball—only to immediately extinguish it. "In control."

With a baffled look drawn on his face, Kyo regained his composure. "Huh. I'm a better teacher than I thought."

"Please. You had nothing to do with it, stupid cat." Yuki remarked. He didn't sound confused at all. I suppose that the whole "magic" thing doesn't strike him as a surprise anymore. As expected of the great Yuki.

"Oh, I don't think so. Kyo was the one who helped me tap into this power." Looking over at my "sensei", I gave a tiny smile. He cutely blushed, followed by scratching the back of his head and looking away, just as I expected. _There are some similarities between him and Inuyasha, _I thought, _but their differences are as clear as day. But the thing that is the same…is that I'm glad I got to know both of them._

"Now let's take this new control for a test drive!"

* * *

><p>Panting continuously, I bent over to rest my hands on my knees. "Perhaps we should stop now."<p>

I looked up at Kyo and Yuki who were also breathing deeply. They had been training with me, testing my new spells. I told them before that I didn't need moving targets, but they insisted and added that some extra training would be good for them too.

"Why? I could keep at it for hours." Kyo said between breaths.

Giving a skeptical look, I told him, "Maybe so, but it looks like it's gonna rain soon. And I know how much you hate the rain." It was true, Kyo had never been a huge fan of the rain. He got into this depressed, lazy state whenever it started to pour outside. A while ago, I just decided to rule it out as a cat thing. Nonetheless, the sky was looking pretty mean so if we wanted to avoid getting wet, magic practice had to end.

Shaking his head, he straightened up. "Rain or not, I'm kind of curious as to what else you can do." _Rain or not my foot. If we do this in the rain, he's gonna flake on me._

Before I could speak, another unfamiliar, chilling voice interrupted me. "So this is where you all have been hiding from me." I turned my head to face a skinny guy with a long-sleeved black shirt and jeans on. He had dark-purple hair styles a similar way to Yuki's and dark teal eyes—eyes that didn't have the softness that Yuki's did. At. All. _Who's this chump?_

"A…A…" Looking over at Yuki, I realized that he was shaking feverishly.

"Yuki? Are you okay?"

"A-Akito…" He stuttered. _Holy crap! That's Akito? The great and powerful head of the Sohma family? He's just a string bean! He looks like he's just a couple of years older than me, if that. People are afraid of that shrimp? I can snap him like a twig with my pinky!_ Okay, that was probably an overstatement giving my lack of physical ability and all. But it was worth saying that I thought I could take _him _in hand-to-hand combat better than someone else. _ He better have some macho powers to back that look up._

"You all came to this cabin without informing me." His words had a certain hiss to them, even if he was trying to mask it. "Do you know what it was like trying to track you down? What if I needed you?" _It's called a cell phone, bitch. _He faced Yuki, making him stiff up. _I've never seen Yuki so nerved about anything before. Is this Akito guy really all that? _"Yuki, I would have expected you to come and see me before running off. Were you afraid of what my answer would have been?"

"N-no," Yuki tried to say. I looked at Kyo, and all he was doing was looking away with a somber look on his face. _So, he affects Kyo too. Well, that sort of makes sense, since technically, he is the primary one shunning Kyo from the family. The main source for Kyo's troubles. _

Akito began to raise his voice. "Yes you were! You went around me to escape with this wench!" He pointed to me and I blinked. _Wench?_

Offended, and I was rightfully so, I began to come up with some colorful words to say to him. "Who the hell do you think you're—" An arm blocked me from getting any closer to Akito and knocking his cocky block off. It was Shigure.

"Now what's going on here?" He asked with that now-suddenly-annoyingly-pleasant tone in his voice. "Akito. What is the occasion for this pleasant visit?"

"Shigure! Not only did you take in an outsider, but you allowed her to take you three away from me!" He yelled. _Keep talking dude, just keeeep talking. _"Not only that, but she's a witch who's mind rejected Hatori's memory erasing!"

_That's it! _"Look, you manipulative little—" Shigure slapped his hand in front of my mouth. He leaned down to whisper in my ear.

"Calm down, little sorceress."

"Don't you dare talk back to me. You will never be accepted into the Sohma family. You will never understand us. You will never know our pain! Then you come out of nowhere and think you can just be with us?"

"Akito, she's—" Kyo attempted a word in. Akito shot him a glare.

"Did I ask you to speak, Kyo? I can see why _you_ would want to be with someone different. Especially when no one else would accept you." I muffled loudly behind Shigure's hand, trying to defend Kyo. Akito slowly walked towards him, putting his hand on his cheek. "But she will never understand you—not like I can. She doesn't even know your secret, my little freak." _Secret? _He reached down for Kyo's bracelet.

"A-Akito," Shigure started with a smile, "don't you think that that would be a bit extreme?"

The creepy guy himself shot Shigure a look. "Not at all, dear Shigure. It's best Akimoto here gets a full taste of the Sohma secret!" With that pleasant statement, he ripped Kyo's bracelet apart, causing all of the dark red and white beads to drop to the ground.

"NO!" Kyo yelled. His body began to morph into an odd shape—skin becoming rough and dark, head enlarging, growing long, skinny ears. His arms and hands expanded, growing claws at the tips. Long, sharp teeth filled his now huge jaw, while his eyes grew several sizes and turned a non-human, piercing purple. He grew at least four or five more feet. By time the transformation was complete, he kind of looked like the combination of a demon rabbit and a carnivorous dinosaur, with only his cargo pants on after ripping his shirt completely up.

I stood there stunned. _What the…_ "Kyo…" Even as I tried to talk to him, he turned and ran further into the woods at top speed. "Kyo!" Trying to chase after him, Akito grabbed my wrist roughly.

Laughing insanely, he told me, "_That_ is Kyo's true form. Isn't it hideous?"

"As far as I can see, you're the only hideous one." I growled.

He dug his nails into my skin, causing my wrist to bleed. "Do you honestly think you can love something like that?"

Forcing my arm away, I started off towards Kyo. Looking back at Akito, I said, "Well, I think I can do a much better job than you can." _In the meantime, why don't you go de-bitchify yourself._ Without hearing his retort, I was off.

* * *

><p>It wasn't hard finding him. All I had to do was follow the path of broken trees into a clearing. By time I reached it, the rain had started to pour, completely drenching my sweater, and my hair, and…yeah. In the middle of the field was Kyo, back facing me. Walking slowly up to him, I reached out my hand.<p>

"Miss Tsubaki, you mustn't!" Yuki grabbed my hand. _I knew I heard someone following me,_

"It's fine, Yuki. I can handle this." Smiling at him, I gradually took my hand away from his.

"But…"

"Just have faith in me. Have faith in Kyo as well."

I tried for Kyo again, seeing his body shaking. _I can tell this won't be easy. He's fragile now. _While advancing gently, I spoke softly, "Kyo? Kyo, please look at me." He continued to shake, not acknowledging my words. "Kyo, I'm not afraid of you, y'know." Chuckling nervously, I continued. "You should've seen the things I was around in the last place I was at. There were demons trying to kill me everywhere! Because of that, I've kind of gotten used to seeing stuff." Still nothing from him. "Kyo?" Touching his shoulder just for a second earned me a huge backhand from him, causing me to fly across the field, skidding against the ground.

"Miss Tsubaki!"

"Stay back Yuki!" I struggled to sit up. Looking at his worried face, I winked. "I'm tougher than I look, Yuki. You should know that about me by now."

While trying to stand up, I made my way towards Kyo again. "Hit me all you want, but like my old friend Sango's Hiraikotsu, I'll always find my way back!" When he wasn't moved by my witty banter, I decided that I had to get serious if I wanted to get through to him.

"_Please_, Kyo. Please, just look at me. I want to see you." Reluctantly, and finally, I got some results. His head started to turn in my direction, large eyes staring me down. "Now that I have your attention, just listen to me. You are not a monster. Akito and some mean others have been telling you that your whole life to control you and your emotions. I don't see a monster when I look at you. I see someone who's been hurt and needs a friend." I got closer. "It's really not that bad. We can work through this. All of us. Yuki, Shigure, Momiji, Kagura, as well as the others who care. You're really not as alone as you thought." With my advances, he started to completely turn. "My family isn't all that great to me either. In fact I can't stand them. They never really gave a damn about me. So I decided to do something about it. You can too. You don't have to live this life. Let people help you, Kyo."

I heard his faint voice inside my head. "_I don't know…I'm not sure if I can live like this."_

Smiling, I moved in closer. "You can and you will. Don't give that jerk Akito the satisfaction of thinking he won. He wants you to be miserable. Well, I want you to be happy—or, just learn to like yourself. That would be a good first step towards recovery." _As if I'm one to talk..._Who was I to really give a lecture to someone about liking themselves? Well, regardless of my own occasional self-hatred, it didn't mean that my advice wasn't any less valid. Reaching for extra strength with my magic, I surrounded my body with a peculiar golden light. Then, I wrapped my arms around him, not caring the state he was in at the moment. He tried to struggle, but I just wouldn't allow him. He eventually calmed down, still shivering as the rain poured on the both of us. That's when something amazing happened. His body was changing back into its normal form while in my arms. Before I knew it, we were finally embracing without him turning into a cat. Feeling his bare skin, still using my power to prevent the transformation, I brought him closer. _It must be this light around me. It's stopping the curse from happening. _Tearing up with joy, I made sure to not lose the light._ Thank-you universe for being on my side for once._

That's when everything went black.

I saw a cute girl with long brown hair and light blue eyes walking around Shigure's house. She was cooking and cleaning with a smile on her face. Yuki looked happy around her, helping with her homework and walking around school. Shigure…was Shigure. But Kyo…he seemed to take a real interest in her. He was always protecting her and having fun. I noticed a twinkle in his eye that I didn't think I was ever able to put in him. She was such a positive person even though she had a tough past too. Everyone seemed to love her—except Akito who still seemed to be a hateful bastard—and she was really dedicated to helping the Sohma's out. Defeating the curse, saving Kyo from a future of suffering. She may have done it too…

Closing my eyes, I opened them to see the girl, Tohru, in an open field drenched with rain, motherly holding Kyo in his cat form, in her arms. _Not again._

"No!" I reached out for them only to find that my hand went through their bodies. I couldn't touch them—they couldn't hear me. Staring at my shaking hand, I stared at the two.

"No…no…" Throwing my head back, I yelled, "NO!"


	10. Twin Headache

I seriously wanted to cry. This just couldn't be happening a second time—things should have been different. But as luck would have it, they weren't. Seeing those two like that, in a scenario where I never affected anything, where Kyo and I never had a moment to bond, made me want to do something drastic. Unfortunately, my mind was two clouded with rage and sadness to think of exactly what.

"Taiitsukun!" I shouted.

"You knew I was here, child?" She said calmly. I, on the other hand, was failing miserably in keeping my composure.

"Of course I knew you were there! As I suspect, you'll always be there to step on my heart even more than it has been throughout my already depressing life!" I had every reason to go up to her and choke every last bit of life out of her. Would anyone miss her? There was a good chance that it wasn't likely.

"You're out of line, girl!" She roared back.

"No, _you're_ out of line! What the hell gives you the right to keep interfering like that? I can see where this is going, old lady, and I don't want to go from world to world, liking a guy, then getting torn apart from him! On a related note, I don't want to be some inter-dimensional slut who keeps working her way through guys! I can't take the damn teases, and it's only making things worse! Not only that, but I definitely can't bring myself to stay because of that stupid girl that I'm—no was—taking the place of—"

"Wait, are you telling me that you saw visions of the other woman again?" The anger that was obviously in her voice died down when she heard my words.

Totally confused by the sudden change, I decided to comply with an answer. "Y-yeah. Tohru made him happy. Not only that, her life was hard—_really_ hard...hrd as mine? Argumentable...but the way she connected with Kyo…I just can't take that kind of happiness from him. He deserves to be happy." Starting to calm down myself, I began to process the words I was saying. It was starting to become clear that I wasn't trying to convince Taiitsukun, but myself. "And if it means leaving and letting them all forget me in order to lift the curse and live in peace, who am I to stop what the universe intended?"

"Visions, huh?" She pondered. Making a not-so-pleasant face at her, I bent my arm up and clenched my fist. _You weren't listening to a damn thing I said! _"The others were never able to do anything like that. This is definitely making things more complicated.

_…Others? _"Others? What…others?" I walked up to her when she didn't answer. "Taiitsukun. _What…others_?"

Her face flushed a little—unbelievably—as she turned her head away from mine. "Honestly, you didn't believe that you were the only girl to make a wish like that? Of course there were others."

My mind couldn't believe what she was saying. I wasn't the only one to go through this crap? Not only was I not the first to go on this journey, but I was apparently unoriginal.

Retaining the urge to raise my voice again, I attempted to stay calm. "So, let me get this straight. I was just next on your twisted little list of girls' lives to confuse and potentially ruin? And to add insult to injury, I'm not the only one to have powers, am I?"

She shook her head. "You weren't the first one to have a specialty for Wind either."

"Oh, _and_ my element wasn't originally mine! Is there anything about my situation that's different, or is this just another day at the office?" Without letting her respond, I continued. "So tell me, when you aren't with me, are you with the other girls? I suspect that they would be doing their thing in different worlds too, right?" After that was said, I felt a sharp pain strike the back of my head. Taiitsukun had just hit me with a stiff, giant toy hammer.

Crouching down and holding the back of my head, I restrained myself from going with the strangling her scenario.

"Akimoto, I understand that you are upset, but I've taken as much lip from you as I'm going to take. You are lacking in respect considerably." Still rubbing the bump that she caused, I had no choice but to keep listening. "No, you were not the first to go on a journey like this. Everyone before you also specialized in one of the four universal elements—each one of them going to different worlds—not necessarily the ones you went or are going to—in order to fulfill their wish. No, I am not harboring others at the same time that I'm handling you." I looked up at her. "In response to that other question, you are different."

"Oh yeah? Like how?"

She gave me a stern look. "Out of all the girls, you are the only one who was ever able to have visions regarding the world you were in. The others went on blind instinct and feelings to make their decisions."

Slowly standing back up, I thought about the new information. _If that's true, then how did everything work for them? How did they know if they wanted to leave or not? Or whether it was right to leave or not? _ "Since I'm here, what happened to all of them? How many others were there?"

Her tone became dark as she told me the truth, her face falling to mirror her words. "There were thousands of them. Thousands of possibilities…"

"Thousands? How can that be possible? In my world when someone goes missing, everyone knows about it. I can imagine other worlds would be similar." Every day on the news, we always heard of people being kidnapped or disappearing. Parents made sure that the world knew that someone in their families was gone, and that they wanted someone to do something about it. If what Taiitsukun said was true, then a bunch of worlds would be in an uproar with the sudden drop of the teenage girl population.

"I never did tell you how time works while you're in here did I?" She asked.

"N-no." _Why the hell would she ask a random question like that?_

"While on this journey, their world completely freezes in the moment that a person leaves to fulfill their wish." Trying to connect the two concepts, I realized what she was trying to say before she even said it. "So, throughout your life, there were girls going through different worlds, leaving their families for months on end, and no one even knew about it. By time they came back, if they came back, nothing had changed. Well, except for the girls who do age during their journey instead of the worlds they came from." _She's right. My hair has gotten like an inch longer—it's beginning to curl upwards again like it did back when I had long hair. So time must be moving forward with me._

"If they got their wish, why did they return to their worlds?"

"None of them were able to make their wish come true. A lot of them went through the worlds and just couldn't take leaving behind friends. They may not have had the visions you had, but their own insecurities led them to disbelieve the fact that they were happy. Others formed relationships, and decided to stay in those worlds, but eventually felt unsatisfied and took back the wish." _That probably ticks her off a bit. Especially after she went through the trouble to help those girls out. The fact that she's still doing this either means she's completely snapped, or she has better patience then I initially thought._

"And the reason as to why these girls aren't saying anything?"

She went silent for a few moments, probably thinking of the right words to say to me. "The ones that came back, as a result of failing in fulfilling their wish, had their memories erased, and their powers other than their specialty were stripped away forever. As for their primary element, it was sealed inside of them. I couldn't completely strip them of that since it was so strong. Even if their memories were to somehow return, they still wouldn't be able to use their powers unless I were to unseal them." I heard everything she said, but one part of that explanation leaped out at me, a couple times actually, and deserved some recognition.

"What did you mean by 'the ones that came back'? Didn't you say that all of the ones before me failed? So why wouldn't all of them return to their homes?" This really wasn't making any sense to me, nothing was adding up.

She sighed heavily before giving me an answer. "Only three before you have returned to their worlds and resumed their lives." Three? Out of the thousands of girls…how was that possible? Were they lost somehow? The whole idea of my journey was really becoming sketchy to a point that almost scared me. What if I disappeared too?

I tried to make my voice sound more serious than shocked. "Wha-what happened to the others?"

For the longest time, she didn't respond. The only thing she did was look at me with a peculiar look of apprehension and anger. It was driving me crazy not knowing what could potentially happen to me. Her silence alone convinced me that the fates of those missing girls was horrible. I just had to know.

"Taiitsukun!"

Her face snapped to face mine. "Tell me, has anything peculiar happened to you in the worlds so far? Have you encountered anything…ominous?"

"Don't change the subject!"

"Answer the question!" She yelled back. Seeing the look in her cold eyes told me that she wasn't joking around in asking me this odd question.

_Anything ominous? _Searching for an answer, I reached through my memory—recalling everything that happened to me so was when a chilling memory appeared in my mind. The fact that I didn't realize it sooner, made me feel like a fool.

"There were these things that kind of interfered with my life lately. They were these shadow-like creatures with incredible destructive powers and strength. The feeling they gave me was so…cold and unsettling." Taiitsukun seemed to have a guilty look on her face, making it obvious that she knew what was going on. "What are those things? And why are they so fixated on me?" The old woman still gave me nothing to work with. God, I was so sick of this woman making things difficult with my life! First I had to de-friend Kyo, Inuyasha, and the others, the last thing I needed was for her to keep something from me that could potentially end up killing me.

"Taiitsukun!" With that outburst, three bright red rings appeared around my body. I looked at Taiitsukun who was completely calm, letting me believe that she was doing this. Before I could escape or protest, the rings shrunk, binding my legs and arms together, and covering my mouth to make it so that I couldn't talk. _Or argue. That bitch._

The rings levitated me off from the ground and floated me over towards Taiitsukun. You have no idea how much I wanted to curse her out at that moment, but my mouth was out of commission. She was avoiding providing the information I needed. I had never seen her so hesitant and anxious before. Whatever was bothering her was probably going to end up bothering me whether she decided to tell me about it or not. And considering how horrible my luck seemed to be lately, it probably would.

Clearing her throat, she finally decided to say something. "It's time for you to enter a new world. Because I am so generous, I will allow you to keep going with your journey, even though you were so rude to me. I will not ask you whether you would want to or not mostly because I already know your answer. You aren't ready to give up. Not yet." At that moment, the whole scene between Tohru and Kyo started to fade into pitch blackness, finalizing the erasing of me completely from the Sohma's lives. Something told me to just walk away right then. I was not only hurt physically and emotionally, but I was scared that there was a force out there that I didn't know about that was trying to destroy me.

Just then, a strong, calming voice of an unrecognizable male voice rang through my head.

_Don't give up._

Looking around the best I could in my current state, I tried to spot the man who had spoken to me. But there was no one there. In fact, I was certain that I was the only one who heard him. Perhaps that was just some weird thing in the back of my mind that I manifested to make me keep on going with this thing. After all, other than my life, what was there left to lose?

_It's obvious that I'm not going to get the information I would like from her. That means that I'm going to have to figure this stuff out on my own—or at least live long enough to get to Taiitsukun again and get her to talk. If those shadow things waste me, I am totally going to kill her._

"Now that you are an Element Tamer, you can—" Noticing the puzzled look on my face, she sighed. "When you first start out with your powers, you 're a Witchling—with almost no knowledge of magic whatsoever. Now that you have complete control over the elements, you've graduated to Element Tamer." As if sensing what I was going to ask next, she gave me information that was useful, but at the same time, not as helpful as the information regarding the shadow things that could save my life. But I suppose we can't all get what we like. "There are five stages in all when it comes to universal magic mastery: Witchling, Element Tamer, Mage, Master…and the last one doesn't matter since it has never been reached. Without a handle on the final elements, there just isn't any way." _Final elements? You mean there are more? What the hell? _I groaned. _What does knowing that matter anyway? This woman won't even bother to tell me. _

The rings turned me around to face the darkness away from Taiitsukun, to reveal a circular portal facing me showing a large marble fountain surrounded by one of the most beautiful gardens I had even seen. _Is that where I'm going next? Who am I kidding…of course it is._

"Whenever those creatures show up, try not to think anything bad. Focus on other things and give them everything you've got." _When they show up? Yup, she definitely knows something if she already can tell that I'm going to be bothered by those things. _The only real problem with that whole statement was that, one, the last time I tried hitting them with a spell, it didn't really seem to faze them. So, I wasn't completely sure that I won against them, or if they decided to flee because they knew I was no contest. And two, I had no idea why thinking positively would help me defeat them. Maybe it's one of those psychological "if I believe in it, I can do it" sort of things.

Pushing me through the portal—which this time felt more like a door portal considering there was no long dramatic fall like usual—I floated over the ground of the new world. The surroundings were super bright and peppy, as if it were peaceful all of the time. With a calming blue sky with few clouds, the wonderful aroma of the assortment of flowers, and the trickling of the water from the fountain, I had a momentary sense of peace. That was before Taiitsukun spoke again

"Just start to focus on learning non-elemental spells so that you can move onto the next stage and become a Mage." The portal to where she was talking from was starting to close. Even though I couldn't see it, I could tell because her voice was becoming fainter and fainter. The moment it disappeared, the rings vanished, dropping me to the ground below.

Growling, I tried to wipe some of the pavement off of my bare knees. _Damn gravity._

A small poof above me dropped into my lap as small, leather bound book. As my confusion persisted, Taiitsukun's voice echoed, "Use this spell book to educate yourself. And one more thing, flying would be useful at this stage of your journey. Learn."

_Huh? She just leaves me with a book—wait, did she say flying? I can fly? _Turning to look at my back the best I could, I frowned. _She didn't staple wings to my back when I wasn't looking did she? Wouldn't be the first time she did something without my approval. _

Usually when I get to a new world, I would like to take some time out and look around. You know, get a feel of the place I'm at. Makes sense, right? But since it's me, I get a welcome party. By welcome party, I mean the shadow things that apparently just became my new best friends. As with every time before, the chill consumed my body, alerting me that I was in danger. _How did they find me so quickly? _Now that I knew for sure how to detect them, I had to learn to find out where they appeared. Looking around, there was no sign of them. I summoned my wand to me before things got violent. The last thing I needed was to be unprepared when the fighting happened. _But where are they?_

Hearing peculiar sounds from the "peaceful" fountain, I decided to cautiously check it out. Weird gurgling noises muted out the serene flows— making me believe completely that I was being an idiot for getting any closer. But I figured that if I didn't bait these things out, they would get the upper hand. Taking one more step forward, the water rushed up into the sky as a wide stream, hidden inside of it, those shadow creatures, aimed right at me. Not enjoying the thought of being ambushed, I jumped back and summoned my power.

"_Shine Aqua Illusion!"_ A thin stream of extremely chilled water surrounded the enemies' attack, seeming to freeze them it in an arch shape along with the water that coated them. Catching a bit of movement out of the corner of my eye, I was able to dodge a punch from a shadowy fist. The energetic force from the blow caused the ground to completely split. Gulping, I was thankful that I wasn't the one affected by that. Quickly leaping from the line of fire, I noticed about five of the shadow creatures standing in their spots, swaying from side to side like they always did. _Well, at least there are less of them this time._

Just when I was getting confident about my odds, they all disappeared into the ground below them. It wasn't all that fair that they had such an advantage over me, but I learned a looooong time ago that live wasn't freakin' fair. Part of me really wanted to believe that they were gone—that they had just fled like last time. But my body was still slightly chilled, signaling that this battle wasn't over.

"Come out you stupid things." I taunted. "I am not in a good mood and I don't really feel like waiting this out." Hearing a faint crack, I looked up at the ice arch. Water suddenly broke free, sending a hydro pump of shadow creatures heading straight for me once again. Knowing that freezing it would probably delay the inevitable, I decided on a different route. "_Deep Submerge!" _A beam of bright blue light shot out of my wand and through the water—completely de-possessed it, causing the water to grab the creatures, slamming them straight to the ground. Well, more like past the ground since they had a tendency to be intangible.

Feeling a bit better from my bad mood, I didn't expect my legs not to work. "What the heck?" That was when the shadows raised from the ground below me, slowly covering me with their being. Two of the creatures stood at my sides holding my arms away from my body. Their touch was so cold, I felt like my blood was going to freeze over. The more I struggled, the tighter their grips became. A bigger shadow appeared in front of me, with the same glowing yellow eyes that I was quickly beginning to despise. Its "hand" stretched out to me, eventually meeting at my chest, only to completely go through. My eyes widened at the feel of that thing inside of me. I breathed heavily as painful memories began to flash before my eyes. Each of those horrible feelings consumed me, all at once, making me want to scream. Any warmth I was feeling suddenly escaped my whole body, as if death was already beginning to visit me. Everything was becoming numb and the only thing that lingered was emotional agony. I didn't care what it took, I just wanted it all to be over. Dark energy spurted from my chest, along with any hope I had of getting out of this.

_You have to calm down, Akimoto. Center yourself. Think about the things that make your heart sing!_

There was that man's voice again. The thing was that Taiitsukun has said something similar to that before dumping me. It was…just so hard to think of anything happy. What made me happy? For some reason, my mind was clouded and I couldn't think of a single thing—I couldn't remember. But I had to.

_Happy. Happy. Happy. Happiness...mine…when was I happy?_

A flash of someone's smile played in my head. A protective hand. Some witty banter. Laughing.

_Inuyasha…Kyo..._

A flash of bright golden light emitted through my body for only a second—long enough to push out the creature and send the ones that were binding me flying. Seeing what seemed like a glare from the creature, it suddenly vanished without a trace. The chilling feeling was gone, but the weight of the dark thought on my mind came rushing back, but with a little less force than before. As my vision started to black out, my body collapsed onto the ground, wand dropping beside me. Before I was completely out, I hazily saw two pairs of feet walking towards me.

* * *

><p>"Is…wa…up…et?"<p>

"Loo…ike….t…"

_Whose voice is that? I don't recognize them. _I tried to open my eyes, but my head was still in so much pain. The voice kept mumbling around me, so I knew there were two other people around me somewhere—even though I couldn't quite understand them. In an attempt to move myself, I could feel that I was laying on something soft—a bed, most likely.

"…ello?"

"Hello? Are…wake yet?"

_Why is that person talking to themselves? Is there someone else there?_ When I was finally able to put more effort into it, my eyes slowly opened to find that everything was dark, all I could make out were a couple of shadows staring at me from where I was laying.

"I can't…see, " I managed to weakly say. Something did catch my eye, however. A very evident black electrical barrier surrounded me. That was the only thing I could see clearly. _I knew that the aura was still there. _The last time that I was able to see it this well was years ago after the great tragedy in my family happened. I had gone temporarily blind, only able to see shadows—the only thing keeping me company was the odd dark entity surrounding me on a daily basis. Though I never figured out why it happened, I just decided that it must have been a "gift" from the universe, only making me more miserable.

"Is she blind?" The voice asked.

This time, the loss of sight was short, allowing my vision to become clear. One of the shadows moved closer to me—right in my face to be more exact. The moment the shadows began to manifest, a pair of golden-yellow eyes were staring me down. They almost looked familiar…

"Inu..yasha?" I reluctantly asked.

"Inuyasha? What kind of name is that?" The guy who was in front of me moved back to reveal another guy…who looked _exactly_ like him. _What the hell is wrong with my vision? I'm seeing double._

"She may be delusional, Hikaru," Said the second one. "After all, she didn't look very well after all of that stuff that happened."

Everything was becoming clear to me finally. They were twins—identical twins it looked like. Both of them had pale-ish skin and styled, spikey pinkish, strawberry blonde hair, with long bangs off to the side. One of them had their hair parted to the left—the other had his on the right. The thing that really struck me about them was their eyes. They weren't exactly the same color as Inuyasha's—their eyes were a bit duller in color, but more playful and mischievous than fierce.

Remembering what happened to me, I shot up my upper body from the bed. Dizziness consumed me as the blood rushed to my head. Putting my hand up to my forehead, I looked around. I was sitting in a large impressive canopy bed in a room that looked so big and fancy, that it had the five-star hotel feel to it. Scratch that, it was more like ten-star—if that were even possible.

"I wouldn't be trying to get up if I were you," Mentioned the one with the right part in his hair.

"You've been unconscious for almost two days," Finished the other.

I looked at them. "Where am I anyway? And who are you guys?"

They both smiled slyly. "You're in a guest room in our mansion."

"And we're the ones who let you stay here." Out of nowhere, the twins sat on both sides of me on my the bed, snuggling up closer. _Uhh…Personal space much?_

Starting to get uncomfortable, I tried to find a way out. "Well, I appreciate that you did this, but I have to leave now."

They linked their arms with mine. _What the hell? _"Sorry we can't let you do that."

"After all, it's not every day that we get to meet a witch." My eyes went wide. _A…witch?_

Instead of laughing nervously and making myself look completely obvious, I played it cool. "A witch? Yeah, right. Those don't exist."

The one on my right laughed a little. "Yeah, we used to believe that too—"

"—until we saw you do this." Twin number two put a phone out in front of me and pressed a button. Then a recording of me fighting the shadow creatures—powers and all—was being played. These two punks saw everything!

Giving a nervous scoff, I continued my act. "Nice effects you guys added there. It's almost like a movie. Is that a new app for your phone?"

Twin number one put his arm around my shoulders making me stiffen up. Not only did I have the urge to sock them both, but I wanted to crush that phone. I was in a bad enough mood to do both, and then some.

"We're not stupid you know."

"We saw everything. How do you think we recorded this?" He pushed a button to reply the video, making me grit my teeth.

"You know, this has become our favorite movie."

"Yeah, we loved it so much, that we made about a hundred copies!" They smiled in such a sneaky way that the likeliness of me beating them to a pulp increased tenfold. _A hundred copies? Are you freakin' kidding me?_

"What are you planning to do with all of those?" I asked with an annoyed tone.

Twin number two shrugged. "Dunno. We were planning on uploading it to every video showing website on the net."

"How many views do you think it'll get? After all, it's not every day that a real witch comes to town."

Throwing their arms off, I exploded. "I am not a witch! I'm a sorceress! And you better not upload _anything_!"_ No use playing it off anymore. They obviously know. If this whole world ends up seeing that video, Taiitsukun will be soooooo pissed. My journey would probably end then and there. _

"So we finally get the truth out of her!"

"What's it like being a witch?"

"I. Am. A. _Sorceress_." _Okay, let's look at my options here. I could get up and give these guys the beating of a lifetime. If I did that, they would just wake up eventually and show my powers to the world. Then they would call the police or worse, the government. Since I don't think I want to kill them, both of those scenarios are out. Damn._

I sighed. "What do you guys want? A magic show?"

One stroked his chin. "Hmm…sorta."

"What we really want is some entertainment. Next to Haruhi, you're the next interesting thing to happen to us."

"Haru…hi?" _Who's that?_

"You'll find out eventually."

"So, would you like to come to school with us?"

_Not particularly. The last school I went to didn't do anything good for me. It didn't look so well once I was done with it either._ Looking away, I tried my best not to sound irritated. "Why should I?"

They both got up from beside me and stood at the foot of the bed, holding each others' waists. "If you do, we won't tell anyone your secret."

"There's that and the fact that we're letting you stay with us."

One of them flashed his eyes at me playfully. "If you don't like this room, you're welcome to sleep with us every night. We'd enjoy the company."

"As if!" I said through a flushed face. "I'm not even sure that I want to stay _here_. But I suppose it's better than nothing." That last part I added through gritted teeth, with the thought of staying with Tweedledee and Tweedledum here. However... _Better than nothing my ass! This is the fanciest room I've ever been in! I feel like a princess in here! But these two are weird. They could be perverts for all I know! Especially after asking if I wanted to sleep with them! _A thought then occurred to me. "If I'm not still a virgin, I promise to kill you two."

They rolled their eyes simultaneously. "Uh-huh."

"Whatever you say."

Their sarcasm was really making me angry. I had no desire to play around with these guys—especially after all that stuff I just went through. It's like the atmosphere completely changed—making the adjustment for me rather difficult. These two had no idea what I was feeling, which was why they were acting like total buffoons. When I thought about it, seeing that video reminded me of how awful those shadow things made me feel. I thought I had my emotions and past memories under control and locked up. But somehow, they brought it all back—all in one painful wave. It wasn't until I recalled the brief joy of being around Kyo, Inuyasha, and the others that I was finally able to get out.

Bringing my knees up to my chest, I lost my anger towards the twins and tried to put myself back in the place I was before Tohru came along.

Unfortunately, the two didn't give me the luxury of being left to myself. "So, is it a deal?"

"Yeah, whatever."

Suddenly, they both crawled onto the bed and stared at me—just inches from my face. Not feeling right looking into their faces like that, I tried to look somewhere else.

"We already got all of the paperwork filled out—"

"—so you can start tomorrow!"

"Don't you think it's a little soon? How can that even be possible? You two don't even know my name!" I told them in disbelief.

They laughed again. "It doesn't really matter."

"We can get a lot of things done since we're rich. Because of our status, questions regarding where you came from and stuff were completely overlooked." No one could possibly be that rich.

"We can fill in the blanks later. Besides, there's nothing like the present, right?

The one with the left part in his hair backed off and pointed to himself. "I'm Hikaru Hitachiin."

His twin with the right part followed suit. "And I'm Kaoru."

"Be warned, this may be the last time that we're actually honest about which one is which!" _Yay, I can't wait. Not only are they weirdoes, they're chumps._

Continuing to look away, I replied, "Akimoto Tsubaki. I prefer to be called Aki."

"Aki, huh? That's quite a name. Born in autumn huh?"

No answer.

"Now we've got our own personal witch!" Hikaru taunted.

"I'm a sorceress darn it! If you're going to flaunt my powers around—and you better not—at least get the title right! And I'm not your personal anything!"

"You are now." They grinned.

Kaoru came beside me and took hold of my arm. "Time for us to get going!"

Great. So these two were not only chumps and weirdoes, they were also pushy. "Going where? I thought you said I was going to school tomorrow?"

"We're not going to school _now_," Started Kaoru.

"We're going to get you a haircut. You know, to get you to look more presentable."

Opening my mouth in disbelief, I felt deeply offended. "What's wrong with my hair and how I look?" The last thing I needed was to be getting fashion advice from a couple of dumbbells. Gosh, it was even difficult to think straight with these two around!

"Nothing."

"Unless you like looking like a commoner."

On an impulse, I summoned my wand and aimed it at the terrible two. But instead of getting scared—especially after what they saw me do—they totally surprised me by flashing smiles. _They're supposed to be afraid. Why are they smiling? _

Both of them started to clap. _Okay, now their weird-o-meter has gone up significantly. _"Very impressive!" Praised Kaoru.

"But let's save the rest of the tricks for the Host Club."

Lowering my wand, a look of confusion ran over my face. "What's a…Host Club?"

At the same time, they replied, "You'll see!" More secrets. That's just what I needed. _First, I get emotionally teased by liking a guy then having him pulled from me, then Taiitsukun won't tell me a goddam thing about saving my life, and now Wonder Twins here are playing games. Man, I wish I could just scream to the universe! My life is so damn messed up!_

Deciding to not go completely insane—if it didn't happen already—I summoned my wand away. Sitting back into the bed, I started to rub my temples. "You know what? I'll come quietly, and completely ignore the fact that you called me a commoner. But first will you two leave the room so that I can collect myself?"

The both of them turned around, backs facing towards me, pretending to be sneaky. "Kaoru, I think we broke her."

"You may be right, Hikaru."

"I can hear everything you're saying you dolts!" I yelled while throwing a pillow at them. "Now leave!"

"I thought she said that she would come quietly," Kaoru told his brother as they started towards the door.

Shrugging, Hikaru turned to face me before he was completely out. "Here," he tossed me the small leather book that Taiitsukun gave me. "You dropped this."

Stunned by his selflessness—that I just realized he had a small fraction of—I gave a skeptical look. "What, you're not going to hold it for ransom just in case I decide to turn on ya?"

He smiled rather charmingly, causing me to blush a little. "Nah. Not this time. I think blackmail should be enough." Then the door was shut.

Exhaling deeply, I glanced at the spell book before picking it up. _What is wrong with those two?_ Part of me wanted to look inside of the book to see its secrets, but I suddenly didn't have the urge for magic at the moment. Slowly getting out of the bed, I walked toward the sunlit window. I just couldn't get over how big the room was—and so professionally decorated. Those two weren't kidding when they said how rich they were. This place was definitely making me feel like a commoner—although I would _never_ admit that to them.

Looking out of the window, I saw the cheery blue sky and cheery birds singing and flying carelessly—as if there weren't any problems in the world. All of this was just some sick sort of mocking game that the universe was pulling on me. This wasn't right. Everything shouldn't be so optimistic, especially after what had just happened. When I looked down, I noticed that I was somewhat high up, perhaps on the third story of a building. _**"You're in the guest room of our mansion." **_Okay…so mansion then. This made it official: I was staying with spoiled rich kids—spoiled, _annoying_ rich kids. With whom I'm being blackmailed by and forced to live and go to school with. When had I sunken so low?

Earlier, I had wondered how Kaoru and Hikaru even got the footage for the video. But now that I saw the garden I was admiring before the fight, it was obvious that they may have just recorded it from their room. _How the hell did I not notice a mansion? Damn, I must have really been out of it! Screw the fight, I was at the same time on an emotional roller coaster. _Leaning on the windowsill, I sighed. The moment that thing put its hand inside of me, those damn things made me remember everything I wanted to forget. For only a minute that seemed like hours, I had felt absolutely miserable. I seriously wanted to die.

Luckily and indirectly, Kyo and Inuyasha's essence saved me—using a light so warm that it made me forget all of my troubles. That light was what had kept me alive, even though I had no idea what it was or why it happened in the first place. Even if it did only last a few seconds, it was like every one of my worries was gone. It was unfortunate that all of the bad feelings came rushing back once the light dimmed out.

In times like this, it made me feel better to sing or at least hum a tune. Singing had been a sort of outlet I discovered years ago—helping me to slightly unwind. However considering my luck and those nosy twin weasels, no doubt their ears were up to the door listening to my every move.

_That actually sounds kind of creepy now that I think about it. Do I REALLY want to stay here? _I mulled it over in my head.

...

...

...

...

No, I really didn't but what choice did I have? The little twerps were blackmailing me. Apparently the rich had no class. And if the world was fair and I wasn't so nice and morals were a completely foreign concept to me, I would blast them both to kingdom come. _But we all know I wouldn't do a thing like that~ _The inevitable daydream of my wand sending out a bolt of lightning and charring them into twin kabobs invaded my mind. They'd be alive of course, I'm not so cruel as to have it otherwise. They'd just be extra crispy. But ya know, it was only a daydream and mainly for my own amusement in such a time of dread.

But then reality set back in only a short few seconds later.

Whatever.

It wasn't like I could completely be alone and on my own anyway...

And so I found myself only humming a sweet tune. I didn't exactly know what I was humming or if I made it up or not, but it popped into my head and needed an outlet. If only all of my troubles bottled up inside of me could somehow escape and be free as well. But alas, I would only be so lucky. Instead, I must be tormented with them as they like me so much to never leave. But I used to that...and disappointment. And boy was this whole new situation a whole lot of that.

Gazing outside the large window where the bright sun shone through, I realized how ironic the situation was. It was clearly a nice day outside-the kind of day that if it were personified, would be a very happy person. It was on days like this where people frolicked and lived their lives and made dreams come true.

Supposedly anyway.

My tune continued, even growing louder as I gained more confidence in my being truly alone.

I thought about Kyo with Tohru and Inuyasha with Kagome. I seriously wished for their happiness, but why did it always come down to my happiness versus someone else's? And why did happiness always seem to favor others but me? Mine has always been brief and in low amounts. But from the beginning, I hoped deep down inside that the status quo would change for me during this journey. I've already been let down twice in scenarios where I though that something might truly be going well for me. And things _were _going well. For the most part anyway.

_I don't know. _Maybe it was too early to tell. Maybe I was just being impatient. Can you blame me though? As with any story, I guess it was necessary for me to go through crap before I can get to the good stuff. The universe was dangling my potential happiness in front of my face and then yanking it away and cackling like the bitch I knew it was.

_I'll catch it one day and THEN we'll see who'll be laughing and whom. _

Feeling mildly more relieved, I forced a smile to get my mind thinking that maybe this world will be different. _Third times the charm, right? This could be the world where my wish will be granted!_ The universe wants me to be depressed, lose hope, and go back to my world wishing that I had never made that wish. But I wasn't willing to give up that easily. If I had to go through another school (and hopefully not destroy it this time) so be it. If this new journey meant a haircut—what the hell? I was starting to think that my hair was getting too long anyway. And since I'm a girl, new clothes are always accepted.

_Yeah that's right Akimoto. There's this thing called a silver-lining. Look at it every so often_, I tried to tell myself. _Easier said than done, _I then responded back.

Just as I was feeling optimistic, the usually invisible dark barrier around me flashed, flooding in negative emotions again.

_Please. I just want this to work out._


	11. Take a Crazy Chance

Dear Universe,

You suck. And I don't mean that in a jokingly way. You. Totally. Suck. Not only did you send me some dark welcome wagon that almost made me want to commit suicide, but you also dumped me at a house—no, mansion—containing two of the most _annoying_ guys _ever_. I am now being blackmailed by these two chumps, Hikaru and Kaoru, just because they caught me using magic with a stupid phone. Gosh, how much do I want to _crush_ that phone. But I can't, you want to know why? No, you already know why. It's all because those rich bastards made copies. Dammit.

The whole annoying thing is intensified because the two are identical twerps. Yep, I'm dealing with twins. Selfish, blackmailing, controlling, weird, possessive, annoying twins. ARGH! I wish I could just bury them in all of those videos they made of me! When I got here, I was depressed. Now, I'm just ticked off. What's worse is that they are making me stick around them and they won't leave me alone. I even have to go to school with them. Oh, what a joy that's going to be.

Shortly after I arrived, they really did take me to get a haircut. Now, my hair is about two inches from my shoulders, cut in layers to avoid it from looking like a boy's hairstyle. My side bangs remain long, but twins wanted to "see my eyes" so the long frontal bangs I was so usually proud of have been trimmed. I liked hiding behind them—they gave me a sense of successful cut-off from the world. Now I am fully exposed. The only upside to that whole make-over was that I got some new clothes. The truth is, I really don't want to accept anything from those two. But the fact of the matter is that I don't plan on staying in the same outfit all the time. Dammit times two.

Want to hear the fun part? This morning, I was in my new hotel, princess-like room, cursing you as usual, when suddenly, Hikaru and Kaoru came in all sneaky-like with a dress. But this dress was not an ordinary dress. It's my new school uniform. The dress is a creamy yellow and long, past my knees. It hugged my waist while puffing out with the skirt. The part where the sleeve meets the torso, you know, the shoulder region, was also puffy. And at the neck, there was a skinny red bow. Do you want to know my response after seeing that girly looking thing?

Hellllllllll no.

Somehow, they knew that I wasn't going to put it on easily. So their response was to flash the video in my face. When I started to curse them _and_ you, Hikaru and Kaoru left the room with sneaky smiles leaving two maids—who were also twins…ugh—who came in and tore my clothes off. Before I knew it, I was wearing the horrid dress as well as white stockings. While looking at myself in the mirror—with the biggest grimace ever—the twins came back in, stopping me just before I used my power to burn the sad waste of sewing materials. Inspecting the two closer, I saw that they were wearing their uniforms as well. They wore light blue blazers with white shirts, as well as black pants and a black tie with a purple stripe down the middle. On anybody else, I would've said that it was a pretty impressive looking uniform. But on them, I wanted to rip it all up.

Now, I'm in their stupid limo on the way to Ouran Academy. I can't stop thinking about the shadow things and my whole situation. Leaving such valuable friends still hurts…and the thought of having to do it again hurts even more. I would've loved to stay in one of those worlds. But the whole problem was those two girls, Tohru and Kagome. If I had never known about them, would I really have considered one of those two my one true love? I'm still not sure, and it sucks that I don't. Do I feel regret about leaving? I don't know that either. Taiitsukun definitely isn't making anything easy for me. I just wish that all of this wasn't so confusing. The wish of wanting to be as far away from these twins may or may not be stronger.

Love Always, With a HUUUUUGE amount of sarcasm,

Aki

P.S. I tried the whole flying thing that Taiitsukun suggested. Hovered above the ground for about ten seconds, then fell straight to the floor face first. You truly suck.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Aki. Why are you staring into space for?" Hikaru and Kaoru sat at both of my sides in the limo.<p>

I sighed without trying to sound too bitter. "Oh, just taking mental notes."

"Regarding what?"

No answer.

"C'mon Aki, lighten up! You get to go to school with us!" _Oh joy._

"It's gonna be fun! You'll see." Kaoru guaranteed. My response was to groan and continue staring out the window—watching all background images go by swiftly. I wasn't even completely sure if the one who spoke was Kaoru. Those two were freakin' identical and equally annoying. Not that I didn't have the ability to distinguish them—I mean, even twins have their differences, it was a matter of taking the time out to isolate them. The thing just was: I didn't care. But for the sake of not repeatedly saying "one of the twins said", I was just going to assign one of them a name whenever they spoke, not really giving a damn if I was right or not.

Don't give me that look. You probably think I'm being insensitive to them. How twins are "different people" and "individuals" and should be treated as such. Well, if you haven't caught onto the little _arrangement _they forced upon me, then have a nice time re-reading the past couple chapters. I was allowed to treat them however I wanted after they had the nerve to blackmail me.

Noticing Hikaru and/or Kaoru smirk, I tried my best to ignore him. "You know, if you smile more you'll make other friends. Things aren't as bad as you're making them out to be." Boy were they in for a big surprise about my character.

Glancing at him without turning my head, I reminded him, "You're blackmailing me. If you didn't even have that damn video, I wouldn't even be here."

"But since we did find out about you being a witch, you have to stick with us!"

Snapping my head towards him, I tried my best to make sure that I got my point across. "Sorceress!"

They both tried to look away innocently. "Yeah, what you said."

Clenching my fists, I resumed my attention back to the outside. _What is this new place gonna be like? _Any kind of school and I never really agreed with each other. My grades were always pretty much perfect—I wouldn't accept anything lower, and neither would my parents. You know, if they ever cared in the first place. Living in the shadow of my older sibling was never easy, but I had learned to accept it a long time ago. The sad thing about school was that studying was the simple part. Having to go to school with a bunch of other rejecting kids was difficult. It was hard to live with all of their eyes watching me every day as if I had some sort of disease. While it is true that I was taught not to trust anyone at a young age, barely anyone had tried to put in the effort of being my friend. However, because of the damned negative aura around me, people were constantly repelled no matter what happened. School was such a lonely place—home was too, but people there were forced to stay with me. My school in America was slightly better with the whole people-not-knowing-who-I-was thing. But even so, I still felt like an outcast and never got close to anyone. If Kyoko and Saru never came along, I probably would have never talked at all.

Aside from all that, the school I last went to with the Sohma's got totally desecrated—courtesy of the shadow creatures and yours truly. So, call me crazy if I think that going to yet another school is not the best idea.

But apparently my opinion doesn't matter.

Before I could wallow in self-pity any more, my eyes caught a glimpse of what seemed like the combination of a castle and…a…school. _Holy crap! Is that Ouran? _ It had building with up to four stories made of some impressive bright, sturdy marble. The colors were really welcoming and peppy, complemented by the flower gardens that surrounded it. Just by looking at it, I could already tell that this was a private, spoiled, rich-kids school. No school that looked as prestigious as that was public in any way. Just thinking about a school filled with a bunch of Hikarus and Kaorus made my body shudder.

I completely didn't notice that the limo had stopped because when I finally snapped out of my thoughts, the twins were already standing outside, welcoming me out. Some of the other students started to stop and see what the two were looking at.

Breathing in deeply, I decided to just get everything over with.

The sun was bright, shining in my face as I looked at Ouran Academy up close. I was still completely stricken with awe—this place was _really_ impressive. Not allowing me to gawk any longer, Hikaru and Kaoru looped their arms to mind to get me to start walking forward, through the large entrance gates.

While going throughout their business, I felt eyes staring at me—the new girl.

"Who's that with the Hitachiin twins?"

"Is she their cousin?"

"I wonder if the rest of the Host Club has seen her…"

"Aren't the twins looking super handsome today?"

"Hi Kaoru! Hi Hikaru!" Waved a group of seemingly fan-girls.

"Hello ladies!" They replied at the same time. _No way. These two are popular? What kind of twisted world is this?_

Seeing a lot of the eyes looking at me made me blush a little. I was never a fan of people staring at me—slightly self-conscious. Being in a crowd was never my thing, friends or not.

Just as things were getting awkward, we came to a complete stop. With a puzzled look on my face, I glanced up at the two.

"What is it?"

They exchanged sly smiles. _That's never good. _"I'm getting quite anxious. Should we move this along?"

"I agree completely." Before I could even blink, the both grabbed my arms and started to sprint at top speed into the building ahead. Everything we passed up was a blur at the high speed we were going. No matter how many times I told them to stop, they just kept going. If there was anything good about this whole ordeal, it was that I couldn't see the looks on the other students' faces. Past some kids, past some hallways, up some stairs, down another hallway, and up one more flight of stairs, we finally stopped.

Taking my arms back, I panted vigorously. "What the hell was that all about?"

"We wanted to get here faster."

"Get where?" Asking that question led to the double doors in front of us to open slowly, revealing a large, impressive room—brightly lit and completely furnished. In the middle of the room were four guys who looked around Kaoru, Hikaru, and my age. There was a fifth one that looked like a little kid—a little kid that sort of reminded me of Momiji. _Though I'm not completely sure why…_

A tall blonde guy with styled hair and deep purple eyes walked up, kneeling before me and gently took hold of my hand.

With a smooth voice, he spoke. "Welcome, princess, to the Third Music Room. We are the Host Club and are here to serve you." He then kissed my hand. I couldn't help but blush at the notion—while at the same time staring at the whole situation. _How embarrassing! And why is this guy calling me princess?_

Swiftly taking back my hand, I started to back up towards the door. Hikaru and Kaoru, unfortunately, wouldn't let me do that—they blocked my way.

"W-what is all of this?" I hesitantly asked.

"My dear, like I said, this is the Host Club and I am its king, Tamaki Suoh." _King? Well isn't he full of himself? _It was starting to seem like, when this guy spoke, it was like he was reciting poetry—with tons of over emphasized emotion. I wasn't completely sure if this was going to get on my nerves or not. This guy was making too much of a peppy atmosphere to really tell. "We've been waiting for you quite a while, princess. Would you please grace us with your name?"

"Umm…Akimoto…Tsubaki." I slowly told him. It was weird—I wasn't so used to someone acting this way towards me. The feeling was both comfortable and at the same time uncomfortable. He was so hospitable and charming that I couldn't really say anything witty or sarcastic.

"She prefers to be called Aki, boss." The twins explained at the same time.

"Ah…Akimoto…or even Aki. It's such a rich name reminding me of a calming and beautiful autumn night watching as the majestic leaves change colors. Your parents were geniuses for blessing you with such a name!" _Yeah…geniuses. If I know my parents, they may have just gotten a hat with a bunch of name parts, drew two pieces of paper, and BAM! you get Akimoto. _

"Uhhh…" For some reason, I could not find the right words to respond to what he had so fluently said.

"Hi Aki-chan! It's really nice to meet you!" _Great…they use honorifics here. I sort of left those in the dust after leaving for America._ The little boy with wavy dirty-blonde hair and big brown eyes came up to me with a huge smile on my face. What confused me was that he was wearing the high school uniform. _WTF? _He then brought up a big rabbit stuffed animal to my sight. "This is Usa-chan! He's also happy to meet you!" _Okay…so it's both the bunny and the personality that reminds me of Momiji!_

"Uhh…Hi?...umm…"

"Takashi! Come over and meet our new friend, Aki-chan!" The little boy signaled to a tall, rather buff good-looking guy with short, spikey black hair and sharp black eyes. When he walked up to me, I realized just how tall he was—really tall. Putting out his hand for me to shake, he quietly said hello. Shaking his hand, I stood there wondering what I should call the two.

One of the twins whispered into my ear. "The small one is Mitsukuni Haninozuka or 'Honey-senpai' for short."

"And the tall one is Takashi Morinozuka or 'Mori-senpai'."

"Ah." _Wait a second… _"Did you just call the kid 'senpai'?

"Yeah, he's a senior."

"As in, older than us." The twins had no idea how shocked I was to know that I was the same age as this little kid! Well, technically he's not a little kid is he? _Jeez, what stunted his growth? _ Looking at him, he gave me one of the widest smiles I had ever seen. _OMG, he is soooo adorable! Just like Momiji is!..was. _The mere thought of the Sohma left me feeling a bit depressed again. At this time, I would have been at Kaibara with Kyo, Yuki, Haru, and Momiji—well, actually, given that I pretty much caused a good chunk of the school to be destroyed, I might not have been allowed back...but at least I still would have been with the Sohmas. The truth was however, that they didn't even know who I was anymore.

Looking away from all of them, I temporarily tuned them all out until Mitsukuni tugged onto my sleeve cuff. "Are you okay, Aki-chan?"

"Umm…I'm not sure—"

"Alas! What do we do? Poor Aki is sick! Kyouya, you must heal her somehow!" Tamaki over dramatized.

That was when a rather attractive guy with slightly messy, yet neat black hair and cunning dark-grey eyes and almost-invisible glasses made his way to the front of the mini crowd. Looking at me intensely, he adjusted his glasses, then leaned back with his arms crossed.

"She isn't sick, you idiot. Just calm down." Clearing his throat, he extended his hand to shake and I took it. "I am Kyouya Ootori. But I am more interested to know how a witch came into our midst."

I could faintly hear the twins snickering behind me. _A…witch? _

Turning around, I grabbed the twins' collars and pushed them back into the now closed double doors. "You guys promised to not tell anyone!" Turning my head back to Kyouya and the others, I stated, "And I am a sorceress. Not a witch."

The two of them didn't seemed fazed by my obvious threat. "We did promise that—"

"But we promised after you woke up. Before you even gained consciousness, we told the rest of the Host Club and showed them the video."

"So technically, we didn't break the promise. Believe us when we say that we didn't tell a soul after you woke up."

Growling, I tightened my grip. "Is there anyone else you failed to tell me about that you blabbed to?"

Pretending to think about it, I felt them shrug under my fists. "Nope! Can't think of anyone else!"

Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I took my attention off from the twins and spin back around only to have Tamaki get close and put a finger under my chin, lifting my face to his. "Princess Aki, don't fret. We would never tell anyone of your unique secret. I believe a lady as mysterious as you is a like a rare, precious gem that deserves to be kept a secret from those who would abuse you!" _The fact that these clowns aren't shocked that I'm practically a super-human totally astounds me. I'll bet that they had their whole stupefied-trip when I was still off in coma land somewhere. _"As king, I promise this on behalf of the entire Host Club!"

Noticing a bit of movement in the background, one more person joined our little "investigate Aki" group. This guy had short brown hair and big, non-energetic brown eyes as well as a small…somewhat curvy…figure…I mean...not totally curvy...barely noticeable...but there was a hint of curves. He also had a…feminine face…what? _Wait a minute._

"Tamaki-senpai, I think that you're being too eccentric here," That person said with an exasperated sigh. "You need to calm down."

While silently thanking that "guy", I remembered to ask a question. "What exactly is a Host Club anyway?"

Stepping back from me, he ran his hand through his blonde locks staring up at some random space, with a gleam in his eye. "The Host Club is basically a group of strikingly handsome young men who enjoy making young women—such as yourself—happy every day. We live to see the joy in a woman's heart!"

"You see, Akimoto—do you mind me calling you that?" Kyouya asked. I shook my head. _I guess not. Especially since he asked nicely. _"This club appeals to the interests of young women by using and taking advantage of each members' unique personality traits."

"Meaning what?"

He sighed. "Honey-senpai is the Loli-shota type, Mori-senpai is the Wild Type, or more accurately, the Strong, Silent type, Hikaru and Kaoru are the Little Devil type, they classify me as the Cool Type, Tamaki is the Prince type, and Haruhi Fujioka here," He pointed to the "fellow" with short brown hair and the nonchalant atmosphere, "attracts our clients with his Natural Type."

Eyeing Haruhi top to bottom, I smirked. "A group filled with young_ men_, huh?" I pointed to Haruhi. "If that's true, then why is there a _girl_ in the club?" The moment I said that, all of them stiffened up. It was mostly a hunch, but noticing their reactions, I'd say I was spot on.

The twins laughed nervously. "A girl? What do you mean? You're the only girl in here."

Chuckling slightly, I walked up to Haruhi and looked _her_ in the eyes. "Yup, definitely a girl. You guys can't fool me, she even looks like a girl!" _To me, boys' eyes and girls' eyes looked different from each other, and Haruhi here is definitely a chick. _Taking in their stares and uncomfortable shifts, I continued. "Are you seriously telling me that people were stupid enough to not know that Haruhi's a—" The twins immediately slapped their hands on my mouth and ran me away from the door.

"You have to keep quiet about this. Everyone at this school thinks that Haruhi's a guy and we'd like to keep them thinking that!" _But she's so obviously a girl! I mean, she has curves! Slight, faint curves. But curves nonetheless._

For the second time, Haruhi spoke with a somewhat stoic tone in her voice. "I really don't mind if she knows you guys. I mean, it's the least we could do for her after finding out her secret. Besides," She glared at the twins, "it's not cool to be blackmailing her. You can't possibly expect her to be friends with you guys this way."

Switching from me to Haruhi, they hug her simultaneously. "Aww…Haruhi, don't be so mean to us."

"We're actually doing the right thing!" In what universe was this the "right" thing?

With a look of slight skepticism on her face, she responded to what they had said. "I know you two may think that, but you're completely wrong."

"I know what's wrong, you're jealous that she's gonna be our new object of affection!" One of the twins told her.

"But don't worry, you'll always be our favorite Ha-ru-hi!"

Sighing once more, Haruhi closed her eyes. "You two are crazy."

"You two stop hogging Haruhi!" Tamaki yelled. The twins responded by hugging her tighter. Tamaki panicked some more and flailed around.

"What a second!" Everyone stopped what they were doing to look at me. Analyzing the whole situation, I realized something important that could potentially get me out of all of this insanity. "Now, we both have a secret that we don't want getting out to the public! Let me leave and I won't tell anybody, deal?" Thinking that I'd give them some time to think about it, Kyouya surprisingly answered swiftly.

"No deal. You see, Akimoto, you need to weigh the significance of both secrets. If you were to tell everyone of Haruhi's true gender, then there would be a buzz about for probably a few weeks to about a month. But if we were to tell of your secret, the information would be broadcasted all over the world of a real magic-user. Scientists would want to study you and the governments of all countries would probably be fighting over who would get to own you and your abilities. It would probably take years for the talk about you to cease." Noticing my grimace, Kyouya decided to keep going. "In other words, you still have more to lose here than we do."

_Dammit, he's right! I was so close too! _Erasing all looks of shock from their faces, the twins immediately changed it to a look of amusement. Resting their elbows on my shoulders, they decided to smugly make a statement.

"We'll admit that you had us worried for a second there."

"But thanks to Kyouya-senpai, we have nothing to fear!"

Narrowing my eyes at them, I groaned. "You got lucky."

Haruhi gave me a small smile. "It's nice to have another girl here who knows the real me. It gets kind of tiring with just the guys." _I'll bet it does. Why the heck would a girl agree to dress up as a guy anyway? Nah, I won't ask. Not now. My stamina is slowly depleting from being around this club and the school day hasn't even started yet!_

"Hey, boss!"

"Yes, Hikaru?"

"Kaoru and I have an offer you can't refuse!"

This seemed to peak Tamaki's interests. "What would that be?"

Putting their arms around my shoulders, they extended their other arm out in a proclamation-like way. At the same time, they exclaimed, "Akimoto Tsubaki should join the Host Club!"

_What?_

"WHAAAAAT?" A bunch of girls came crashing through the door and feel to the ground in all of the chaotic-ness. _Were they…eavesdropping? _ _Don't these girls have lives? Kyouya said the word "witch" too quietly for the girls to hear, but when I almost said the sentence "Haruhi is a girl", the twins must have known that the girls were there. That's why they got me away from the girls so fast! Huh. They're more perceptive than I thought._

"Tamaki!" A girl with light brown, burnt orange hair and brown eyes wearing a big pink bow recovered from the fall and stood up immediately. "As the official Host Club's manager, I strongly advise against making this girl a Host Club member! I mean, she's a girl! It just won't work! Besides, she's not moe enough or even well-known to really even be considered. In other words, it's a big no-no!"

Even though I didn't really have the desire to join the Host Club, this girl was really getting on my nerves. Who the heck was she to decide what I could and couldn't do? After all, she obviously wasn't important enough to even be invited to my little "welcome" meeting. Honestly, though, the only thing stopping me from giving this cocky chick the argument—and potentially beating—of a lifetime was the fact that I didn't want to expose my own secret on such petty terms and that it seemed to be way too early to already be making enemies. Because of Hikaru and Kaoru's big mouths, word will spread to the school that I had been invited to join the Host Club. Seeing all the girls at the door made me realize just how popular these guys really were. I've seen scenarios like this before. There's a real popular guy that all the girls like. Once a girl comes along and takes him, all the girls become jealous and hate the girl because she had won the guy. Looking for a new life, I wasn't interested in having people hate me—especially not on the first day. If there was a good-enough reason for people to hate and repel me, which was pretty much going to happen in this scenario anyway, let it be because of the dark aura around me—not some stupid rumor.

Walking away from the Hosts and towards the door, I stopped in front of the loud-mouthed "manager". "You have nothing to worry about. I have no interest in becoming one of them. They are obnoxious and weird. Why you guys like them so much, I will never know. Later!" Swiftly going pass the girls, I heard some whispers.

"What makes her so special?"

"She just got here."

"A girl in the Host Club?"

"I've secretly wanted to be a Host, but never thought I could."

"She gets to be with Tamaki and the others all the time!"

"She just wants to get close to them."

_I don't have to listen to this! _I quickened my pace down the hallway after hearing a few of the Hosts shout something towards my direction. Fortunately for me, there were enough girls blocking the door for the guys to be barricaded long enough for me to get away.

* * *

><p>Laying on my back, facing the sky, I watched as a few stray clouds slowly hover in the direction of the blowing wind. I had managed to get away from everything and everyone by hiding on the roof of one of the Ouran buildings. No one had been able to find me—had they been searching for me in the first place. <em>I honestly think that if they really wanted to find me, they would have. <em>It had been a few hours since the whole fiasco in the Third Music Room, which made this the only peace I've had since meeting the _irritating_ twins. _Okay, so I've missed a good chunk of the school day. Oh well. I didn't even want to come to this school anyway. The more time away from the Hosts—and those easily-swooned girls—the better._

I was having doubts about this whole thing. Twice had I been pulled away from a world that I liked way more than my own. Taiitsukun said that I could stay in a world if I had found my true love—at that point, my world would un-freeze and resume with their lives. Akimoto Tsubaki would just be a memory. That whole idea sounded fantastic—I had no regrets about leaving that world behind. The only person I ever really cared about and who cared about me was gone forever. Without them around, my life had gone from bad to horrible. Now I'm on a journey to fill that void—to find someone who can stand everything that's wrong with me, someone who would be willing to withstand the darkness that surrounds me. For once in my life, I want to know what it's like to be happy. If this whole world switching thing keeps up, I'll never get my wish.

But why had the first two worlds been such duds? I cared about Inuyasha and Kyo, and maybe I could have stayed with one of them—even after seeing Kagome and Tohru. The only problem being that my conscious put me against the idea. Something in the back of my head told me that there was something better for me out there. I just had to be willing to put out the effort to find it.

Closing my eyes, I planned on dozing off for a while. But my plans were disrupted when I heard faint footsteps coming from the stairs. I could have moved, but honestly, were could I go? Flying was definitely out with the whole "crashing to the floor" thing wasn't such a big risk. _Damn. I've really got to perfect that if I want to get farther away than just the roof of the school._

I groaned. "If it's Kaoru, Hikaru, or both of them, I swear I will blow you right off of this roof."

"You want to be alone?" A familiar female voice said. The girl's head came up to where I was laying—her shadow providing shade from the sun.

"Oh, it's you Haruhi." I calmed down a bit. _At least it's not the twins. _"I prefer you over other options." Realizing how she seemed like the rational one of the group, if anything, her and I would most likely end up getting along the best.

She sat down next to me, seemingly brushing off what I had said. "You've missed your classes."

"Yup."

"I know, the Hosts can be a bit exasperating." _Understatement. _"The twins can also get on ones nerves."

Turning to face her, I saw how she was looking at some clouds in the distance. "Why do you put up with all of it? Why are you pretending to be a boy?"

"Mostly to pay off a debt that I owe. The whole thing is pretty ridiculous." Why would a rich person need to pay off a debt? Trying to think of possible reasons as to how this could be so, Haruhi responded as if by reading my mind. "I got into this school on a scholarship. I'm not outrageously rich like the other hosts and majority of this school." Ah. That's how. Haruhi must be pretty smart to get into a school like this—which brings up the previous question as to why the heck she was cross-dressing.

"So…you're a 'boy' here because…?"

"I don't really mind what gender they think I am. As long as they can see the real me, I believe details like that don't really matter."

Thinking that through, I was beginning to like Haruhi far more than the others—namely the twins (Okay, I'll admit that Takashi and Mitsukuni weren't that bad. Takashi barely even spoke). She had a sort of deepness to her that seemed to lose any anxiety and make me calm down.

_**As long as they see the real me… **_

If only they saw the real me.

I sat up. "I don't want to be a Host. I really don't want to cut my hair shorter and dress up as a boy to impress some girls."

"No one said you had to do those things. And the girls aren't that bad. They are actually, for the most part, pretty nice." I had the intention of telling her to remember what they had said about me. But it was crucial for me to remember that my influence on people tend to make any of their negative emotions stronger than usual. It wasn't completely their fault that they got mad like that. But just because I'm used to that happening, doesn't mean that I like to experience it every time.

"Why me? Why would the universe point me towards the Host Club?" I sort of asked this to myself, but it ended up being said out loud.

"The universe? I don't know about that, but Hikaru and Kaoru seem to like you and think you're interesting. Sure the way they're going about it is all wrong, but they have their own way of doing things. I can't say for sure, and I don't know your situation, but maybe the universe or whatever thinks that this is a good thing. I've learned to just go with the flow, you know?"

_Go with the flow, huh? Is it really that easy? _Deciding to hide my thoughts, I smirked and changed the subject slightly. "It really seems like you're the twins' favorite. I'm just their play-thing."

Chuckling slightly, she began to stand up. "I have a feeling that that is the exact same thing I am."

I initially didn't plan on getting up with her, but the sound of two people running up the stairs interrupted my plans. The different-as-night-and-day pairing of Mitsukuni and Takashi came up to face us with looks of semi-concern.

"Haru-chan! Oh, hi Aki-chan! We were wondering where you were. We're glad you're—"

Takashi cleared his throat. "Mitsukuni."

"Oh yeah! It's horrible you guys! Only a small few of the girls actually came by the room!"

"What's so bad about that?" It was a possibility that the girls were mad at them. Frankly, I couldn't see why _that_ many girls would want to spend their time in that huge, stuffy room anyway.

Haruhi turned to me. "I know it's a little hard to believe, but a good chunk of girls reserve a spot in their day everyday just to spend with the Host Club. The fact that there is so few now sounds a bit…out of character for them."

"Well, where are they?"

"We don't know! We can't find any of our clients anywhere! The whole Host Club has been looking for them! Tama-chan however…is too depressed to do anything, so is sulking in the corner of the club room. He may be under the impression that all of the ladies are hiding from him. Usa-chan and I tried to cheer him up, but he wouldn't move. He just mumbled something about 'being failure as a king' or something."

Haruhi faced me. "Do you think that it's serious?"

"Hard to tell." _It's probably nothing. _I sighed. "But I guess I'll help you guys look for them. Haruhi, why don't you try to pry your leader up from the floor so that he could help too."

She didn't look too enthused at the command, but agreed. I could've done it…but that Tamaki guy bothered me a bit. Remembering how that guy was all dramatic and…so willing to be overly nice stirred unusual feelings inside me.

After rushing down the stairs, the four of us separated into separate directions. Even though it was true that I didn't know the school and how to get around, but when you're looking for lost people, did it really matter? After all, they could have been _anywhere_.

Other students watched as I scrambled around, opening random doors while looking for familiar faces from the mob of girls anywhere. Luckily, my odds of running into the twins were pretty slim considering the Host Club was spread out across the school looking for their clients. Was the Host Club really that big a deal around that school? They must have been if so many girls constantly went out of their way to see those guys plus Haruhi every day. I saw the looks that the girls around school gave those guys—they absolutely adored them. This was quite evident especially after those girls figured that eavesdropping was the right way to go when a new girl shows up to school. With that kind of adoration, girls like that wouldn't just abandon something they care about that much. Something must be up.

Suddenly, a flash of bright red appeared in my vision.

I saw the girls from earlier—and others I didn't—locked up in some dark, ragged room. They were on the floor with ropes tied around them all individually—they had terrified looks on their faces, some were even crying. There wasn't any sound coming from the scene, but I imagined that I would be hearing sounds of sorrow and panic.

In another flash of light, I blinked and found myself back in the hallways of Ouran.

Ordinarily, I'd sit there and wonder what the hell that was. But it was obviously a vision showing me what had happened to the girls. There wasn't any time to revel at the fact that I just had a vision. I knew that those girls were in trouble—deep trouble.

I'll question the universe later.

Sprinting even faster than before, I managed to finally crash into a Host Club Member. It was the oh-so charismatic Kyouya.

"Ah, Akimoto. Here you are—"

"Save the whole explanation—I was already told everything."

"It's not that. Do you know how much trouble we went through after you left those girls with us? It took us forever to calm them down—a waste of time. Now our clients are missing altogether." He gave me a stern look.

"Look, I'm not the reason for their disappearance and I don't have the time to debate with you about that. Do you know about some room or building in this school that's really messed up or abandoned?"

Taken aback by my concerned turn-around of the conversation, he quickly recovered. "I don't know why it holds any significance to the current situation."

"Just tell me please."

"On the east side of the school, near the courtyard, there was a chemistry lab where a student accidently mixed the wrong chemicals, sending in the whole building ablaze. Now the building is getting ready to be demolished for a completely new one. It has been completely taped off and students aren't allowed inside. Why do you ask—"

Having the information I needed, I dashed in the direction in which he told me.

* * *

><p>Ignoring my lungs' need of oxygen and legs crying for help—after running my brains out—I reluctantly stepped into the forsaken building. It had broken windows and the whole exterior showed signs of fire damage. The inside was even worse. The hallways were deprived of all of the cheery colors that the other buildings at Ouran had. Everything was completely charred—the only sign of there ever being things there were piles of ash and wreckage. There was even a smoky stench totally consuming the place. <em>Boy did someone do a number on this place. <em>

Trying to listen for any human sounds, I was led into a dull-lit hallway deep inside. Prepping my wand, I prepared for the worse. _Would those shadow creatures take hostages? Nah. At least I don't think so. Besides, I don't sense their presence. _

"Stop crying you bitches! No one can hear you!"

The shout came from some guy further down the hallway. Quietly rushing to a slightly opened door, I peeked inside.

There were the girls, all sitting tied up on the floor, crying—just like in my vision. The only difference was that there were about six big guys wearing the school uniform surrounding them. Some of them were twirling around knives. _Oh, so humans did this!_

"Please. Let us go! Our fathers will give you all the money you want. Just please let us go!" Cried one of the hostages.

One of the guys sneered. "We don't want your money."

The girl who yelled at me earlier with the big pink bow spoke. "This is just like one of those manga where the helpless love-interest gets captured by the villain and awaits the appearance of her knight to take them out and carry her off into a happily ever after! This just has to happen! We can't just die like this!"

"Shut up!"

"Tamaki will come and save us!"

"Honey and Mori would never allow this to happen!"

"The Host Club will be our valiant princes!"

Pointing the sharp part of a blade at the girls' throats they all immediately went quiet.

"Your precious Host Club won't be coming for you. Why do you girls think we did this? All the babes in this school are always making googly eyes at those punks in that stupid club. None of us ever get any action anymore!"

"Making you girls believe that you got love letters from Suoh and tricking you here was so easy! You sort of made us believe that you were anxious to meet us. After all, _no one_ is that naïve."

"Now that we've got you all to ourselves, nothing is stopping us from having a little fun." One of the guys started to touch and feel one of the crying girls. She cringed while he grinned. "You lovely ladies wouldn't want us to be deprived, right? It's the woman's job to please the man after all…" _Tch. _It was chauvinistic talk like that that i absolutely could not stand. And it was unforgivable when jerks like that treated women as their property.

"_Seoshi!" _A tough dome of energy surrounded the girls, repelling the guy's advances. For my safety, I tried my best to make the barrier as invisible as I could.

"What the hell was that?" The guy roared, still trying to get close to them. Him obviously too stupid to realize that that wouldn't work.

Kicking open the doors open, everyone in the room gasped. Feeling pretty confident, I decided to go for the classic witty banter. "You boys haven't been playing very nice. It's time I gave you a time out." Yeah, it was cheesy. Do I care? Not really. The situation kind of called for it.

"Who's the wench?"

"Oh my gosh, why is it that whenever I go to a new place, someone calls me that? Can't you bad dudes ever come up with a better noun? Or is your vocabulary _that_ limited?"

"Why you little—"

"Who is that?" One of the girls anxiously asked.

"Is that the girl from earlier? What was her name...Tsubaki something?"

"Don't stay here! Go get help!" One of them shouted towards me.

Giving the girls a reassuring smile, I tried to comfort them the best I could, putting behind me the hateful words they said earlier. "Don't you girls worry. I'll take care of these guys. All I need you to do is close your eyes."

They started to cry again. "But…"

"Please close your eyes. And this will all be over soon. I'll make sure that nothing bad happens to you." I needed their eyes close so that they don't see me using magic. _The problem is…these chumps will see everything. One crazy guy speaking of magic is one thing, he'd just be labeled as insane. But six crazy guys who conveniently saw the same thing aren't so crazy. They're witnesses. Damn. I just realized that fighting normal humans is a huge pain in the ass!_

Summoning my wand away, I decided to go about this a different way.

"Ha! You think that you can handle all of us, girlie? Who are you anyway? I've never seen you around school."

"Whoever she is, she's kinda cute in a plain-looking way." _Those bastards. _"You think she's a fan of the Host Club?"

While stretching out another length of rope, one of the punks menacingly smirked. "Not anymore." _I can't believe I'm fighting for girls for the Host Club against guys for the girls against the Host Club. Wow. _

Taking out six highly built guys would be a challenge without my complete magic arsenal. I wasn't even sure if I could handle this without it. As the guys inched towards me, a realization came to my attention. Whenever I got angry in the past, my Wind element would go haywire and cause nothing less than a mini cyclone. And all of that was without a wand. If I could manage to use that power and still somehow conceal myself, I could get out of this mess!

"Look at her. She's too scared to even run."

_Don't flatter yourselves. _

Concentrating harder than ever, I tried to focus my magic in one spot. If I lost control with Wind like usual, I may end up doing more harm than good—and I couldn't risk the safety of the girls. Since I wasn't sure how long the _Seoshi _spell would last without my wand, I had to focus quickly.

One of them finally had the courage to come at me quickly, knife pointed straight for my chest. Dodging, I managed to avoid the slash. Unfortunately for me, he recovered way too fast and went for me again. Running to the other side of the room, thinking of a plan was becoming more and more of an obstacle. The girls could obviously hear the commotion and were starting to stir and panic. Whether or not they were actually closing their eyes was becoming less and less significant—because right now, using magic was totally out.

As my mind wandered, the crazy guy managed to get his knife through the fabric of my dress—almost cutting through to my shoulder (_This'll be the one and only time I say this, but thank GOD for poofy shoulders on a dress!_). Losing my balance, I fell to the floor, unable to get away. The guy with the rope came up from behind and started to violently wrap it around my upper torso. Trying with all of my might, I managed to summon a gust of wind to blow them both away.

There was no doubt in my mind that if this continued, I'd tire out before they did. That was just a predictable reality due to my sad physical capabilities. So I had to get creative real quick if I wanted to make it out of this alive. Finally thinking of an idea, I rapidly got to my feet and concentrated the Wind to certain parts on my body. This was my only chance to take the offensive as the guys were recovering from the wind blast. _I can do this. I have to! _Extending both of my fists from my body, I called forth Wind to my possession. Just as I planned, mini, circular gusts of wind surrounded my fits. Dashing towards the one who went at me first, I uppercut him in the jaw, making the wind shooting him up through the ceiling.

_This is the...Tornado Fist! _Another came at me, but not fast enough. Punching him in the stomach, he went flying across the room, crashing into the wall, completely knocking him out. Sensing a presence from behind, I swung a back kick, raising him up into the air, turning and kicking him with the essence of Wind into the closest wall and to the next room.

Seeing two guys with knives come at me from two sides, I used Wind to leap up high and, as they were shocked, punching them into the ground, creating a crater from the weight of the Wind-blast. Right as I was at the top of my game, there was a loud, violent _Bang!_ as something sharp and hot grazed the side of my face. Stopping in my place, a stinging pain sensation came from my cheek. Raising my hand to it, I brought my fingers to my attention, witnessing the tips stained with blood.

_He almost shot me in the head! Another inch to the side and I would've been done for! _With my concentration ruined, all essence of Wind escaped from me. At that point, I was standing there with a gun pointed at me. _Are you kidding me? After all of this, I'm gonna be wasted by a gun? WTF?_

I knew that being scared would have been the appropriate reaction, but I was slightly angrier at the fact that I overlooked the idea of one of these psychos having a gun. Nothing I could have done at that point would have been a fast enough reaction to a bullet.

I was out of ideas.

The maniac walked closer, still pointing his weapon. When he had gotten close, he fiercely back-handed me, causing me to hit the ground.

He laughed maniacally. "I don't know what you are, but now, you and all of the other girls belong to me. The Host Club will never steal my women again!" Hearing this, the girls screamed even more than before.

Feeling an odd sensation deep inside of me, my vision began to go dark, eventually making everyone appear as shadows like before. But this time, each one of them seemed to be moving slowly while I was moving at regular speed. The dark ring around me began to pulsate. Lifting my hand to the slowed shadow, a dark blast of energy shot out and knocked him down to his knees. Feeling the need to make him suffer, I walked up to him and grabbed his collar. Darkness began to consume his body as he gasped for air. Developing a slight headache, I blinked as my vision began to clear. Looking into my enemies' eyes, I saw how his pupil was dilated and his breathing was slowed—I could feel the rate of his heart coming to a stop. Feeling alarmed and scared, I released him and allowed him to fall to the ground.

Shaking, I thought about what I almost did. _What was that? I felt alone and cold all over. It wasn't the same as sensing the shadow creatures. It was unlike anything I've felt before. I was totally overrun with hatred and dread. I never want to feel that again. Luckily it only lasted for a second…_

Before any more thoughts could go through my head, a bunch of policemen came rushing through the door. As they headed towards the girls, I made the barrier around them disappear completely. While they were being untied and explain things to the cops, I dropped to the ground on my knees with relief and exhaustion. I heard someone at the door with a smug look on his face.

"Just take all of the unconscious men away. All of these girls' fathers will deal with these guys as they see fit." It was Kyouya. I never bothered to turn around and see him—the unnatural chill still coursed through me, making me clench my body for warmth. This chill didn't come from the shadow creatures—it was a familiar chill, but not quite the same—it came from whatever was inside of me that tried to come out. Whatever it was scared the hell out of me.

"Kyou-chan!" Mitsukuni came running into the room—which probably meant that Takashi wasn't too far away. "All of the girls really were here, huh? How did you know?"

"Our little sorceress gave me the tip," He said smugly.

"Kyouya-senpai!"

"Are the ladies all right?" The sound of Hikaru and Kaoru's voices rang through my ears. I honestly lacked the strength to deal with those two at the moment.

"They are all fine. Akimoto dealt with everything right before we all got here—at least I assume she did."

Still refusing to turn around, I heard footsteps coming my way. Unexpectedly, my back and shoulders were covered by one of the lilac blazers. I looked up to see that one of the twin's had taken theirs off to give to me. They squatted down to my level and smiled. As I sat there confused, the one who had given me his jacket patted my head.

"You really had us scared there. We had lost you earlier, then you end up at the scene of this crime. You just have to make us keep guessing about you, huh?"

The other chimed in. "But we are glad that you're okay. And saving the ladies was a huge bonus. Thanks for doing that." My face started to flush a little.

"We knew that we keep you around for something!"

As he said that, my sudden calmness around them was gone and I scoffed. "I didn't do this for you guys. It was the right thing to do—"

"MY PRINCESSES! I AM OVERJOYED TO KNOW THAT YOU'RE OKAY!" Tamaki came rushing into the room with a goofy smile on his face. Hurrying towards the girls, Haruhi came in from behind—in no rush at all. As he leapt in their direction, all of the girls immediately stood up and came over to me. "My princesses…?" Tamaki's voice trailed off.

All of them surrounded me.

"Aki, you were amazing!"

"You saved our lives!"

"You were soooo cool!"

"OH MY GOSH! I never thought I'd meet someone as amazing as you!" The girl with the bow exclaimed. "Heroines like you only exist in manga, but here I am witnessing someone as awesome as you!" She ran over to Tamaki.

"Ah, my dear Renge—"

"Tamaki, how could you refuse Aki into the Host Club! You're so selfish! As your manager, I strongly advise her to join. She would be the coolest Host—or...Hostess ever!" All of the girls cheered to that. I vigorously blushed at all of the attention. Just this morning, all of these girls hated me, so I knew that they only like me now because I saved their lives. That's what part of me wanted to think. The other part was able to feel something warm throughout my body. It was such an odd…yet pleasant feeling. In a way, it felt like the dark aura around me had dimmed tremendously—as if I had relieved a bunch of negative pressure. If that was true, then the girls weren't being influenced by it at the moment.

"Well I—" Tamaki began to say.

"Let her be a Hostess!" They all shouted.

Regaining his composure, he faced me as the twins helped me stand up. "Well, Aki. Would you like to be a Host?"

Seeing everyone with their smiles, I looked beyond them all and saw Haruhi lock eyes with me. _Well…why not? I'll need something to do while I'm here._

"I still think the whole thing is weird..but…what choice do I really have...I guess I'll do it." All of the girls bombarded me with hugs—yet another sensation and gesture that I wasn't familiar with. _This will take some getting used to._ And yet part of me didn't want to get used to it. This kind of treatment was much too far out of my comfort zone.

"Then it's official! Akimoto Tsubaki, starting right now, you are a Hostess!"

* * *

><p>At the end of the day—and at the end of all the commotion—the six guys were carried off to hopefully some cold, dark place, never to see the light of day again. The girls were taken home and my cheek wound was cleaned and bandaged.<p>

I sat in what was, starting tomorrow, going to be my club room as well. The fact that I was actually something I was cursing at the beginning of the day made my head spin even more. What I really wanted to do was just go to my room and collapse on my bed. Once again, the twins disrupted my plans.

"In commemoration of you being a Host, we would like to play a game."

I sighed. "What is it?"

They both put on black hats and scrambled before stopping in front of me. "It's the Which One of Us is Hikaru Game!"

"Seriously?" I asked, leaning my arm on the arm rest and holding my cheek in my palm in disinterest. _They would make a game like that. _Before they even explained the game, the rules were obvious: Guess which twin was which. I had to think fast.

"The object of the game is quite simple—"

Pointing my finger at the one who just spoke, I told them, "You're Hikaru and," Pointed to the other, "you're Kaoru."

They had shocked looks on their faces. "How did you know? Only Haruhi was ever able to get it that quickly."

_Because I'm a badass. _Well, actually, I still never took the time out to distinguish one twins personality and then associate it with a name. Whether or not I gave a damn, there was no denying the subtle differences between the two. My problem was still that they were identical and with them continually moving around, I hadn't been able to tell them apart just yet. So when faced with a challenge such as this, I did what every other great mind does when being faced with a conundrum on the spot: I guessed. Guessed, and then pretended as if I knew what I was talking about. "Quite simply actually. It's true that in many senses, you two are identical, but you have things about you that are different. I may not have known you two very long, but I can tell the differences. Ever since you guys introduced yourselves, I made sure to keep an eye on you two so that I could study you're differences. The thing that really tipped me off was when you guys warned me to remember which one was which, remember?" They exchanged glances. "One of the differences I noticed was that your voices are _slightly_ different." Which did seem true. I could hear a difference every now and then, I just didn't think I was focusing on it much. "Hikaru's is a little deeper." _I think._ "Not only that, when you guys do that whole annoying thing around me, Hikaru tends to be the one to say the comments that infuriate me the most." _Probably__._ "Aside from the twin charade, I can tell that Kaoru is a bit mellower." _That sounded...somewhat correct, right? _

For once, I managed to shut the two of them up. I couldn't help but smile at the victory. It was a faux victory, but a victory nonetheless. And if I ever wanted to back up this victory, I would eventually be forced to tell the two apart before they had the chance to call my bluff.

"Hey, that's the first time you smiled since you got here." Kaoru pointed out. "I never would have thought what a cute one you had."

Trying to conceal it, I turned away. "Shut up."

"Well Kaoru, maybe we should tell her the good news while she's so happy. I wonder if she can handle it." The fact that they became so smug again scared me. My grin wilted.

"Handle what?"

With a dramatic pause, then loudly exclaimed, "You're going to be in the same class as Haruhi and the both of us!"

_WHAT?_

Haruhi walked by casually. "Oh, really? I didn't know she was with us too."

"Yup! We handled her paperwork, remember?" Hikaru guaranteed.

"I'm going to be in the same senior class as you two?"

The room got quiet.

"Senior…class?" All of them said at once.

I gave a confused look. "Yeah. I'm seventeen years old. Where I come from, I'm a senior in high school." Getting the hint of their silence, I shot my head towards Hikaru. "What grade did you put me in?"

"Well, me, Kaoru, and Haruhi are all tenth graders so…"

Remembering the grading system in Japan, I exploded at them. "You made me a freshmen? You couldn't bother to wait until I woke up to get my age information?"

The twins looked away all weasel like. "It doesn't really matter."

"We probably would have put you in our class regardless of your age. Things will be more interesting with the four of us in there."

"Change. It." I ordered.

"Nah."

"Do it! Or else I will."

Holding up their cell phone, I froze. Hikaru smirked. "Oh look, in just one push of a button, your video will be uploaded to the internet." He sang.

_Dammit! I hate those twins. _


	12. With Friends Like These

"Welcome ladies! Today the Host Club would like to celebrate a very important, sacred, and magical day to women everywhere! A day that goes down in history in every lovely ladies' heart: Their wedding!" Tamaki exclaimed.

It had been about a week since the Host Club "invited" me to be a member (and by invited, I mean pressured and forced). As stupid as the whole idea sounded—in a club containing a tiny, child-like seventeen year old, a tall way-too-quiet guy, a conniving, glasses-wearing guy, a way too excited, flamboyant "king", a cross-dressing girl, and the thorn in my side, a couple of way-too-annoying twins—I decided to just go with it.

"As you all can see, each one of the Hosts are wearing proper wedding attire—the young men here to each suit your deepest wedding desires and expand your sweetest dreams." Each of the guy Hosts and Haruhi walked up to the girls in fancy—and expensive—black tuxedoes, all having different flowers for boutonniere's and assorted colored ties. All of the girls immediately cheered and swooned the sight of their precious Hosts dressed to marry them. They especially seemed to get a kick out of seeing Honey—no, wait…I'm sorry, I just can't call someone that. They seemed to get a kick out of seeing _Mitsukuni _dressed as the part of the Ring Bearer.

"Though I know we all look more handsome than normal—if that's even possible—but you would probably like to know that our newest Host has also dressed up for the occasion!" He and the other Hosts (I presumed) faced the large set of burgundy curtains. "Presenting, the Bride, Aki!" The curtains slowly parted, leading to the crowd of fan-girls' eyes to lighten up and gasp all at once.

There I was, standing there, with the most beautiful and elegant wedding dress I had ever seen in my life—let alone worn. It was a clean, pure white, strapless dress that flowed all the way to the floor. The skirt had various waves and ruffles, lined with gold lace and glitter. In the back, there was a huge, white bow that fell to the floor behind. My arms wore long, white silk gloves. On my head, I had on a mini crystal tiara that had connected to it, a long white veil. Wearing this made me feel both embarrassed, and blissful—I truly felt like a princess of some fairytale who had finally found her prince and was celebrating her wedding and happily-ever after.

If only…

"Aki looks so beautiful!"

"I'm so jealous!"

"Which one of the other Hosts do you think she'd look best with?"

"So magical!"

I couldn't help but smile at all of the compliments, doing my best to avoid any eye contact in an attempt to pretend that all the attention wasn't on me. The whole idea of wearing costumes like this was beyond ridiculous. Luckily, the Hosts don't do this all of the time. But I could still remember the first day they wanted to dress up with me as a Host as well. There I was, sitting innocently in the club room, when all of a sudden, the twins presented themselves in front of me with some stupid witch costumes on. They had the whole tall, pointy hat, dark clothes, a broom, you know, the whole cliché witch attire. After staring in disbelief—and incredible annoyance—the whole sight of it caused me to launch myself at the both of them, slapping them around. Not too long later, the other Hosts came in wearing ancient Chinese wear. Yup, the two chumps tricked me into thinking that they got the whole club to dress as witches for the day. Feeling totally gullible, I whacked the two in the head as they continued to laugh.

Carefully sitting down on a couch in my expensive dress, a small group of clients (girls) sat around me with bright smiles on their faces.

Remember that whole speech I gave a while ago where I mentioned that I was in no way shy and the mere look into my eyes sent people running? Yeah…you can just take that loud of crap and dump it in the nearest garbage can. Believe me, this was the case before coming to this world. I was avoided and intimidating. Now, people (girls) fuss over me and always want to talk to me. In the past, I couldn't even imagine a time that something like this would ever happen. I was so used to the idea of being alone that I had developed a tough shell that made me supposedly cold and independent. Since being isolated wasn't an issue here, all of my usual tendencies sort of just…fizzled out. Now it turned out that I might actually be a shy person by nature. _When the hell did that happen?_

"Aki? Would you like some of this tea?" One of the girls asked.

Blushing at the gesture, I quietly said, "No thanks."

"I don't think she likes tea very much. She almost never drinks it."

"What is it that you like to drink Aki?" A girl offered.

"Umm…" Thinking about it, I finally came to an answer. "Hot chocolate, I suppose…"

"That is soooo cute! She has a sweet tooth like Honey!"

_That's not really true. _"No, I—sweets aren't really my…"

They started to squeal. "Look at how shy she is! It's so adorable!"

"The perfect modest bride!"

I couldn't help but blush some more. Being surrounded like this was so unnatural to me. Crowds weren't really my thing exactly for this reason. Not only that, this many people being nice to me was just so…weird, but…pleasant. It was a bit difficult to admit, but I kind of liked the attention—even if it was hard for me to show or accept it.

Looking around, I witnessed the other Hosts putting on individual bits of entertainment for their guests.

"Honey, you look so cute as a Wedding Bearer. I wish you were there for my wedding!"

"Look at Mori, he would be the perfect husband—so strong and reliable!"

Mitsukuni climbed onto Takashi's back. "Yeah, Takashi would make any girl happy. And I'll be his best man!" The girls drooled—probably at the thought of one of them marrying Takashi with Mitsukuni at their wedding as well. "Then at the reception, Usa-chan and I will be eating all of the yummy cakes and pastries!"

Looking to the other side, I saw Haruhi surrounded by "his" clients. She looked perfectly comfortable around them as she graced them with her "naturalness".

"So Haruhi, how do you imagine your wedding to be?" _It still absolutely amazes me that these girls can't figure out that Haruhi is a girl. Not to be mean, these girls are nice and all, but they're dopes._

She thought about it for a second. "Oh, I don't know—it's so far into the future. I guess I would like it to be a small with only close friends and family. I wouldn't want to make a big fuss about it and spend a lot of money. I just want whoever the person I plan on spending the rest of my life with is happy and that I could do all I can to maintain that happiness." The girls all had dreamy looks on their faces. "I believe that having a huge expensive wedding doesn't label two peoples love for each other. As long as they are both willing to spend the rest of their lives together and never lose their passion, then anything would be fine." _Wow Haruhi, that was really deep…_

"Haruhi…"

"That was beautiful!" They all took out handkerchiefs to wipe some tears forming in their eyes.

"You are definitely going to make some girl happy one day!"

Deciding to put my attention on another Host, I noticed that Tamaki was doing his signature "be every girls dream" thing.

He batted his violet eyes as he brought one of the girls close to him, her hands in his.

"My dear princess, I would be the luckiest man in the world—nay, the universe!—to be wed to a lovely woman like you."

Her face flushed as her eyes twinkled. "Oh, Tamaki, do you really mean that?"

"Of course! Our wedding would be exquisite! I'd get the very best caterers from all over the world, I'd have doves fly and fireworks spell out our names. Then when the time came, I would announce my vows to you with a microphone for all to hear! My love would belong to you and no one else."

"Tamaki…"

I looked away slowly. _Okay…that's a bit too mushy for me. The scary thing is that he really acts like that. Only a small portion of that is acting. _Scary right?

My thoughts were interrupted by the scene between Hikaru and Kaoru. The first time I saw their act, I was a bit grossed out. Now that I've been here a while to see it…it still kind of makes my stomach curl.

"Hikaru, you look so handsome in your tux. But I can't help but cry a little when I see you in that." Kaoru began to tear up.

"Why, Kaoru? Tell me what makes you shed those tears."

"It's sad because when I see you wearing that, it only reminds me of how you'll eventually marry someone and leave me behind. We'll be separated as you choose your new wife over me. I just don't think I can live without you…"

Hikaru lifted his brothers' chin up to his as they got close. "Don't you remember what I whispered to you last night? We will always be together, no woman can change that."

"Do you promise, Hikaru?"

"Yes." They started to hug. "I will save you from your loneliness. Even though people may look down on us, we don't need them and the rest of the world. One of these days, we can elope and always be together."

Kaoru started to blush. "Yes…Hikaru…"

The girls went absolutely crazy from this, and—I swear—hearts floated all around them. Hikaru and Kaoru practically had the girls eating out of their hands. I'd commend them better as actors if they didn't have to go and use fake tears when nobody was looking. Grimacing, I was about to look away when the two caught my eye and winked at me. I scowled and looked away.

"What's wrong, Aki?" One of the girls asked with wide eyes.

Putting on a more pleasant face, I assured her. "N-nothing. Nothing at all."

Another one of them tugged on my glove. "Hey Aki, I have a question. It's kind of embarrassing…"

"What is it?"

"If you could have any of the Hosts as your boyfriend, who would it be?"

Flushing slightly, I honestly tried not to think too hard about it. _I would never want to date any of those guys. They're all a bit too odd for me. Actually…they all have their individual quirks that make them not too appealing to me. _On an uncontrollable impulse, my eyes trailed to the twins. When they noticed me for the second time, they flashed smiles and gave me thumbs up. Snapping my eyes away from them, I mentally hit myself. _Why the hell did I look over at them? They are the last people I would EVER consider dating. I'm getting nauseated just thinking about it._

Clearing my throat, I gave the girls a not-completely-true but not-completely-false statement. "I don't really have a preference."

With a beaming face, one of the girls clapped her hands once as something came to her mind. "You know, I think Aki and Haruhi would make the cutest couple!" I immediately shuddered at that. _Why Haruhi, why couldn't you just be a normal, non-cross-dressing girl? _All of the girls seemed to agree with her.

She shouted across the room. "Hey, Haruhi!" Haruhi looked over at us from her group. "Would you be a dear and come over here?"

Without hesitation, Haruhi stood up, bowed to her clients, and walked over with a semi-confused, semi-calm look on her face. The girls beside me took my arms and lifted me up, and pushed me in Haruhi's direction. Seeing us there standing next to each other, the girls cheered—**all** of the girls in the room cheered.

"I knew those two looked wonderful together!"

"I'm totally jealous, but you can't stop fate!"

_These girls are insane._

Haruhi whispered to me. "Umm….senpai? What's going on?"

I closed my eyes and sighed. "Don't worry about it Haruhi. It's not important."

"No!" Tamaki rushed over. "My little Haruhi cannot be getting married yet! Sixteen is not the appropriate age and daddy's not ready to lose his child to another!" _Jeez Tamaki, calm down for once in your life. _"Even though I like Aki, I cannot allow this union to occur!"

"Tamaki's jealous! He's fighting for Haruhi's love!" More cheering resulted in the whole charade.

"Haruhi and Tamaki's taboo love may never happen now!"

Kyouya coughed. "If you ladies would join me over here, I have exclusive photos of all of the Hosts in their tuxedos. I also have pictures of Aki in different wedding dresses for those who can buy them first." _What the hell! He told me to put on those different dresses to find one that looked the best! He tricked me!_All of the girls stampeded over to him. "The first few buyers can get the only few pics of Aki and Haruhi together." _When did he even have time to take those?_

While I stared at the crowd, the twins inched their way closer to Haruhi and me.

"Wow, you've become more popular than we initially thought, Aki."

I rolled my eyes. "Gee, thanks."

"No really, the ladies go crazy over you. Especially in that dress you're wearing." Hikaru smirked.

"And for what it's worth, we can resolve this whole "who marries who" thing."

Cocking up my eyebrow at them, I faced Hikaru. He said, "Yeah, we decided that the four of us can just all get married to each other."

"Yup! With the combination of you, Haruhi, Hikaru, and me, we can have a lot of fun being together forever."

"Not only that, but we could finally all sleep together without it being weird!"

Quickly scooting away, I raised my voice in embarrassment, and through a flushed face. "That will never happen, first of all. And no matter how many different ways you say it, that will always sound kinky and weird!"

Kaoru leaned on his brothers' shoulder. "Kinky, huh?"

"Sounds like it could be a blast."

Yelling at the top of my voice, I screamed, "You couple of creeps!"

* * *

><p>After that day, the week passed on into the weekend. It had already been several weeks since I had entered Ouran as a…freshmen (<em>damn those twins<em>). My whole life in this world had been filled with mostly Host Club this and Host Club that. I honestly believed that these people didn't know the definition of "alone time" or "personal space"—excluding Haruhi who actually agrees that space is needed for anyone to live a sane life. Hikaru and Kaoru were always there whenever the rest of the club couldn't be. Always. There. I couldn't even think properly whenever they were around. It wouldn't even be much of a surprise if they both snuck into my room at night and into my bed. Who knows? They've had every opportunity considering our rooms are _right _next to each other. Of course, if they ever tried, I'd beat the crap out of them. Simple as that. Screw the hundreds of videos, I have my limits. The only thing that seemed like an upside to this whole twin thing was that I was starting to feel more confident about telling the two apart. I still had my doubts from time to time, but things were getting a bit easier, at least with that category.

Now that it was the weekend, the Host Club decided to take a trip to the beach—a _private_ beach—for two reasons. The first was that Haruhi had asked for it a while ago during one of their adventures before I came along, and the second reason was because they wanted to celebrate me becoming a Host. I wasn't exactly excited to be wearing a bathing suit—as if I'd wear it anyway—and I also didn't like the fact that the fan-girls were coming along too. Kyouya said that it would be good for business if we let them be with us in a beach setting. Luckily, I learned that they weren't going to be staying with us at the private beach mansion resort.

The moment we got to the beach in Okinawa, a faint breeze blew past me smelling of salty ocean water. Soothing sounds of seagulls and the rushing waves of the water made me feel calm and at peace with myself.

"Hey Aki!"

_Well there goes my two seconds of peace and quiet._

The twins ran up and handed me a bag. "The bathing suit we bought for you is in there. We had a feeling you'd like something black."

I blushed. "What gave you two the right to pick out something like that for me?" _As if I'd ever be able to wear it anyway. _Because of what had happened some years ago, if I were to wear anything that exposed me that much, there was the huge danger of people finding out about the stupid and weak mistake I had made. There was no way I was willing to let that happen.

"What? We picked out Haruhi's last time." _I'm sorry, do I _look_ like Haruhi to you? _I thought sarcastically.

"Of course we never got to see her in it 'cause the boss let her wear a sweatshirt over it."

"And today, since the ladies are here, Haruhi has to be a boy and can't wear one."

"So that means that you're up to bat, our little witch!"

Swinging the bag at them, I started to stomp away. "Stop calling me that!" Hearing them chuckle at each other, I stomped off in a direction away from them.

* * *

><p><strong>Haruhi's 3rd POV~<strong>

"My lovely ladies! No sight is more enjoyable than seeing you near the beautifulness of the sparkling ocean!" The girls, all in swimsuits, intently listened to Tamaki's sweet words. "This is truly a perfect day as I can see your smiles shine as brightly as the sun reflecting on the sea. Oh please, smile for me."

"Tamaki…"

Hikaru chased Kaoru along the edge of the water. "You're so close, Hikaru!"

"I'll keep chasing you till the end of time my darling Kaoru!"

"Oh, Hikaru! Let's take advantage of this beautiful day and spend it with each other!"

Girls cheered them on as they continued to chase after each other.

"Takashi!" Mitsukuni shouted. "Come and play with me in the water! It's a bunch of fun!"

Without much thought, Takashi threw off his shirt and joined Mitsukuni—who was wearing a pink, green spotted floaty around him—in the cool, refreshing water. The tiny seventeen-year-old splashed around Takashi as he just stood there with a faint smile on his face.

Sitting on the sand, under an umbrella, Haruhi sat watching everybody having fun. _I'm glad everybody's having fun, _she thought. She figured that everybody needed a break, including Aki who was just getting over the "oh my gosh I'm actually a Hostess" phase. She started to wonder where that girl was anyway. She hadn't seen her since they first arrived at the beach. Haruhi didn't worry too much about it because she knew that Aki was the type of person who wanted to be left alone after a while. _After all_, she thought to herself, _she is living with the twins. I bet that gets exhausting_.

A few minutes later, a group of drenched girls ran up to Haruhi.

"Haruhi! Come swim with us!"

"Yeah, the water feels really great!"

Haruhi shook her head and gave a charming smile. "No thanks. I'm happy sitting here and watching you girls have fun. Go on and have a good time. One of the reasons we're here is for your happiness."

All of the girls blushed. "Oh, Haruhi is so considerate!"

"I'm so happy that we came today! All of the Hosts are being such gentlemen."

"Well, you know, except Aki. She's awesome on a whole different level." They all giggled. "Speaking of which, where is she? I really want to spend time with her."

"Hey Haruhi, have you seen Aki?"

"No, sorry."

"Hey!" One of them said with a bunch of pep. "Let's go look for her!"

"Yeah!" Watching them skip off, Haruhi smiled in their direction. _Hopefully Aki-senpai won't be too bothered by them, _she told herself.

* * *

><p><strong>Aki's POV~<strong>

Jumping from the top of a tall rock, I concentrated my energy onto my body. Letting all of gravity go, I hovered successfully over the sand. The moment I felt that I finally had it, I fell straight to the ground, butt-first. Rubbing my bottom, I slowly stood up.

_Dammit! Why can't I get it? Flying should be simpler than this. _I considered using the Wind to help me float, but deep inside, I knew that would be cheating. Damn technicalities.

After stomping away from the twins earlier, I walked a good, far distance down the beach to get away from the stress and weirdness of the Host Club. This was probably the only time I'd get to unwind and be by myself. Wearing the black bikini that the twins got for me, I cursed at the fact that they purposely spilled ice cream on the clothes I arrived in and then stole the other clothes I planned on wearing. However, I was forced to swallow my pride a bit and, while covering my chest to hide my secret, ask one of the fan-girls for their jacket before stomping off for a second time. I wasn't willing to expose myself in such a way that would reveal more about me than they honestly deserved.

This was exactly why I needed…to get away—that, and the fact that if I were to be around those two any longer, I'd definitely snap. _Besides, when would I get another chance to practice these spells Taiitsukun gave me? _Giving up on the flying lesson for the day, I picked up my wand and my spell book from the carry-on bag I brought along.

I knew that I'd eventually come across more danger and especially those shadow creatures again, so I needed to have all of this magic stuff down. Thanks to Kyo, I was an Element Tamer so I was finally able to move onto the next level.

_Kyo…_

_I wonder what you're doing now. Is Tohru making you happy? I hope that you're not alone anymore. _With melancholy, I sighed. '_Cause at least one of us deserves to be happy._

The moment I thought that, something occurred to me: I wasn't completely miserable. Things were bad before, and I was really depressed, but after all the time I had spent in this world, I felt that the part of me that's been making me feel constantly down had dimmed suddenly. Ever since I had gotten there, the world had been peppy and bright from the very beginning. But after that whole thing between those psychos in the burnt building, it was like some weights have been lifted off my shoulders. The best thing was that no one was being affected by the dark aura. I was slightly confused by this sudden feeling of weightlessness, but I had no complaints.

Reading off a few spells, I decided to give them a try. I faced the water and focused my energy. The whole doing-a-spell-that-doesn't-require-elements thing was going to be odd, I'll admit, but do-able. There were also stronger elemental spells than the ones I had come up with before using the planets' influence. This was going to be interesting.

Pointing my wand towards the ocean, I shouted. "_Elmekia Lance!" _From my wand shot out a long lance of light that went flying across the ocean, splitting the water beneath it. _Whoa…that was epic! _Immediately looking back at the book, I discovered that many of the spells had incantations that needed to be said in order to make them work. I figured these spells were more powerful than the others. _Are you serious? _Groaning, I looked back at the book. _Whatever. Let's get this over with._

"_Source of all power, crimson fire burning bright! Gather together in my hand and become an inferno!" _A big red light began to manifest at the tip of my wand. "_Burst Flare!" _Suddenly, a gigantic ball of light appeared above the water and exploded, leaving a huge crater in the water. The moment the steam dissipated and the water calmed, I realized just how big a deal these spells were. If I managed to master these things, then I would be nearly unstoppable! When it came to magic—besides flying—I didn't see a downside.

My fingers flipped through the tiny book for something much more impressive than the last spell. When I had found one, I saw that it had a long incantation to it. Keeping the book at my face with my left hand, my right hand pointed my wand towards the horizon.

"_Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows. Buried in the stream of time, is where your power grows. I pledge myself to conquer, all the foes who stand, before the mighty gifts bestowed in my unworthy hands. Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess!" _Black and red lightning surrounded my body and started to center itself at the tip of my wand. Right when something big was about to happen, my body suddenly ached severely, making me drop my wand and fall to the ground.

Struggling to get up, I started coughing and hacking, my insides feeling as if someone had made me swallow sharp rocks and I was still able to unbearably detect them in my system. While coughing into my hands, a red liquid dripped onto my palms.

Gasping, all I could do was stare—trying to hold back the blood that attempted to make its way up. Eyes glancing to the sand under me, I noticed that there was blood trickling from my mouth and onto the ground.

I was terrified.

_What is this? Why am I in so much pain? Was it that spell? _My body shook and I started to hyperventilate, thinking that my life was ending then and there.

"Aki-senpai!" A voice called out. Haruhi ran up to my side and dropped to her knees. Her hands started to vibrate as she tried to see what was wrong. "What happened? Oh my God, I need to get someone's help! Kyouya-senpai! Kyouya-senpai has a family full of doctors. They can help you!" Before she got up, I used my strength to grab onto her wrists.

"Don't…" Struggling to get up, I breathed even heavier. "Don't get anyone. I'm fine. Whatever this is, I'm fine. I don't need help from anyone." Just as bad as telling the world about my powers, the doctors of this world couldn't find out that, in a sense, I didn't even exist there. I had no documents about my identity or birth. It would end up drawing too much attention to me, and that might have been enough to cause Taiitsukun to send me back home. As mortified as I was, whatever was wrong with me was not enough to make me want to give up.

"Senpai…"

"I am a sorceress—I will not be subdued by whatever the hell this is. I can fight this." On incredibly wobbly knees, I grabbed my wand and spell book, summoning them away in a flash of light. Leaning on Haruhi, I managed to get my heavier than usual body off of the ground.

"You at least have to rest somewhere, senpai…" She said with concern.

"Yeah, that's what I'll do." I wiped the blood away from my mouth as we walked on.

Making our way across the beach, Haruhi and I tried not to get noticed. The last thing I needed was to be pitied by anyone.

"Haruhi, you especially can't tell the twins about this. If anybody, _do not_ tell them."

"But they would be worried the most—"

"That's a lie!" I bellowed. We both stopped in our place. "They don't care about me! They never cared about me! From the start the only thing they wanted from me was someone to control and mess with. I'm just some doll with magic powers to them. They don't really like me the way they like you and the other Hosts. That's why I can't stand those two! They continue to annoy and play with me all for some twisted game. If someone doesn't like me, I'd rather they be blunt about it and say something. But the way they do things…I just hate it!"

"But senpai, that's not true—"

"Yes it is…If they found out that I had a momentary time of weakness, they'd find a way to use that against me as well. I can't allow them that satisfaction. I can't stand those twins!" Tears started to run down my face without me knowing it, even though the expression on my face was that of anger. _What? Why am I crying so easily? That's never happened before. Never. What is wrong with me today?_

"Senpai…" Haruhi was about to say something, but we both heard screams coming from somewhere. Looking around in alarm, I tried to sense any of the shadow creatures.

Nothing.

This must have been something else. Finding the tiniest amount of strength to walk on my own, I began to move semi-quickly to investigate the trouble—Haruhi followed closely behind. It sounded like the girls who had come with us to the beach. We eventually came up to a large, tall rock formation that plateaued at the top and trailed off into a cliff off of the ocean. We saw three girls being harasses by a group of about five guys who looked a bit tipsy._Those guys must be drunk. Dammit, why can't those girls stay out of trouble?_

Pushing my intense bodily pain to the back of my mind, reserving it for later, I rushed to protect the girls.

"Hey!" I shouted as we reached them. "Why don't you leave them alone?"

"Aki!" The girls said with relief.

"Oh look, another pretty one has come to grace us." One of the guys steadily walked in my direction. He tried to put his hand on my face, but I slapped it away.

"Keep your hands off, jerk."

"See this boys? We've got a feisty one here!" He tried to reach for me again, quickly going towards my hair, attempting to grab it. Before I even gave him a chance, I used whatever strength I had to summon Wind to my hands.

"_Tornado Fist!" _Punching the guy in the gut, he went straight into the air, then splashing into the ocean from the Wind. Feeling my energy drained, my body went numb as I stumbled back. The girls caught me, setting me upright again.

"Why you little!" One of the guys came charging for me, until Haruhi put her body before us.

"What are you doing?" I asked her.

She whispered back so that the girls and drunken guys couldn't hear. "You're too weak to do anything else, let me handle this."

"Are you kidding me? I have more power than you to take these guys down."

"Maybe so, senpai, but you can't really use that power now, can you?"

_No…I don't think I can. Dammit!_ To think that _I_ had to be protected by Haruhi...talk about a shot to the ego."Don't do anything rash Haruhi." She nodded.

She put her attention towards the guys. "Leave these girls alone. They don't want to be bothered by you."

The remaining four guys laughed at her. "This girly-looking punk thinks that he can stop us?"

"He's just a wimp!" They grabbed Haruhi by her arms and lifted her up. She tried to struggle out, but it was no use—she was just too tiny.

"Haruhi!"

"Someone please, help him!"

Deciding to take a chance, I took a step forward and did my best to summon more Wind. Just then, a blonde blur ran past me.

Tamaki.

"Haruhi!" He yelled. But it was too late. The two guys carrying her had thrown her over the high cliff, head-first into the ocean. Without another thought, Tamaki hurdled himself over the cliff after Haruhi.

Knowing they had been found out, the guys started to run off of the rock formation and far from the scene. The two that ran faster managed to get away from where everyone was at, but the remaining two were caught by the twins. Everything after that, I wasn't sure that happened. Because I decided to run after the ones who thought they could get away with what they did.

Dashing across the edge of the waves, I had the two chumps in sight. Re-summoning my wand, I figured these guys were too drunk to even remember anything magical happening to them.

"Stop right there!" I shouted at them. Hearing that it was just me, the two of them turned around with devious smiles.

"How lucky are we? One of them likes us so much that she followed us!"

"And it's our favorite spicy one too." He noticed my wand. "What do you plan on doing with that stick, girlie? You gonna poke me with it?" _You're gonna wish I'd just "poked" you with it._

Summoning my energy, I had initially planned on using some badass spell. Unfortunately, a dizzy spell had hit me at that moment, causing the world to completely spin in my eyes, making me stumble. This was just enough time for one of the guys to walk up to me, take my wand, throw it into the water, and knock me down as well, before I could even react.

"You think you're all that, don't you?" He hissed with coldness in his voice. Putting his body weight on me, I couldn't easily escape. With my strength and energy so low, I lacked the ability to get out of this. I was really in trouble. Besides that, my wand was lost in the water, and I wasn't free to look for it. "You ruined everything back there with my brother and his friends. You know, with that whole situation back at school in the old chemistry building." _His brother? _"I had left the room to get some food while the guys were in there with the ladies. By time I had got back, you were already in there messing things up." With a terrified look on my face, I closed my eyes as he brought his lips down to my ear. "While he's rotting in prison, I'm going to make sure that you get what you deserve."

The water pushed back, getting ready for another wave. I knew that the moment the wave hit, I'd be stuck under the water. And I couldn't do a thing about it. My mind filled with too much fear and worry to focus on magic or anything. In the past, my lack of concentration had gotten me into some trouble with my magic controlling or using, but now…I was in the worst kind of trouble. My heart pounded like a fast tempo base drum, my eyes widened with anticipation of the horror that would soon befall me. _No...not the water! Anything but the water! _Something finally snapped me out of my shocked state, allowing me to ensue a desperate struggle.

The water came rushing back towards us in a big wave, covering my whole body. Immediately on contact with the water, I panicked and squirmed beyond all comprehensible reason. But there was no point. My body was being held down by the guy who was heavier than me so that I couldn't come back up for air. _No! I can't go through this again! I can't! I won't!_ Feeling vibrations all over my body, I could feel the guy laughing on top of me—even though I couldn't see him clearly from being under the water. Trying to bring my head up was futile as the guy kept it down. My lungs were burning from holding in air so long, I was almost forced to breathe out and drown. Underneath my terror lied a boiling pit of rage that originated from my childhood, transferring itself to my present psyche, tempting me to contemplate every conceivable way of making this guy suffer should I survive and be set free.

Just as my vision was starting to go black, the guys' weight was suddenly lifted off of my body. Hands reached behind my head to pull me out of the water. Coughing and gasping for air, I looked up to see that Hikaru had rescued me.

"Thank God you're okay." He said, out of breath. Through my bodily shaking and trying to make some sense of the mush that was going through my mind, I was able to look into his eyes. Yeah...that was definitely Hikaru...

Without a response, I looked up to see that Kaoru was beating up the guy who was on me. I assumed that Hikaru took out his friend before getting to me because he was out cold on the beach. While keeping me in his arms, I felt Hikaru searching around the water with his other hand. Eventually, my hand was filled with the hard feel of my wand. He had found it and placed it in my hand.

"You can't be a witch without your wand, can you?" He told me gently.

Coughing again, I finally managed to whisper, "Sor…ceress…"

Kaoru waved over. "Hey, Hikaru! Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she'll live." Hearing him say that, I fought through my crying muscles and still racing heart, forcing my body up and away from him. He shot himself up attempting to follow me. "Maybe you shouldn't be walking…"

"Shut up! Don't tell me what I should and shouldn't be doing!" Feeling my legs give out, I fell again. Feeling vulnerable, I felt myself starting to tear up once more.

"Why are these things happening? I was all powerful before and now… now I can't do anything!" At that, Kaoru and Hikaru both lifted me up and started walking me away from the beach.

"Everyone has a day where they're a bit off—"

"Even witches."

Lacking the energy to argue about my status, I just simply lowered my head as they helped me to safety.

* * *

><p>I learned that Haruhi was successfully saved by Tamaki. It was a close call, but he managed to jump in after her in time before anything bad could happen. I also heard that Tamaki got mad at Haruhi for being so reckless and she got mad for him thinking that she was so vulnerable that she couldn't do anything. Lying in my bed in my room at the resort, I knew there was a very awkward dinner going on with the Host Club as everyone else tried to deal with the fight between the two. I wasn't allowed to be part of the dinner because they all made me rest in bed for the past few hours. The girls had all gone home after the incident and the guys were arrested by the Ootori family police force. All that was left was the entire Host Club (plus some maids and servants).<p>

From my little breakdown at the beach in front of the twins, I hadn't spoken to anyone. I was too embarrassed and ashamed that I could barely do anything to protect Haruhi, the girls, and myself. And they were just _humans_. If I were facing the shadow creatures, I would have been killed for sure.

Feeling like I had enough of playing weak, I decided to get up from bed and join the Hosts in whatever activity they were engaged in. When I opened the door, I was lacking in surprise to see the twins standing right at my doorstep.

"You aren't following orders, young lady."

"You're supposed to be resting in bed."

Deciding that I didn't want to deal with their games, I sighed in exhaustion. "Let me through, you two."

They crossed each other's' arms to block my way. "Sorry, can't do it."

Sighing again, I looked up at them. "What are you doing here anyway?"

They exchanged glances and smiled. "Well, we just came across the boss and Haruhi in an…interesting position."

"It's a funny story, really—we'll tell you later. But at least we know that they aren't fighting anymore." They snickered as my anger boiled.

"That's not what I meant! What are you doing here at my door? You already know I'm alive for you to play with another day, so why even show up again?"

"Whoa, chill out, Aki—"

"We just wanted to make sure that you were okay. That and we knew that your stubborn tendencies would get you out of that bed sooner or later. We're actually pretty surprised that it took you this long."

I tried to speak again, but Hikaru interrupted as he got serious. "Haruhi told us that you were coughing up blood earlier." My eyes went wide. _Damn. I told her not to tell them!_

"But when the doctor looked at you, he said you were fine, other than the shock of almost drowning." _I'm fine? _I stopped for a second to mentally check my body. _It's true. I'm not in pain anymore. In fact, I feel energetic again._ Was it normal for me to have made such a quick recovery?

"We went back to the beach and found blood in the sand—your blood. Why didn't you come to us if you weren't feeling well?"

That made me lose it. "Why? Because everything is just one big joke to you two! The moment I arrived here, you two have done nothing but annoy, trick, and blackmail me. What reason do I honestly have to be able to trust you two with anything? As if I'd tell you if there was anything wrong. The only reason you'd possibly care is because I get to live for you two to play with me another day! I'm just a toy that you can use…" I calmed down a bit. "If I'm broken, just fix me up and everything's fine. That's the only reason you made me a Host isn't it?"

I turned around to avoid their gazes. When I finally thought that I made them feel guilty, they started to laugh. I turned back at them with a face of disbelief. _Why are they laughing?_

"We made you a Host so that you could lighten up a little."

_What?_

"Look, from the moment we first saw you, you looked like a really uptight person."

"Yeah, uptight and depressed."

"We knew that if we got under your skin enough, you'd learn to have some fun and forget about whatever was making you so down."

"We knew how annoyed we were making you and thought that our plan was a success. Tell us Aki, since meeting us, have you thought much of the thing that was making you sad?"

My eyes grew wide. The more I thought about it, they were right. Whenever those two did something annoying, all I could focus on was how much I couldn't stand them—I totally forgot about the lives and people I was forced to leave behind as well as my Taiitsukun problems. Not only that, joining the Host Club, in some odd sense, did help me calm down and get (somewhat) used to being around people. I was involved in a group of people that liked me…all because these twins caught me on video.

"Oh, and the blackmail was just to keep you around." Kaoru winked.

Blinking a couple of times, I still had a question that needed to be answered. "But why? Why go through all of this for someone you just met?"

"Well," Kaoru explained, "I suggested to Hikaru that we should just talk to you and tell jokes to cheer you up."

"But I figured that you needed a more…unorthodox way of making you lose your troubles. So that's why we did what we did."

"But I still don't understand why—" Hikaru then put a finger under my chin to lift my eyes up to his. He flashed one of those charming, yet devious smiles.

"Because I wanted to see you smile. That's why."

As I processed what he said, I began to feel my heart flutter—my face heating up followed suit. _He wanted to see me…smile? _He took his hand off my chin and looked at Kaoru who nodded at him.

Kaoru smiled warmly. "Well, it's time to retire for the night don't you think Hikaru?"

He grinned back. "Yeah, Aki needs a little more rest. Sorceresses need their sleep to regain their power, right?" _He didn't say "witch"!_ He winked and my heart skipped a beat again. _What the?_

"Goodnight Aki!" They said at the same time while closing my door. When it was shut, I remembered that I needed to tell them something.

So even though I was by myself, I said out loud, with a small smile, "Thank you, Hikaru, Kaoru."

My door immediately shot open as they poked their heads in. "Don't mention it!" Then they closed the door again. This time, I heard their footsteps trailing off down the hallway.

Standing there, staring at the door, I did something that I hadn't done in an extremely long time: laughed. I just started to crack up more than I ever had before—making my whole body feel good. I felt totally weightless, like nothing was holding me down. Everything bad that ever happened to me just sort of seemed to float away at that moment. I couldn't even remember the last time I had a good laugh…it _had_ been a while.

Wiping the tears from my eyes, the laughing calmed down as I continued staring at the door. Some of the bad feelings trickled back, but I had a feeling inside of me that said I could handle it. _They did all of that for something so stupid. _My heart started to race again at the whole situation. I just couldn't stop blushing either.

The moment I started to pay attention to my surroundings again, I realized that, somehow, I had gotten taller—I towered everything in the room. In fact, my head was practically touching the ceiling. _Wait a minute… _Looking down I realized that my feet weren't touching the ground—I was floating—no, _flying_. I was flying! And…not falling!

The longer my heart felt warm and cozy, the more I knew that I could stay in the air_. I guess Haruhi and the twins were right._

_I just needed to go with the flow._


	13. False Impressions

My body felt a pleasant chill as I whipped through a cloud. Seeing more in my path, I didn't hesitate to experience the feeling again. With a smile on my face, I looked down below to the earth I left behind. No matter how many times I would end up floating above it, the sight was always beautiful and fascinating—with the buildings, trees, fields, and tiny people making the scene that much more pleasant to look at. Now that I could fly—well, levitate would be the better name for what I can do, according to the spell book—I felt so free. When I'm up there, soaring with the birds, it was like I was given the ability to leave all of my problems behind way back on the ground. It's a bit hard to describe what it's like to defy gravity—it was still a bit difficult for me to even comprehend the whole idea. But in the end, it was me up the air, while others looked in envy (you know, if people other than the Host Club knew I had this ability).

Time had gone by pretty quickly after the weekend at the beach—about a couple months to be exact. Every day I was with the Host Club, and every day, the twins were there having their idiotic fun as always. The thing was, I didn't really mind them anymore. I had gotten used to having them around and accepted the fact that they were going to be around. Not only that, it was thanks to them in the first place that I was liked at Ouran and that I could levitate. They weren't as bad as I initially pinned them to be. Don't get me wrong, they still had the amazing tendency to be pains in the ass—but they were _my_ pains in the ass. To tell you the truth, I had felt so used to them being there, that sometimes when they weren't there, I felt…naked.

_Buzz Buzz_

A vibration on my hip made me stop mid-air, and upside down (good thing I was wearing long pants, because a skirt would have been disastrous). The twins had gotten me a cell phone a little while ago—Haruhi got one as well—so that we could communicate should we be apart.

With the push of a button, I opened a text that was just sent.

_Where r u?_

_Hikaru sent the message. _Regarding my previous statement of how I felt naked without those two, I wasn't _totally_ opposed to the idea of being apart from them. The cell phone kind of continued to hold the seemingly unbreakable leash that was connecting me to them (besides the video that they were still blackmailing with).

Me: _Wouldn't u like 2 kno T_T_

Hikaru: _Yes I would ^^_

Me: _Ugh…-_- What's the real reason ur texting me?_

Hikaru: _Well~_

Me: _?_

Hikaru: _Do u kno where Haru is?_

_Oh, that's the real reason he's contacted me? _I had a little urge to not reply to him back. Not only was he keeping tabs on me—again—but the fact that he interrupted my flying time just to find Haruhi kind of vexed me. I knew that it wasn't just him. I'd bet anything that Kaoru was standing right next to him.

Thinking about what to type next, I had another message in my inbox.

Kaoru: _Hey Aki! The boss thinks that Haru's been kidnapped er something_

Thought so.

Me: _lol_

Kaoru: _What, u kno where she's at?_

As a matter of fact I did. It was finally summer break for us Ouran students and Haruhi had gone to some place called Karuizawa. The place sort of sounded familiar considering that this world was just like my world, but a different dimension. I was still in Japan, just _another_ Japan. Nonetheless, any kind of Japan had been a whole separate world from me ever since I moved to America.

Haruhi got a part-time job at some pension in Karuizawa, and told me not to tell the rest of the Host Club. Completely understanding where she was coming from, I agreed not to tell. At least one of us deserved a vacation from them for a while—being a Host was both mentally and physically exhausting. Tamaki overreacting wasn't surprising at all. The unfortunate thing was that the whole Host Club was going to know that she was gone. And in the club was sneaky little know-it-all Kyouya who would probably catch on to where Haruhi was at before this whole text conversation was over.

Me: _Maybe…_

Hikaru: _Tell us!_

Kaoru: _Tell us!_

I groaned.

Me: _Don't u guys have better things 2 do than waste texting min?_

Kaoru: _Nope!_

Hikaru: _We're rich, remember?_

Sighing, I reached into my pants-pocket and took out a tiny map that showed where Karuizawa was at and where specifically Haruhi was. As more seconds flew by, I knew that it was that much closer until the Host Club would make something big out of something small. You know what I realized? Those guys are so good-looking and popular that girls fainted happily just by being with them. So since that's true, then why is it that they limit themselves to only being around each other? The two concepts were such a contradiction that it drove me insane.

_Maybe I should just head there now. It's only a matter of time before the rest of the club gets there. I might as well make my way there to warn the poor girl. _Floating my way in the opposite direction, a familiar buzz tingled my hand.

Kaoru: _Kyouya-senpai told us where Haru is. ;)_

Hikaru: _Tell her we'll be there soon! C ya there Aki! =)_

_Damn. So much for relaxing._

* * *

><p><em>Dear Universe, why can't you give me a break? I'm with the Host Club (the twins) almost all the time, and once I finally have time off from school to just relax and not do any Host stuff, you suck me right back in.<em> Haruhi had the right idea, going to the country like that—even if it was to work. Away from the Host Club is away from the Host Club. Don't get me wrong, I liked the guys and all, they were just a bit too overwhelming for my type of character.

Even though it had been about a month since the beach incident, I needed time to make sure I could use my magic without hacking blood—which was still a complete mystery to me as to why and how it even happened in the first place—and that I could control my levitating as well as navigate it. Not only that, I was in school a lot of the time as well as doing Host stuff—making magic training of any kind nearly impossible. When summer break first started, it had taken me a while to think of the idea of waking up early to avoid the twins. The day I actually manage to escape and fly high in the sky for real, I end up heading to Karuizawa to make sure that Haruhi didn't suffer alone. Damn that Kyouya for opening his big mouth to Tamaki and the twins (then to Mitsukuni and Takashi).

Things got weird the moment everyone arrived there. Being unable to fly fast just yet, I was the last to get to the location. Haruhi had a look of horror on her face when she realized that all the Hosts planned on staying. She and the owner of the pension, Misuzu Sonoda, a cross-dresser who's a close friend of Haruhi's father, didn't mind if I stayed in the same room with Haruhi, but she only had one room open for any of the remaining Hosts that wanted to stay. With a determined look on each of their faces (except Takashi's), they held a ridiculously stupid "Refreshment Contest" where they had to make the guests feel "refreshed" as best as they could.

Wasn't that pretty much the exact same thing we did in school for the fan-girls? In a way, it's like the whole "making people happy" thing was like a career. I wasn't opposed to making people happy, it's just that the way the club went about it makes a person tired. Refusing to take part in the event—I already had a room anyway—I sat on the roof watching the guy Hosts (mostly Tamaki and the twins) make fools of themselves. They were trying so hard for something so damn stupid. Those guys were rich! I couldn't see why they just didn't have a contest to see who could pay Mr. Sonoda the most for the room. But I suppose that if you're going to do something, do it with a pinch of excitement and randomness to avoid it from being boring—that was their philosophy anyway.

In the end, the twins ended up winning the contest using their "Forbidden Brotherly Love" bit. Just like at school, people just couldn't get enough of it. Tamaki whined about it, but quickly got over the fact that he lost when he and the remaining Host Club promised to come back every day and see us. Great.

Before I knew it, four days had passed and an old classmate of Haruhi's, named Arai, came to the pension to drop off something for his part-time job. The moment he recognized Haruhi, he couldn't wait but catch up with her. He mentioned how he used to have a crush on her and how Haruhi was totally oblivious to it (even now she was sort of oblivious to it). It was during this time that obvious hidden feelings began to arise.

I knew for a while that the twins were rather fond of Haruhi—you know, in a way that was more than a friend. Even if the other's weren't aware of it—which they may have been, except Tamaki who apparently shared some of Haruhi's naïve-ness –I knew only because I had a fairly good eye for these things. Though I was not really involved in social activities and such while growing up, one thing I was really good at was knowing if someone liked someone else. It was just one of those odd talents I had. Noticing things like certain body languages as well as how people interacted with each other was just an observational hobby that made me more perceptive to people's emotions. Taking all of this into account, it was obvious to me that the twins were jealous of the fact that Haruhi was paying more attention to a guy who "used to" like her rather than them.

Out of the twins, Hikaru seemed especially envious. Uncharacteristically, he yelled at Arai and Haruhi causing her to slap him. He stopped off in a jealous rage, leaving an awkward silence.

This whole ordeal left a nasty feeling at the pit of my stomach. To be honest, I wasn't really all that familiar with the thing that was going on with me. Maybe it was in my imagination, but I sort of felt like some of the twins' possessiveness had rubbed off on me, because I didn't particularly like the idea of sharing either Hikaru or Kaoru. It was completely unexpected that I would feel that way. And I knew that it was completely selfish and petty. But I couldn't deny how I felt about the situation. Usually, I preferred it when the twins put their attention on somebody else—they were both persistent and annoying—but now that their attention was _really_ on somebody else, it ticked me off. So…was I mad at Haruhi for grabbing more of their attention? Or was I mad at Arai for making the twin's feelings more widely known? Seeing Hikaru's jealousy must have fueled my own. How... _appropriate_.

* * *

><p>Waking up really early the next day—making sure not to wake Haruhi—I got dressed in a pair of nice, white jeans, and a tight, cotton, olive green, no-sleeve turtle neck, complimented with gold hoop earrings. I wasn't completely sure as to how I ended up dressing so nicely, but…the damage was done and I didn't plan on getting changed again. Staying quiet, I levitated out of the room through the window. Elevating myself up a floor, I looked for Hikaru and Kaoru's room. When I found it, I looked through their window to see that they were both still sleeping in their bed.<p>

_Hmmm…now how am I going to do this?_

On the day before, I overheard Kaoru talking to Mitsukuni about a plan he had for the day after. He had asked Haruhi out on a date to apologize for what Hikaru did—and she agreed. His plan was to pretend to be sick and have Hikaru go on the date instead. I had the weirdest desire to stop that specific date from happening. So, I devised my own plan.

Focusing on Water, I tried to make it manifest without a wand. When I was feeling vulnerable at the beach, I realized that using a wand for magic may eventually do me more harm than good. Knowing that I possessed the ability to use Wind without my wand, I figured that it was probably possible for the other elements as well—even if it did take much more concentration and energy than usual. This situation provided me with a good opportunity to test out that theory.

Using the moisture in the air, a tiny sphere of water manifested itself in front of Hikaru's face. Keeping the water's shape as well as controlling it without a wand was proving rather difficult because I was already developing a headache. With a wand, I had a point to focus on and more control over the elements, without one, it was like…well the best way to explain the whole situation was like a fishing rod. With a fishing rod, you have a long stick to hold the string and you have a handle on where it's aimed. If you just had a string, then you have to put more effort into where you want it to go and controlling it isn't the easiest task.

Keeping my energy steady, I successfully splashed the water into his face. Almost instantly, his eyes shot open. Sitting up, he looked around to see where exactly he was splashed from. The moment he saw me at his window, he gave me a confused look. I waved to him to meet me outside.

About twenty minutes later, he came walking out with that same puzzled look mixed with a little annoyance. It was clear that he was still a little pissed from the day before.

"What is it? Why are you up so early?"

"It's eight in the morning. I wouldn't really say that it's _that_ early." I told him.

"We're on break. We're allowed to sleep in." He said through a yawn.

"Yeah, well I planned on my break being filled with a little less Host Club. But I learned a while ago that we can't always have what we want." Baiting him with one of my normal sarcastic remarks, I expected him to say some silly, annoying, or perverted retort like he and Kaoru always did.

This time he scoffed, completely throwing me for off. "Did you wake me up to say that?" He turned back into the building, forcing me to levitate over to the door, blocking him. "C'mon Aki. I want to go back to bed."

"You can't! Because Kaoru—" Stopping myself, I thought against telling him his brothers' plan.

"Kaoru what?"

"You…can't go back because…you might wake him…Yeah! Kaoru deserves more sleep right?"

He smiled slightly. "And I don't…because…?"

Walking up to him, I grabbed his arm and started to walk him away from the building. "Because there's something I want to show you." He didn't seem to want to argue because he went along with me.

"Okay…Umm…"

I looked at him. "What's wrong?"

His smile widened and regained its usual sneakiness. "This is a very _friendly_ position you put us in." Realizing that both of my arms were hugging his, I immediately jumped away. _When did I even do that? _

We walked about four miles down a dirt road, leaving me fairly surprised that he didn't suggest riding a limo or something. He must have been _really_ deep in thought about Haruhi to forsaken his rich side. In fact, he didn't say much at all. This was bothering me considerably.

But I had no idea what to say.

Usually it was the three of us, and now Hikaru and I were all alone. It was a bit awkward honestly. What made the whole situation more awkward was the fact that he wasn't acting himself. He was ordinarily a silly and sneaky person who loved to have fun. Now…he was being a wet blanket. Who would have thought that I would miss that side of him.

Looking around, I took in the beauty that the country had to offer. Everything was so green, the air was clean, and the lack of nearby buildings in the area made things sort of—ugh—_refreshing_ to experience. Hearing birds singing filled the awkward silence, making me feel a smidge better.

We eventually came to a fork in the road, causing the two of us to stop. He eyed me curiously. "So, what now?"

"Umm…" I thought I knew where I wanted to go, but my perspective from the ground was different than it was in the air. And it was in the air on my way to Karuizawa that my eyes caught sight of the place.

"Do you even know where we're going?" He gave a skeptical look.

"Of course I do!" I snapped. Thinking of how I was going to solve the problem, I finally came up with something. Levitating, I hovered above him.

"Lift your arms up."

"Why?"

"Why do you think?" Slowly raising his arms, I took hold of his wrists and he held onto mine. Using more energy and effort, I lifted him from the ground and into the air. I smiled a bit when I saw the amazed look in his eyes when he felt the sudden weightlessness. It may have been more of a hassle to be carrying someone—especially since flying was still a bit new to me—but it was nice to share the awesome feeling with someone. Raising ourselves above the trees and up to some of the lower clouds, a picked a perfect height where I could see the land below for miles.

"Doesn't this feel great?" I asked him.

"Yeah…" He was still in a tiny but of shock—the good kind.

"You know…it's because of you that I was even able to learn to do this." Talking to him was much easier in this free atmosphere. Not only that, I didn't have to look into those "I'm thinking about Haruhi" eyes.

"Me?" He looked up.

Not returning his gaze, I nodded. "Yeah. Let's just say that you helped me to stop thinking so much. Then it just sort of came naturally."

"I can't believe that you're able to do this! It's amazing! I can see for miles!" I couldn't help but smile at his reaction. "This is the coolest thing I've ever seen Aki."

I continued to fly without saying anything. Slowly watching how he was reverting back to his old self was satisfying for me. Looking into the distance, I spotted our destination. In order to avoid detection (because we all know that we couldn't have a bunch of civilians seeing me use any kind of magic), we descended. Lowering him down carefully, I gradually let go of his wrists before reuniting with the ground myself.

Hikaru's face beamed. "I never thought that I'd say I was actually flying."

Giving a skeptical chuckle, I told him, "Excuse me? I flew. You held on."

"I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure that I was the wind beneath _your_ wings." Catching the joke, I playfully punched him in the arm as he laughed a little.

"You wish dude."

He looked around. "So, what was this thing you wanted to show me?"

"You honestly didn't see it when we were up there?"

"See what?"

I pointed down the road. "There's a huge festival happening over there you idiot!" His eyes followed my finger towards a colorful busy area filled with a few theme rides, carnival games, and loud music. _I think being there would get his mind off Haruhi._

Staring at the festivities, his head slowly turned around to face me—wearing a look of amusement. "Oh, now everything makes sense. This is a date, right?"

Feeling my face heat up, I got defensive. "As if! Of course it isn't a date you moron! Get over yourself." Crossing my arms, I turned away from him.

He put both of his hands on my shoulders as he whispered playfully in my ear from behind. "You say that, but why else would you be dressed so nicely?" The feel of his warm breath on my skin gave me goosebumps. "A person usually does that when their trying to impress someone."

Sliding from his touch, I tried to remain calm. "This outfit happened by chance. And who cares about what I'm wearing anyway? Can we just go?"

He sighed, keeping the grin on his face. "Okay. Whatever. Let's go then."

The moment we bought our tickets and walked in, Hikaru wanted to go on and play pretty much everything. So I let him go off and be giddy while I found a place to sit and watch. Fun, social events like this were never really my thing. Whenever I actually decided to go to a party—that Saru dragged me to—all I did was sit in the corner watching everybody else have fun. The whole thing was so unnatural to me, so I never enjoyed myself. No one bothered to get me involved in the activities, and Saru usually saw a bunch of other friends and ditched me, leaving me alone during the whole thing. In the end, she would tell me how I needed to just let loose and relax, how she shouldn't have to stay with me the whole time in order for me to have a good time. Well, that would have been good and all, but isn't the point of social events to be social? It's just sad to be going on your own for hours pretending like you're actually having a good time. There wasn't any point in kidding myself.

I eventually lost sight of Hikaru in the crowd, and accepted the fact that he left me there, just like Saru used to do. This time, it was on my own free will, so I wasn't going to complain about it. I was already happy knowing that he was pretty much back to his old self. It was the least I could do for him after he made me feel better about being in this world.

"_**Because I wanted to see you smile."**_

The memory made my face get hot as I looked to the ground. _Why did I suddenly remember that? _That was when a thought came into my head. _Wait a second…what if…_

"Hey Aki!" Hikaru ran up and grabbed my arm. "Let's go have some fun!"

"No, it's okay…"

He sat down next to me. "C'mon! You think that you can't have as much fun down here as you can in the sky?" I gave him a look. "Okay, maybe not. But we can come pretty close!"

"No, really. It's okay. These things aren't really my style."

"You invited me here."

"Yeah but…It's just not my thing."

I could feel him staring at me, trying to figure out what I was thinking. His eyes seemed so piercing at that moment, making me freeze up slightly. _Has Hikaru always had this effect on me? When did this start to happen? _

"You're not a real social person are you?" The question came up sort of suddenly so I faced him. "You just seem too unnatural when there is a bunch of people around. Even in the club room—you suddenly turned shy in front of the ladies." He looked up as if he were thinking. Suddenly he dropped the bomb. "Are you—are you used to having friends Aki?"

My eyes went wide. How had he been so perceptive about me? This topic I knew about all too well, and I wasn't afraid to share my feelings about it. "Let's see, friends…Where I come from, I've given up on trying making friends. It's always been impossible to keep anyone close. Friendship was just a joke. Sure, they'd stay around for a little while—I'd listen to what they had to say and give advice. But the moment they lost interest or realized that they had to listen to me too, they would either distance themselves or dump me as a friend altogether. Draining their happiness, wasn't particularly fun either. So, instead of the extra hurt, I figured why I should even try trusting people. I keep my expectations low so that I never get disappointed. Distancing myself saves both time and effort."

He gave a small chuckle. "Yeah, I know that feeling."

I looked at him in disbelief. "How could you? You have Kaoru, you've always had him with you. You were never alone. Even if there's nobody else, you'll still have him. I lost my older sister seven years ago. She was the only one who ever cared about me. But that's all over." My tone had gotten darker as the mere mention of my sister left my lips.

"How did she die?" He spoke with such sympathy that I had never heard from him before. It was different, but kind of nice that I was able to see so many different sides of him all in one day. Despite that, I just couldn't answer him. "Look, Kaoru and I both know how you feel. How do you think it feels to be mixed with him all the time? Can't really call someone your friend if they can't even tell the difference between you and your brother. Two separate, completely different people. It's hard to trust someone who doesn't even know the real you."

"But you have the Host Club. They all know the difference." _Especially Haruhi._

"Yeah, _now_ we have the Host Club. Before the boss invited us, it was a completely different story." _But now you're mixing people up on purpose. _As if reading my mind, he answered my question with a shrug. "We fool people now because we know that at least someone knows the difference. So it's all good. Besides, we get a kick out of seeing the ladies guess at it and accept us whether they get it right or not." Seeing the look on my face, he turned the subject around. "You have the Host Club now too. So why are you still so hesitant to move things forward?"

This brought me back to those previous feelings of sadness I had for leaving my friends—how upsetting it was to know that they had forgotten about me. I knew that there were things that I had to keep a secret, but if I didn't tell somebody something, then I was eventually going to explode. And it wasn't a good idea to keep in hidden feelings when you have powers that could potentially cause a deadly tornado.

"Some things I'm not able to tell you. But what I can say is that I've been searching for something for a while now. Something that eventually lead me to the outside of your mansion."

"Like what?"

I hesitated while resting my hands on the top of my thighs. "I can't tell you. But because of the journey I'm on to find it, I've been forced to leave the places that I was in before. I had a few friends and I thought I was happy. But when it turned out that what I was looking for wasn't there, I had to leave immediately. The people I had formed friendships with had to lose any memory they had of me." He had a shocked look on his face when he heard that part.

"How is that possible?"

"I'm…not sure. But you can imagine that making friends would be hard if you knew that your time in a certain place was only temporary and that the people there would just forget about you anyway." Squeezing my fists, my whole body tensed up. "My whole anti-social thing—because of messed up home life—mixed with circumstances on this journey make for a very twisted situation."

"Wait a second, let me make sure I have this straight. You might leave here at any time? Literally anytime?" I nodded. "And I'll forget about you? There's nothing I, or we, can do to stop it?" I shook my head.

We just sat there for a few minutes not saying anything. This silence was even worse than before because it had me wondering. _What does he think of me now? Will he not want to be my friend now that he knows that I could leave soon? _

Just as I was about to say something, a catchy ringtone broke the silence first. Hikaru reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

"It's Kaoru…" He said while keeping his eye on his device. _Well that's no surprise. I'm actually a little surprised it took him this long to ask where his brother was. _I smiled deviously to myself. _I wonder how his date with Haruhi is going…_

The ringing persisted. "Are you going to pick it up?"

When the music subsided, he began to tap at the keys, then returned his phone to his pocket. "I sent him a text."

Nodding, I looked back at the ground. _I can't believe he didn't talk to him..._

Before too long, he decided to speak up. "So, I'm guessing that you don't have a boyfriend?" My stomach turned at the question. Quickly passing him a glance, it was hard to really give him an answer. I didn't know what reason he had for asking—after all, it was a bit random. "By that reaction I'm going to say that you don't. Perhaps you never did—"

"Shut up!" I had heard things like that from people way too many times before back in my world. They would make fun of my lack of friends and how I wasn't compatible with anybody. The whispers in the crowd at the mall before I left rang in my ears.

"_**How pathetic…"**_

_** "…that long?"**_

_** "Is there something wrong with her?"**_

_** "…must be true, she's not arguing…"**_

_** "Self-pity? What a turn-off."**_

"Aki!" Hikaru's calling me snapped me out of my memories. "I didn't mean it in a bad way. Why do you always take things as an insult?" Calming down, I noticed that he scooted himself closer to me. Again, my stomach jumped with my heart following it. "So, I'm also going to assume that you haven't had your first kiss yet either?" He slowly and gently held my chin and turned my head towards his. Seeing the soft, serious look in his eyes made me start to melt in his touch. I gulped slightly, unable to speak. "Maybe we could both get it over with now. You know, to see what it's like. What do you say?" My voice wouldn't work for me to protest. He had to have noticed my face flushing because he smiled as he tilted my chin up with him gradually leaning in.

_Maybe it's not so much the twins I don't want to share…perhaps it's just him. Maybe I just wanted to keep Hikaru…_

After the initial shock of reality washed away, my eyes were starting to close in compliance as his lips began to meet with mine. Before he actually made contact, he quickly pulled away and started to laugh hysterically.

Seeing my look of confusion, he wiped his tears from laughter. "I can't believe you actually thought I was going to do it! You should see the look on your face! It's priceless!"

In disbelief, and through a completely warmed face, I snapped at him for playing me that way. "You are such a jerk!" It would have been completely justified for me to have clobbered him at that moment. But then again... Noticing how he was laughing and acting more like his teasing old self, I couldn't help but smile a little as well—trying to contain my own laughter that was building up.

In the center of the festival, a happy melody began to play, causing people to start dancing happily. Hikaru instantly stood up and held out his hand. "Let's go and have some fun."

Shaking my head, I asked him. "So does this mean that you're not thinking about Haruhi anymore? You're back to your old self again?" His hand started to drop. "I mean…it's good to see that you're yourself again."

"You brought me here so that I could take my mind off of things didn't you?"

Trying to sound cool, I closed my eyes and tucked my hair behind my ear on one side. "Well, it was annoying me that you weren't annoying me. In a world where either Hikaru or Kaoru Hitachiin are not their usual irritating, hyped-up selves is just…weird. I like you guys better when you're yourselves." I smiled at him. "It's no fun to yell at you two when you're being serious. Besides, I needed to thank you somehow for getting me to focus on other things than the things I was sad at when I arrived here." _Now that I think about it, this is the longest conversation that I've had with either of the twins. I was usually trying to avoid them or yelling at them for something. It was kind of a relief not being mad at them for once. _

Without saying a word, he took my hand and lifted me to my feet—leading me towards the music. I tried to resist.

"No, Hikaru, I told you that these sorts of thing aren't my style—"

"Just trust me, okay? You'll have fun." It sounded like Hikaru, but something was different. He had calmed down in a way that was uncharacteristic for him—which had unsettled me since I thought he was finally back to being happy.

In the middle of all the dancing, I felt unnatural being in the middle of all those people making my body freeze a bit. Placing a hand on my waist and continuing to hold my other hand, he looked me in the eye.

"Relax. Don't focus on the crowd. Just feel the music and I'll help you." Listening to the music, his feet started to move, motivating mine to do the same. I was still a bit frozen (and sloppy) from being in a crowd doing something I never thought I'd do. My body swung from back to forth, twirling while admiring how well Hikaru was doing this. _Leave it to rich people to know how to dance as well as this. Who would've thought that Hikaru had a classy bone in his body? _

Right as I was starting to loosen up, a loud boom echoed around causing mostly everyone to stop dancing—including us. Looking up at the sky, we noticed that the whole sky was covered with dark, fluffy storm clouds. Not too much longer, there was a bright flash followed by another earth-shaking boom. Soon there was one rain-drop. Then another. Then the whole area was drenched with rain. _Huh. You think one of us would have noticed clouds like that in the sky when we were up there._ My bangs—and clothes—were so soaked that they were hugging my body more than usual. Looking at Hikaru, the same seemed to go for him.

As everyone around is scattered away, the both of us just stared up at the marvels of the stormy sky. When we finally snapped out of it, we—unlike the other people—decided to stay around while standing under one of the festival ground's large umbrellas. Without a word between us, I wanted to finally take the initiative and speak first.

"I used to be afraid of lightning and thunder when I was younger." He looked at me. "But when I realized just how magical lightning was to look at, I wasn't afraid anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"On a normal clear day, all you see is the blue sky that we are so familiar with. But during storms like this, we get to experience something that isn't exactly status quo. Haven't you ever noticed how cool lightning bolts look? They are so amazing especially because of how short they last. That's what people are so intrigued by fireworks. We get to experience their incredible beauty for only a few seconds."

After a few more minutes of silence, he chuckled. "You're so random."

I gave him a look. "_Someone_ has to be." Hearing movement coming from him, I glanced over to see what he was doing. Hikaru pulled out what looked like a one inch wide white plastic headband with a white fake Dahlia flower at on the side of it.

Facing me, he presented it. "You know how we made you cut your bangs so that we could see your eyes?" I nodded slowly. "Well, with this, we can finally see your ears too, along with the rest of your face that's usually hidden." Placing the headband on my head, he smoothed my wet hair behind my ears to fit the headband on better. When it was finally situated on my head, I raised my hand to feel it only to be stopped by Hikaru's hand.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"N-nothing." Lowering his hand, he smiled a little. "Thanks for today Aki."

I returned the smile. "No problem. I didn't really do anything—just brought you to some place." Blushing some more, I tried to avoid his eyes. "Th-thank you for the headband."

"Yeah. Just make sure you're always wearing it. Kaoru wants you to have it too."

"Really now?"

"Yeah…" He turned away with a playful look on his face. "I wonder if Haruhi will look cuter with it on. That kind of thing doesn't really seem like a witch's style."

Smacking him hard upside the head, I placed my hands on my hips. "Don't you dare start up with that again."

"Witch, witch, witch…" He sang as he started to run through the rain.

Dashing after him, I shouted, "You can't run from me you stupid Gemini!"

* * *

><p>When we had finally gotten back to the pension, we found that Haruhi's and Kaoru's date went by pretty smoothly. He scolded Hikaru a bit for running off without saying anything. But since it's them, they made up pretty quickly.<p>

After that, the whole Host Club went through their "normal" routines even after the pension stopped being the new hotspot: Haruhi continued to work, Tamaki fussed over her and continued to be fascinated with "commoner" lifestyle, Kyouya conjured up some evil scheme that we probably wouldn't know about until later, Mitsukuni ate more pastries and sweets, and…Takashi was just there.

The twins were the only ones who were acting somewhat…odd…you know, for them. Well, maybe "odd" isn't the best description to how they were. You see, as twins, they upped their game in being persistent and the whole never-leaving-me-alone thing. It was like they were _everywhere_—more than usual. Getting more used to flying, I would be high in the sky when, all of a sudden, I either hear one of the loudest megaphones with the twins calling my name, or a helicopter comes out of absolutely nowhere with the twins in it. Even if I was in town or something, they would come running out of a store to meet me. All of this was making me wonder two things: if I was too early in saying how I didn't want to share the twins—because at that moment, I wasn't against sharing them with the closest, sorry person to walk by, and how the heck they were able to find me _wherever_ I went. Before, I had some time to myself, because they didn't know where to find me, so I would just get some annoying calls or texts to check in on me. Now, they always knew where I was at and meeting me there. Last time I had said that they were with me twenty four seven, it was a joke, this time I was dead serious. It was literally all twins, all the time.

The other weird thing was that whenever—by chance—I was able to get Hikaru alone, he would act kind of awkward and he wouldn't touch me at all—unlike when he and Kaoru were together and they constantly tried to hug me or lean on me. The whole oxymoron, fire and ice thing was really getting on my nerves and I had no idea what to do about it. All of that was starting to make me wonder if I had done anything wrong back in Karuizawa.

"And they're everywhere Haruhi. They won't leave me alone!"

I was with Haruhi one day near the end of break, helping her do some grocery shopping. Luckily, I hadn't run into the twins at all that day, but I knew that it was inevitable.

She gave me a puzzled look. "I thought you patched things up with the twins. Aren't you guys friends now?"

"Well, yeah, I suppose, but that doesn't mean that we need to be together all of the time. They're suffocating me. I remember the good ol' days when you were on their favorites list too."

"What are you talking about? They're still around me too a lot of the time." She said nonchalantly.

"Yeah, but we used to share their attention more equally. Now the scale is heavier on my side now more than ever." Keeping up with her in the aisle, I suddenly remember something. "If they keep finding me everywhere, I won't have any time to look for a good enough birthday present for them."

Actually the twins' seventeenth birthday was on June ninth, way before summer break started. Back then, though, I really didn't like them and didn't really follow all that closely to the lives of the other Host Club members. I didn't find out about their birthday until a few days after. You'd think that with rich people, their birthday would have been so big, it was like they were celebrating some national holiday. But it turned out that the twins didn't want any fuss about their birthday or any party at all until their mother had gotten home to celebrate it with them. She was a big-shot fashion designer and wasn't home a lot of the time. I still hadn't met her yet. But since she was coming back to finally celebrate the twins' birthday, there was going to be an outrageous party. But what do you get for two people who could afford almost literally everything?

"You'll have time to get them something. Don't worry about it."

"What did you get them?" I cocked an eyebrow.

"Since they were so crazy about it, I got them about twenty different brands of instant coffee in a basket…wrapped in a big bow." Giggling at her choice, I thought it was cute how she came up with that idea. The twins were probably going to love that present.

Haruhi paid for her groceries and ended up carrying to bags full of stuff. I offered to carry one, but she insisted that she did it on her own and that she was used to it anyway.

Walking down the street, I continued with my rant. "Their party is in two days, and the twins won't give me a chance to do anything secretive like buy a present. Who am I kidding, I don't even have any money! Hikaru and Kaoru have been buying me whatever I needed. I can't have them by their own present for me for them. That's just wrong!"

"Well then, why don't you just tell them to back off for a while?"

I gave her a "what do you think" look which made her blush slightly in embarrassment. _Alright! I made Haruhi blush! Cross that out on the "things I absolutely have to do before I die" list. _

"But seriously Haruhi, I don't know what to do! It's like…It's like their tracking me or some—" Stopping in my spot, my face went serious. Reaching up at the headband, I ripped off the fake flower and inspected it. "—thing." Feeling around, my fingers felt something unusual. Moving away some of the petals, I saw a small black and green computer chip. Clenching the flower in my fist, my whole body started to shake in anger.

"Aki-senpai?" Throwing off the remaining headband to the ground, I turned away from Haruhi.

Suddenly, the wind started to blow fiercely making people panic and grab onto something to prevent them from flying off. In all of the confusion, I lifted myself off of the ground and into the air. _I can't believe those two would do something like this!_

* * *

><p>Standing in front of the mansion, I clenched the bugged flower in my hand. The only thing running through my mind was the fury of knowing that the two people who had been with me from the very beginning, who said they enjoyed being with me, had completely betrayed my trust. Eventually, the twin's limo drove up and they jumped out with their usual and annoyingly giddy selves. The mere sight of them made me growl.<p>

"Hey Aki! You made the chase too easy for us!"

"Maybe she wanted to have some fun here at the mansion."

"Why start so big? Maybe she wanted some fun in _our room_."

Not amused, I continued to stare them down. Sensing that something was wrong, the atmosphere around them changed.

Hikaru laughed nervously. "Hey, umm…where's your headband Aki?" Slowly walking up to them I stopped about four feet short, extending my hand with the flower in it.

"What the hell is this?" Speaking through gritted teeth, I looked into their guilty golden eyes. They both shifted uncomfortably from side to side.

Kaoru started to speak. "We don't know—"

"Tell me the truth! What the hell is this damn thing!"

Hesitating, Hikaru spoke up. "Don't blame Kaoru, it was all my idea."

"_What_ was your idea?"

"I-it's…it's a tracking device so that—"

"—we would always know where you were at—" Their speech was cut off when I used my energy to make the flower bust into an instant flame, burning it completely to ashes.

"I knew it…I knew this whole time that you guys _never_ cared about me as a friend."

"Aki, you are our friend—"

"No I'm not! Friends don't treat each other like they own them. Friends don't bug their friends so that they could constantly keep tabs on them. You make me seem like some kind of pet. Am I a pet to you?" Hikaru was about to speak, but I didn't give him the chance. "You saw me in front of your house as a stray, you take me in, feed me, give me a leash, take me out for walks, show me to your friends, play with me until you're satisfied then…then you put a chip on me just in case I get lost!"

"No that's not what we—I was trying to do…"

"You're such a liar! I open up to you and you end up treating me just as bad as the people back home did. Apparently, I just exist for your amusement. You just toy with me and toy with me. The moment you get bored of me, you'll just dump me on some curve and go back to your precious Haruhi."

"Hikaru didn't mean for any of this to happen Aki." Kaoru tried to reason.

I faced him with a piercing look. "And you…why the hell would you allow him to do something this stupid? Why would you go along with it? I know he's your brother and all, but it was wrong! And you just played along! You're just as bad as him."

"You're not listening to us. You have to calm down." Kaoru was the only one pitching things out there. Hikaru just stood there with an unreadable look on his face. "You see, the chip was originally meant for Haruhi—"

"Are you kidding me? Not only did you totally kill my privacy and my trust for you, but the 'gift' you ended up giving me was meant for someone else? Then…then there really was absolutely no emotions or heart put into the present." I faced Hikaru. "When you put the headband on my head, were you thinking of her?" Starting to back up slowly, I shook my head. "You guys must really think that I'm some sort of idiot…because I played right into your twisted little game. Well, I'm done with this game and I'm done with you!"

Flying off in a rage, I kept going and didn't look back.


	14. Emotional Depths

**Hey everyone! This is the 14****th**** chapter of "Love Hurts 5 Ways"! The story has finally reached 100 reviews! I'd like to thank everyone who's been keeping up with the story so far or have read the ****majority**** of the chapters and left fun reviews to read:**

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**Thank you all so much for continuing to read this story and reviewing! Even though my story contains an anime a lot of people haven't read/seen, you still took a chance on it—making me very grateful to you guys. It's because of you that I continue to have the inspiration to write more and more chapters. For those who were just introduced to this story, the ones mentioned, and those who have been following this whole time but not reviewing, thanks for reading! I'd also like to thank those who put this story on alert. It made me feel really good knowing that you guys are sticking around to see how this story will turn out. I look forward to future readers, reviews and reviewers! **

**Now let's get on with this story, shall we?**

* * *

><p>Sitting against the wall with my legs tucked in and head buried in my arms, I thought about how much those two had hurt me. Thinking that two people who pretended to like you—who acted like they actually wanted to be my friend—really thought of you as some type of item.<p>

"Aki, as a friend of my precious daughter Haruhi, I can't just let a sweet girl like you sit there with such a sad look on her face." Haruhi's father Ryoji "Ranka" Fujioka, sat at my level and showed me a look of concern in those soft brown eyes of his.

Bringing up my head, I gave him a small, forced smile. "You don't have to do anything for me Mr. Fujioka—"

He wagged his finger at me. "It's Ranka my dear, remember? None of that 'Mr' stuff."

"Okay then, Ranka, you don't have to do anything for me. I'm good. Just go off to work, I'll be fine." The day before, when I had that whole scene with the twins, I had decided to take refuge at Haruhi's apartment. It may have been true that the twins favored her more than me, but it would have been stupid to be mad at her about it. This whole thing had to do with Hikaru and Kaoru's feelings, and since Haruhi was really oblivious to things like that, then there was no point in blaming her for anything. She didn't mind me staying at her house and she even promised not to tell the rest of the Host Club where I was—well, she couldn't tell the members of the club who either a.) couldn't keep a secret, or b.) had the name Hikaru or Kaoru. The last thing I needed was a bunch of hyper guys swinging by trying to make everything better, especially when I knew they would probably make things _a lot _worse. "Haruhi will be home soon anyway. I don't want to put you out more than I already have."

Tossing his long, wavy, reddish-brown hair back, he giggled a bit. "Oh, Aki! You have been no trouble at all! I'm happy to help out a special girlfriend of my Haruhi." Hesitantly standing up, he took out a compact mirror to check his makeup. When he closed it, he gave me a sympathetic look. "I'm here of you want to talk."

_I can't talk to you—I have no idea who you are. You may be nice, but you're still just Haruhi's father to me. _"No, really, it's fine. I'll cope in my own way. I don't want to be the one to make you late for work."

Grabbing his purse, he slowly inched towards the door. "O…kay. I'm off then." As he opened the door, he looked back at me. "I'm sure everything will be alright. Just trust in your friends. That Host Club may be filled with a bunch of weird, perverted boys, but they've done wonders on my Haruhi. I'm almost positive that if you give them a chance, they can be just as a blessing for you."

All I could do was nod at him before he smiled again and shut the door. As my thoughts came back into focus, the atmosphere in the room darkened once more. Thinking of how I had come to a new world to start a new life with a bunch of friends who didn't judge, I couldn't help but bury my head again. A part of me really just wanted to leave and go onto my next destination—for me to get one of my visions to reveal that I had taken yet another girls place so that I could move on. I had a feeling, though, that the universe wasn't going to let me out of this predicament so easily.

Sitting by myself in that lonely room helped me to search my memory long enough to recall the days when the thought of Saru and Kyoko didn't make me want to hurl. With them, I had finally been a part of something as opposed to just my older sisters' shadow. They would include me in their plans and attempt—very horribly—to understand my deep loneliness as well as the darkness that surrounded my being. Even though they were with me, I figured that my dark aura had affected them just like they had everybody else. But I was wrong. They actually had a bit of an resistance to it—I could even feel it. It was like…they had something that withstood the power of my mysterious aura, protecting them from most of its effects. It was then that I realized that I could finally have friends—that someone would accept me other than my sister.

But it wasn't genuine.

Eventually, I began to figure out that something was off about the whole relationship. They'd use me to figure out _their_ problems and get _them_ out of bad situations. When it turned out that I needed to talk or if I had problems to fix, they would go off and do their own thing with their real friends. The years passed and their obligations to me thinned more and more. No matter how much I wanted to ditch those two for once, I always found that I couldn't do it. I just didn't want to be alone. How pathetic was I to have to force myself to stick to fake friends? Yeah, it hurt to know that there was no place for me in their hearts. But...what choice did I honestly have?

Everything was worse now that I thought I actually made real friends that understood me and wanted to be around me. _The whole time, I was just their plaything…_

The barrier around me had been dulled, allowing more people in. Yet, it seemed like things were still the same. _What am I to the rest of the Host Club? Am I actually important to them, or am I convenient for their business? _

As negative thoughts continued to flow through my mind, a slight breeze started to take over the room. Papers ruffled, curtains swayed, and my hair started to uplift. Don't get me wrong, in the past whenever my emotions went haywire, wind would blow all over the place in the form of either an uncomfortable whirlwind or a hell-bent tornado. This time, I was completely under control—completely aware of the wind I was creating. I was just too upset to even care about stopping it. _This apartment complex is lucky that I can control my emotional magic. Otherwise, it'd end up in as bad a state as the shadow creatures left Kaibara High. _

Hearing the locks on the door click, I remained in my place while looking to see who was entering. Not a second later, Haruhi walked in. She was actually wearing a semi-girly outfit consisting of a light blue, v-neck blouse and capris. When she wasn't at school, she was free to be a girl—as long as no one from the school besides the Host Club saw her. She stood in front of the door, holding it slightly open behind her.

"Senpai, I know you don't want to talk about this, but I figured that you should talk to someone who can give advice way better than I could." _What the hell, Haruhi! You didn't—_

As the door opened wider, Mitsukuni—with a smile on his face—and Takashi—with a rather stoic look on his face (ah, it' nice to see that some things don't change!) walked inside. Letting out a huge exhale, my heart calmed down. _I guess it's better them than the _other_ inseparable two. But still Haruhi, what the hell?_

The wind continued to blow even as all three of them sat on the floor around me.

"Aki-chan, Haru-chan told us what happened. Kao-chan and Hika-chan were just playing around." Mitsukuni said. "Please don't be sad."

Turning to Haruhi, I gave her a look. She must have known what I was about to say because she spoke up first, "I know you said not to tell anyone, but I figured that we could trust Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai. Out of all the guys in the Host Club, don't you agree that these two can keep a secret the best?" I was slightly skeptical about Mitsukuni keeping the secret, but I knew that he was way more mature than he looked or acted. So maybe Haruhi was right. "They just want to help."

Acknowledging their goal, I made the wind die down a bit.

"There's a certain line you guys. Blackmailing me is one thing, a bad thing, but a less-worse thing. Tracking me for their sick little amusement, depriving me of freedom, and treating me like a newly-opened Christmas present is so far past the line that you couldn't even spot it with the world's largest telescope!" Burying my head in my arms once more, I turned my head to the side slightly. "Those damn twins were jerks before and they're even bigger jerks now."

"Senpai, those two…definitely do things to their own rhythm, but we can't _totally_ blame them for it. That's just how they are."

Choosing to not respond to her, Mitsukuni spoke instead. "Please, Aki-chan. The Host Club isn't a real family without you in it. And real families don't fight like this." _Uhh…yeah they do. I'd like you to show me a family that is always happy. If you can do that, make sure you rush them to therapy because they clearly need some help. _Completely surprising me, his face became serious."Good families find ways to fix their problems so that they could stay together. Did you know that Kao-chan and Hika-chan stayed in their house all day yesterday and today? They wouldn't talk or see anyone!"

"They're just feeling guilty. The two jerks deserve some guilt." _Just cause they're guilty doesn't mean that they're sorry. It just means that their conscious' have more of a brain than they do._

As if he ignored my statement, he continued. "Not only that, but those two really do care about you. Why else would they give you so much attention?"

"'Cause they're bored." Laughing bitterly, I used a semi-low pitched voice to mock the twins. "'Oh look! There's a witch! Let's blackmail her to make sure she can't get away. You know why, because she's our pet! Since we're two rich bastards, we think we can get away with whatever we want! And for added kicks, let's put some punk tracking device on her to make sure that she really doesn't get away. While we're over here making idiots out of ourselves, let's watch as Aki entertains us. The moment she becomes boring, and her magic is all used up, let's move onto the next interesting thing or person comes along.'" I face Haruhi. "'Hey Haruhi! You're fun and entertaining. Why don't we hang out? At least we _really_ like you—'"

"Enough!" Takashi's angry voice rang through the apartment as I sat there, completely stunned. The three of us looked at the usually non-spoken guy, eyes wide (except Mitsukuni, who knew Takashi better than either of us), as the wind immediately ceased. "Can you honestly just sit there and talk about the twins as if they mean nothing to you now?"

Recovering from the shock, I shot back at him. "Why should they mean anything to me? I obviously mean nothing to them."

"That's not true and you know it!" He sighed and smoothed out his hair. "Maybe it's true that most of us don't know your situation and what you've been through, but all of us can see that neither party involved in this isn't proud of anything that has happened. We know that you're upset, but that doesn't give you the right to mask your feelings with hatred!" Taken aback, I sat there—speechless. _Is he right? Am I just faking my dislike of those two? How do I really feel? _"And is it _really_ the two of them that you're mad at, or is it just one of them?" _Hikaru…_ Yeah...I was mad at _him_. He made believe that I was feeling something real. How foolish was I? "You need to face you're problems Aki, you can't run from them." Giving a reassuring smile, his voice softened, "Just talk to him."

Haruhi still had a rather awed look on her face. "Wow, senpai."

Mitsukuni gave a wide grin. "Just listen to Takashi, Aki-chan! He knows what he's talking about! Just talk to Hika-chan and everything will be alright!"

_Huh, who would've thought that the quietest guy in the whole group would be the one to put everything in perspective? And now he kind of made me feel like a jackass. _

"I have some serious thinking to do you guys." I said under my breath.

Breathing sighs of relief, they all got up from their spots. Takashi nodded—apparently too pooped from making a speech, so now he needs to rest—as he headed towards the door with Mitsukuni. Before they left, Mitsukuni ran up to me with his pink stuffed rabbit extended out to me.

"Here, Aki-chan!"

"Mitsukuni…"

"You need Usa-chan more than I do right now. He always helps me think and makes me feel better when I'm down."

"I can't take Usa-chan from you. He's your favorite…"

He shook his head. "I'm lending him to you. Just hand him back to me tomorrow at the twins' party, kay?" With hesitation, I reached out and took Usa-chan-bringing it towards my body, feeling how soft and comfortable it was.

"But…I don't know if I'm even going to that party. I can't—"

"Of course you're going! It's going to be fun!" He patted my back harsher than intended. Clapping his hands in an epiphany, he motioned over to Takashi. "Oh, I almost forgot! Takashi, give her the dress!" _Dress?_

Reaching outside of the door, he brought in a black garment bag with a hanger sticking out. Placing it on the table, he flashed me a quick smile that made me slightly blush. Taking my hand, Mitsukuni looked straight into my eyes with his wide, brown puppy-dog ones.

"Tama-chan got this dress especially for you! He knows that he can't dress up Haruhi since the ladies will be there, but he was more than happy to get you a very pretty one! So please say that you'll be there tomorrow."

It was hard to resist those adorable huge chocolate-brown eyes. Damn my weakness for cute things. "Fine. I'll go."

Cheering, he took Takashi's arm and raced for the door. Waving, he called out, "See you tomorrow night, Aki-chan!"

Staring at the closed door, Haruhi looked at me with a reassuring look. "Everything will be fine senpai. Things will work out with the twins."

Feeling a worried sensation deep down in my gut, I glanced down at the stuffed rabbit while toying with the long ears. _I sure hope you're right Haruhi._

* * *

><p>Sounds of talking, music, and laughter filled the Hitachiin property on the night of the big party. The whole mansion seemed to be in a buzz for the celebration of the twins' seventeenth year of life. Except for family, there were very few guys attending the party as opposed to the many fan-girls who were invited to attend. It seemed like truck-loads of presents in the shape of a mountain were piled up inside—all from loved ones and close friends. Lights emitting from the area were so intense that barely any stars were even visible in the night sky. Nonetheless, there was definitely a cheery atmosphere in the air making anyone who even went near the celebration to feel instantly happy.<p>

Except me.

Instead of going inside and enjoying the party, I avoided everyone—after separating with Haruhi—by going into the extremely gigantic (darn rich people), yet beautiful garden in the back of the mansion. Getting far enough from everyone that I possible could, I finally ended up in front of an area with a large white gazebo. Sitting on the steps with Usa-chan in my hands, I thought about some things. Shifting in my new dress, I mentally thanked Tamaki for thinking of me. It was a real beautiful gown—a strapless, pleated cerulean dress with glitter at the chest area, hugging my waist while the pleated skirt flowed all the way down to the floor, complimented with silver strap pumps. If I had absolutely anything to say about the rich, it's that they don't mess around when it comes to fashion. After all, they're the ones who have the fashion police on speed dial.

Getting the focus off of the amazing dress, I continued to play around with the bunny—eye to plastic eye. Feelings of confusion raced throughout my heart and body. I felt _some_ comfort with Usa-chan there (cute things are always appreciated), but it wasn't what I needed. Part of me knew that Mitsukuni, Takashi, and Haruhi were right—that I should just go straight into that building and fix this whole ugly mess. The other part told me that I should keep giving the source(s) of my trouble the cold shoulder. Both of the conflicting ideas collided to give me one hell of a headache. I couldn't exactly tell what I was felling at that moment. Anger? Not sure. Sadness? Not quite. A whole load of jumbled up emotions? Bingo. I mean, I have every right to be angry at them (him)—they (he) totally went against my trust—the trust that took a good long while for them (him) to even earn. Considering my history with people, this whole thing shouldn't have hit me as hard as it did. As far as I was concerned, I was completely desensitized to things like this. It turns out, though, that I wasn't prepared for everything—especially when this certain "thing" involved people (someone) close to me. _Are they (he) still close to me? _I chuckled slightly. _Of course they—oh, who am I kidding? Of course he's important to me. _Even if he only saw me as a toy?

I truly was pathetic. I couldn't even hate someone properly.

Hearing footsteps behind me, I turned quickly to see a very pretty woman with short, styled light red hair, wearing a long, elegant one-shoulder white gown. She had a rather smug look on her face and her eyes, although sharp, were the same golden shade as Hikaru and Kaoru's.

"Feeling lonely out here?" She asked with a silky voice.

"No, I'm fine," I told her. Holding up Usa-can, I said, "I have company."

She laughed. "As much as a cute stuffed bunny may be, you still can't get the full human experience_ without_ humans."

"Thanks miss, but I'm completely content with things as they are right now."

Laughing slyly once more, I realized that the aura around her felt very familiar. "Content huh? Well the story I here is that you and my sons didn't leave on the best of terms a couple of days ago." _Sons? _Noticing her smirk, I groaned. _Now that I think about it, she gives off almost the exact same vibe as Hikaru and Kaoru. No freakin' wonder. _ "I came home all giddy for getting to see my sons again. But the moment I arrive, they are depressed and make a sad attempt at acting like themselves. They may think that I don't pay them enough attention, but I know those two better than they think I do."

Refusing to give a real answer, all I did was scoff, roll my eyes, and say, "Fascinating."

Hearing how I amused her, she continued to smile. "Well, you certainly are a hospitable young girl. My boys warned me that you may bite. Your name is Akimoto Tsubaki, right?" I nodded. "Well, I'm Yuzuha Hitachiin, Kaoru and Hikaru's mother."

"Of course you are," I said out of her hearing range.

"Being such a big-name fashion designer, I'm not able to be with the boys as much as I would like. So when I heard about how that Host Club has been keeping them company, it was like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders." _What a great mother. Dumping her kids on a group of narcissist weirdoes. _Her voice lost some of its joy as she put on a guilty face. "Don't get me wrong—I love my boys very much. They mean the world to me and it hurts knowing that I wasn't there for them enough while they were growing up. But it makes waking up each day easier for me to know that they have those people there to grow up with him and have fun with."

"Huh." _Maybe she is a good mom after all. If she's faking it…then I can't tell at all. _

"They've told me a lot about that nice Haruhi girl." My face fell. _Of course they did. _"But they told me even more about you." Eyes widening, I looked at her more intensely.

"Really?"

"Yup. A lot of _interesting_ things…"

_Like my magic? Or…how I'm the newest toy of theirs? _Curiosity burning, I tried to ask, "What kinds of—"

"Now I don't know everything that happened between you guys, I believe that it's none of my business, but I do know that you have something good going for you. So don't let it be ruined just because my sons, or Hikaru, were acting like idiots." Turning and walking towards the party, she chimed in a few last words, "It's always more fun to be happy. You should try giving your happiness a chance, right?"

At that, someone's hand came from behind and onto my shoulder. Going into defensive mode, I shot my body up and away from the stairs to the gazebo…only to be staring into the eyes of Hikaru himself.

Relaxing myself, I stood there finding some other place to look at than into his eyes. "Congratulations. You managed to sneak up on me." When I thought about walking—or better yet, _flying_ off, he started to speak.

"I think we need to talk."

"Yeah, well, I'm not ready to talk just yet." I told him bitterly.

"Aki—"

"You know…the thing that irks me at the moment is that send your _mother_ after me first. _Real _mature."

"Aki!" He shouted. "Can you, for once in your life, try and listen to what people have to say to you? You always try and dominate the conversation to get your point across. All I'm asking is that you skip that banter you love to do and just listen to me." Stunned by his boldness, I decided to hear him out. "It took a lot of guts and pushing by the other Hosts to come out here and talk to you. So here it is: I am really sorry about that whole tracking thing. It gave you the wrong impression and seemed to mess up everything."

"Then why do it Hikaru? What reason other than making me your pet could you have possibly in mind?" My voice started to increase in volume. "I told you about the social situation that I had grown up in. I told you how I felt about friendship, and you went and did something like that. How can I possibly trust you?"

"Maybe 'cause I'm your friend? We did have a lot of fun times, the three of us. With the jokes, and the pranks, and the laughs—"

"Yeah, _you guys_ had those things. At my expense. You know, this whole time, I never really felt like my own person. Even with the awesome feeling of flying, I never had the chance to be free. Because of you and Kaoru, I felt like some bird in a cage. I didn't leave home to be trapped by people who I thought were my friends—"

"We are your friends—"

"No you're not! What kind of friend would fool a friend into thinking she was actually an important part of their lives when actually, they were tracking me for sport?"

"The same friend who doesn't want you to leave!"

My heart suddenly skipped a beat at the sound of those words. "What?"

He sighed and looked away, his face starting to turn pink. "The other day at the festival, you said that you could potentially leave at any time and that we would all forget about you. I hated the thought of me being helpless about it, so I figured that if I always knew where you were at, then I'd always know that you were still here…with me." Feeling my face heat up, my mind became chaotic and uncontrollable. Dizziness began to befall me, and I had no idea what to do. "I was scared, I guess, so I did something stupid." No matter how much I wanted to speak, I just couldn't form the right words to speak properly—my heart just kept racing. Hikaru started to get angry. "This is so stupid! If you didn't want to leave, couldn't you just stop it? It feels bad knowing that any one of these days, you could be out of our lives. The Host Club would be nothing without you. But you probably wouldn't even care, right? This whole time, you've been acting like you hated being with us. Is it true? "

Starting to snap out of the trance, I shook my head feverishly. "No…I don't hate being with you guys. I…I don't hate being here." _I can't believe it...He had done all of that just to get me to stay. I can't believe how wrong I was about him. And yet...all of this could be lie... _Still thinking, I looked back on the day I woke up in the bed in the mansion. Since that day, I've been made to think that I had friends for life and I didn't even realize it. My mind kept telling me that I'd just end up hurt again, that I couldn't trust anyone. Believing that completely clouded my judgement and my heart. The truth is that I'll probably still keep thinking in that manner...it's how I grew up after all, but maybe I could take a chance on this whole "trusting others" thing. You know, just to see what it's like...It'll take time, but...I'll work on it, little by little.

"Look, after all that, I wouldn't be surprised if you did want to leave. Just…go." He turned to walk away. In an instant, I ran up to him and grabbed his hand.

"I'm not going anywhere!"

"What reason do you have to stay?"

"You! I care about you too much to even think about leaving." Realizing what I said, I ignored the intense beating of my heart and extended my arm up and around his neck, closing the distance between us while bringing his face down to mine. Without another word, our lips met. Relaxing into it a bit, he managed to return the kiss and wrap his arms around my waist, lifting me up to match his height better on the steps. Parting our lips, the kiss deepened as he brought our bodies even closer together. My whole body tingled at how amazingly soft his lips were. When we finally broke, his eyes opened followed by a wide smile.

"I win." He said with a twinkle in his eye.

I gave a puzzled look. "Win what?"

"Weren't we playing 'who can act the most like a drama queen while admitting our feelings'? I figured that my performance was pretty good."

Realizing what he was saying, my jaw dropped. "Dammit Hikaru! You tricked me! I thought that you're whole speech was a tad _too_ dramatic for your style."

"I got you to kiss me didn't I? By the way, that was the sweetest first kiss ever." He winked. Seeing annoyance in my eyes, he chuckled before his face softened. "I meant what I said though, I really don't want you to leave Aki. You're too important to me."

"You, or you and Kaoru?"

"Well, Kaoru does too, but I have a feeling that I care just a bit more." Our foreheads rested against each other's.

Face still feeling warm, I smiled. "I really don't want to leave. Out of all the places I've been to , I think I like this one the most."

"You think?" His lips got close to mine.

I nodded. "Yeah…" Silencing me with another kiss, I couldn't help but thank the universe for letting me have this moment.

Quickly separating, he lowered me back onto the bottom step I was on then took my hand.

"Want to go to the party now? You're gonna miss the best part if we don't hurry." _You mean it gets better? _

Feeling slightly nervous to go to a party full of people, I reluctantly nodded. "Sure."

_Thank you, Hikaru. I know you said that that whole thing was just a game, that you were pretending to be that upset. But I have a feeling that you meant everything that you said. Even the greatest of actors could never show the emotions I saw blazing in those eyes of yours. I'm happy that you let me see the real you other than the jokester you._

* * *

><p>Reaching the front doors to the mansion, hand in hand—and Usa-chan in the other—they were suddenly opened by the twin maids. "Welcome back sir and mademoiselle." They said simultaneously. The moment we walked in, a colorful assortment of confetti and balloons rained down from above followed by a bunch of people clapping and cheering. In all of the confusion, I didn't realize quickly enough that I was no longer holding Hikaru's hand. When everything cleared, I lifted my hand to my face to realize that Hikaru had been replaced with a microphone.<p>

Confused, I looked around until I saw the whole Host Club, twins included, all standing in front of an elevated and circular platform with smiles on their faces.

"What the hell?"

Mitsukuni skipped up to me and took Usa-chan. "Thanks for taking care of Usa-chan. I hope he helped you feel better."

"Umm…he did but what—"

"I can't wait to hear it Aki-chan!"

"Hear what?"

He ran back to the others who stood there watching me, as well as the hundreds of people in the room.

The twins stepped forward. "In honor of our birthday—"

"—we request that the commoner, Aki, who doesn't have the money to buy us a present, sing us a song."

"A nice one too."

_A…song? Wait a sec…that's not just a circular platform, that's a stage!_

"What the hell, Hikaru!"

Kaoru spoke up with the same smug on his face. "We just wanted to save the best gift for last."

"Yeah, there's no harm in that!"

"What makes you two idiots think that I could sing?" I shouted.

They wrapped their arms around each other's waists. "We hear you singing on that day you woke up."

"Instead of recording it and watching it over and over again on our phones," _Bastards, "_we wanted our own personal concert. So, what do you say?"

Walking up to them, I tried to ignore all of the muffled talking and stares surrounding me. That's when Mrs. Hitachiin came out from the crowd and patted my head.

"Thanks for doing this." Smiling warmly, she added, "Just remember to have fun."

Nodding reluctantly, I shot pretty much all of them a dirty look as I walked up the steps, in the middle of almost-blinding spotlights. The crowd suddenly surrounded the stage in a mob just waiting for the show. Sighing, I thought to myself, _might as well. _

With the sound of drumsticks starting a beat, catchy pop music began to play.

"_I don't want to make a scene,_

_I don't want to let you down._

_Try to do my own thing,_

_And I'm starting to figure it out_

_Cause it's…Alright keep it together_

_Wherever we go, _

_And it's alright_

_Oh well, whatever!_

_Everybody needs to know_," Pointing to the twins, I sang out,

"_You might be crazy_

_But have I told you lately_

_That I love you?_

_You're the only reason that I'm _

_Not afraid to fly, and it's_

_Crazy that someone could change me_

_Now no matter _

_What it is I have to do_

_I'm not afraid to try_

_And you need to know that_

_You're the reason why_!"

"She's simply magnificent Haruhi! You think that I could get an autograph from her?" I heard Tamaki shout out.

Haruhi gave him a "what's the point" look. "Senpai...you see her almost every day. You don't need an autograph."

Kyouya had his own agenda as he pushed up his glasses. "Autographs may actually be a good idea. The ladies would go crazy over them."

Rolling my eyes and signaling to the whole Host Club, I continued the song,

"_I don't even care when_

_They say you're a little bit off._

_Look me in the eye I say,_

'_I can't get enough!'_

_Cause it's alright,_

_Keep it together,_

_Wherever we go, and it's_

_Alright, oh well, whatever!_

_Everybody needs to know,_

_You might be crazy,_

_But have I told you lately, _

_That I love you?_

_You're the only reason that I'm _

_Not afraid to fly_

_And it's crazy_

_That someone could change me_

_Now no matter_

_What it is I have to do I'm_

_Not afraid to try._

_And you need to know that_

_You're the reason why_."

Walking off the stage, I stood in front of the twins with my own version of a conniving smile. And I thought that mine beat theirs by a long-shot.

"_If it was raining,_

_You would yell at the sun._

_Pick up the pieces when_

_The damage is done._

_You say it's just another_

_Day in the shade._

_Look at what a mess we've made_." I winked at them. _That's right I'm talking about you guys._

"_You might be crazy_

_But have I told you lately, _

_That I love you?_

_You're the only reason that_

_I'm not afraid to fly_

_And it's crazy_

_That someone could change me_

_Now no matter what it is_

_I have to do I'm not afraid to try. _

_And you need to know that," _I put my arms around the two.

"_You're the reason why!_"

* * *

><p>When the party ended, confetti still littered the whole floor of the ballroom. Echoes of the cheers people gave me for the song still rang in my ears. The incredible feeling of people appreciating and liking what I'd done still lingered deep inside. I always loved to sing—it relieved stress—but I never thought that I'd actually be good at it.<p>

The Host Club stood in the middle of the room, reminiscing the fun night, before they themselves made their separate ways home.

At a time that I didn't expect it, the twins came by and looped their arms around mine in that familiar fashion of theirs. "So Aki," Kaoru began, "Hikaru tells us that you're a couple now. Is that true?"

Blushing a little—especially in front of the whole club—I nodded. "Yeah, I guess."

That was when the rest of the club stared for a moment before giving us their blessings with smiles. Feeling embarrassed, I looked down.

Facing each other, the twins gave devilish grins. "Say, Hikaru, since you and Aki are together, what are we gonna do about our act?"

"Don't worry about that my dear Kaoru. You and I are bonded by blood and love. No one can come in between that. I'll make sure that we're always together."

"Oh, Hikaru—"

"You two aren't seriously doing this with me in the middle!" I roared, which earned me snickers from the two jokesters.

Seeing Haruhi smiling at us, Hikaru asked, "Hey Haruhi, we're going to bed soon. You think that you and Aki would like to join us?"

Without hesitating, she waved her hand in front of her face wildly. "No thanks. I prefer my own bed."

Totally surprising myself and everyone else, I said, "Okay."

This time everyone, including the twins, just stared for the longest time.

Laughing I tried to get them to unfreeze. "Oh, come on! You guys have been trying to get me to sleep in the same bed as you two for the longest time. I figured that there's no harm in it as long as you two don't pull anything that would force my hand to 'slip' and burn you."

Still shocked, it took a few seconds for Hikaru and Kaoru to blink a few times, followed by cheers. "Finally! We broke Aki!"

"You didn't break me. I'm just a little more open minded tonight. And once again, since I can't stress this enough, absolutely _no _funny business, or else."

Haruhi, being the third to regain her shock, walked up to me and put a hand on my shoulder with a serious look on her face. "Senpai, you are by far the bravest person I have ever met."

* * *

><p>The room was mostly dark except for the bright full moon that shone through the tall windows. Kaoru and Hikaru lied on both sides of me, each with the biggest smiles on their faces. The bed was very soft and comfortable, and, oddly, I didn't feel weird about being there. I was among friends and that alone was the best feeling in the world.<p>

"Thanks for being my friend you guys—even at first when I didn't accept your friendship. I was a complete idiot and should have given you more of a chance."

"Glad to do it." They both said. "And we forgave you a long time ago."

"Oh, and thank you Kaoru for talking to Hikaru for me before tonight. Whatever you told him, it worked." I smirked a little.

Hikaru sat up. "What makes you think that Kaoru gave me advice?"

Kaoru shifted his body to face inwards towards me while leaning his head on his hand. "Because I did." Even though it was too dark to tell, I knew that Hikaru was blushing from what his brother just revealed.

"Hey Aki, you know those 'hundreds of videos' we told you about when we met?" Hikaru asked with a slight amount of slyness in his voice.

"…Ye…ah…" I cocked my eyebrow up.

"Totally nonexistent." Resisting the urge to sit up and bash them to bits, all I did was sigh—centering myself from completely lashing at them. _Seriously? That was a trick too? Gosh, what is wrong with these guys?_

"Hikaru! You weren't supposed to tell her that!"

He chuckled. "It's okay! She's not going anywhere."

Sighing again, I waited until the two finished their conversation and Hikaru lied back down. _Well, whatever is wrong with them, I'm glad it is. Because if these two weren't the ones I met when first arriving here, I can't even imagine what things would be like right now._ A small smile began to play on my lips. _You know...I don't really care to find out. _"You guys are incredible chumps, you know that?" Feeling both of their warm arms cover me, we snuggled closer making me feel warmer than I had in a long time. "But you're right. I'm staying right here."

* * *

><p><strong>The song used is called "You're the Reason" by Victoria Justice. Don't you think that the song fits well for how Aki felt about the club? =D Thanx for reading! New chapters for this story coming in the future. I promise! Happy reading and reviewing! <strong>


	15. The Unexpected

**Okay, there is something in this chapter that doesn't make very much sense in accordance to the anime time wise. The grand festival took place some time after Halloween, seasonal details after that are sketchy. As far as my story goes, I have moved up the festival to after summer break. I'm only putting in this note so that people don't ask about the whole time issue thing. Thanx for all of the reviews last chapter and for reading. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>"<em>Kiss kiss fall in love!"<em>

The remaining week of summer went by pretty smoothly—compared to everything that happened when I first arrived here. It was still weird that I had a boyfriend, but I was really happy—a bit awkward, but happy. Considering everything was so new to me, it was slightly hard to tell if it was real happiness and bliss—something told me that it wasn't quite that—but I was willing to work to make it that way.

Hikaru and I had gone out on our first date a few days ago to a movie—it took a while for the rest of the Host Club to listen to Haruhi and me about giving Hikaru and me some space. Unfortunately, the little sneaks still stuck around in places that they thought were clever. In the movie theater, Tamaki thought it was such a big deal about Hikaru and I dating that he thought it was a good idea to hire people to put a piano in the movie theater. With the intention of "serenading our love" he started to play right as the movie began. All of the girls in there pretty much squealed, but their boyfriends didn't seem too happy about it. So before they had the chance to jack him up, I grabbed the guy by the ear and forced him to sit down—causing him to be in his "emo state" for the rest of the movie. The other Hosts knew better, so just kept watch on Hikaru and I during the movie. It was a bit odd having the Hosts there, but I guess they've grown on me too much to kick them out.

Every time I recalled that night at the twins' party, my heart beats rapidly. The fact that I was the one who kissed him—which was _totally_ out of my character by the way—he returned it and said that his life would be miserable if I weren't around. Before, I didn't tell anyone about this whole wish thing (still technically didn't say anything), but saying what I could felt good. So knowing that he wants me to stay gives me an even bigger reason to.

Perhaps this was it. Maybe…my wish was finally granted!

"_It's plain to see _

_When I'm with you, _

_My heart almost skips a beat._

_What is this thing I feel?_

_Could it be paranoia?"_

_**Knowing that I had such good friend in Kaoru—and better yet, a boyfriend in Hikaru—my life, for once, wasn't sucking. **_

_**Looking out my window, I noticed the spot where I had first entered the world. **_**I was so upset leaving Kyo and being stuck in a world where twin annoyances dominated my life. Now…things are different. And I haven't even seen those damn shadow things since then. Maybe things are taking a turn for the better. **

"_I'm so oblivious to love._

_But what else could this feeling be?_

_Ready or not,_

_I know in my heart_

_It doesn't matter."_

_**Tomorrow school would start up again and that, on normal terms, would mean wearing that God-awful, girly, fru-fru, sorry-excuse-for-a-girls'-uniform. Luckily, though, things went a tad differently at Ouran. At the end of summer and on the first day back, a grand festival welcoming all students back to classes was put on where students and parents all come to enjoy festivities put on by the school and its clubs. Yup clubs. Meaning, of course, the Host Club will be there making everyone's life **_**that**_** much better (I was being sarcastic by the way. However, coming from Tamaki's lips, he would have been dead serious). **_

"_It's so clear to me now,_

_You're always on my mind._

_Could it be that you're the one?_

_Maybe you're my love!"_

_**Hearing my door quietly swing open, I pretended as if I didn't notice. A pair of hands covered my eyes while I was playing helpless. **_

"_**You know, you suck at sneaking." I told them.**_

_**Hikaru made a fake groaning sound. "Damn. I should know better than to sneak up on a witch." Turning around, I faced my boyfriends' bright face. **_**Boyfriend. Huh, that sounds good no matter how many times I say it!**

_**I smirked while giving him a scary look. "I thought we were past the whole 'witch' thing, **_**boyfriend**_**?"**_

_**He stepped away in comedic fear, hands up and all. "Well, **_**girlfriend**_**, I thought it would be entertaining." Putting on a softer smile, he extended his arm behind my head and brought me in for a hug. Feeling my body warm up, my muscles started to relax. As we released, I looked down in embarrassment, after seeing him smile again. "You know, you're cute when you get worked up like that." There was a pause before he spoke again. "Get mad again."**_

_**On an impulse, I pushed him on his chest before turning to the side with my arms crossed. "No way you weirdo!" My face was probably extremely red from what he asked of me. He noticed and laughed a bit.**_

"_**It was a joke! You still need to loosen up a bit more there, Aki." Taking my hand, he reached into his pocket with the other. **_

"_I need you here with me_

_So I can give you my best_

_Sakura kiss._

_And if your heart grows strong_

_Then it's meant to be!"_

_**I gasped when he brought out a small velvet bag, tied with a white ribbon and inserted it onto my hand.**_

"_**Open it up!" He said with excitement. **_

_**Hands shaking with curiosity, I pulled the string and reached into the sack. Feeling what I think I felt, my hand froze…before pulling it out. In my hand was the most beautiful bracelet I had ever seen. Its circumference was completely surrounded by silver and shimmering diamonds…REAL DIAMONDS! And there was a unique flower made of silver lined with smaller diamonds. **_

"_**Holy crap Hikaru! This thing must have cost a fortune!"**_

"_**Don't you like it?" He asked.**_

_**Talking quickly, I assured him. "Of course I like it. I love it! Are you kidding me? This is the best thing anyone has ever given me, like ever! I can't believe you've given me something like this!"**_

_**Taking it from me, he held my hand up to put the bracelet on. Lifting my arm wrist up to the sunlight, light reflected from the diamonds and onto the walls of the room. Completely mesmerized by the gift, I caught sight of Hikaru smiling in my peripheral vision. **_

"_**I'm glad you like it! You know, it took forever to think of the right design."**_

_**Eyes widening, I managed to tear my eyes from the bracelet. "You…you made this? For me?"**_

"_**Well, all I did was make sure that you received something just as unique as yo—" Wrapping my arms around him made him cut off his sentence. **_

"_**Thank-you Hikaru. Thank-you so much for this. I really do love it."**_

"_So I'm not worry now,_

_I know that my future is_

_Safe in your hands._

_Love is in the spring, and_

_We'll let it blossom, _

_We'll see what happens with us!" _Holding onto the microphone stand with both hands, I scanned the crowd. Noticing Hikaru looking up at me from the crowd of girls around him, he gave me a smile that was meant only for me. Feeling a tingling sensation throughout my body, I ended in confidence.

"_Maybe you're my love!"_

At that last word of the song, the audience filled with students and parents started to cheer with excitement—and the girls definitely screamed the loudest, no doubt.

It was the day of the festival and the Host Club, without my consent, booked me as the opening event. Seeing how excited everyone was about it, it was hard to say no. Singing in front of a crowd still wasn't my favorite thing in the world—in fact it made me nervous, embarrassed, and downright uncomfortable. But…something about it felt so right. And as long as I didn't focus on all of the eyes watching me, it wasn't so bad. Besides, it was against my character to chicken out of doing something that I could do pretty well. I told myself that if I was going to sing, I'd look confident doing it.

Walking off of the stage, I adjusted my tight skirt. All of the Hosts were wearing caterer attire, consisting of long-sleeved white-collar shirts with thin, red bow ties, black vests, and black dress pants—in my case a skirt. Tamaki wanted us to present ourselves properly to everyone, especially the parents. _Well I suppose it's better than cosplaying as something stupid, _I told myself.

A group of girls and some adults walked over to me.

"Aki! You sounded amazing up there!"

"You should become a pop idol!"

"I'd definitely come to every one of your concerts!"

Laughing nervously, I shook my head. "Thanks for saying so, but I don't think that I could make it as some big pop sensation. Singing is more like a hobby. I'm glad you enjoyed the performance, though."

They squealed again. "She's so modest!" One of the girls grabbed an important looking, older, middle-aged man from in back of her. "Father, this is Akimoto Tsubaki. She's in the Host Club that I've told you so much about."

The man extended his hand out for me to shake. Complying, his seemingly-hardened face managed to crack a grin. "Ah, Akimoto, my daughter has told me a lot about you and your club."

"Is that so? Positive things I hope."

"Indeed. At first, I was appalled to know that she was around a group of teenage men—even if they were part of the most wealthy children in Japan. When I discovered that a young lady such as yourself was there to keep those boys in check, it made me feel a sense of relief." A bunch of the parents behind him whispered and nodded in agreement. "It's good to know that you and your Host Club has been there to assist in making my daughter happy."

"N-no problem." I bowed quickly. "Glad to do it, sir." Addressing the rest of the group I said, "It was a pleasure having all of your daughters around. They definitely make things more interesting." _Interesting meaning that they couldn't stay out of trouble if their lives depended on it…and it usually did._

Somehow, the girls took this as a compliment, making them completely swoon. As the parents attempted to calm their daughters, I managed to walk away slowly and away from the crowd.

Sighing, I noticed the twins and headed in their direction. For the occasion, they had both straightened and styled their hair making them look more sophisticated. Stopping dead in my tracks, I made sure that I didn't get mixed up in their act.

_I spoke too soon. _

"Hikaru, now that you're with Aki, does this mean that you and I are…are—" He turned his back to his brother.

"Of course not Kaoru. Don't even say that!" Putting his hands on Kaoru's shoulders, he turned him around drastically.

Kaoru looked away, with tears in his eyes. "But Hikaru. Aki is the center of your life now. I've been cast aside." Facing him, he cried out, "But it's okay! I want you to be happy. Just know that I'll always love you." I rolled my eyes. _Again, I'd give them more credit if they didn't use fake tears._

Looking at the crowd around them, I was shocked to discover that everyone, including the parents, were completely hypnotized by their "heartbreaking" performance.

Hikaru lifted up Kaoru' s face to his. "My dear Kaoru, as your older brother, I could never leave you. I'd never want to leave you. I care about Aki, but the bond between you and I could never be broken. So don't you ever think otherwise."

"Oh, Hikaru…"

While I stood there grimacing at the performance, a voice came from behind me. "How goes things Aki-senpai?"

"Well Haruhi, I'm just standing here watching my boyfriend play with his boyfriend and potentially turning our clients against me for 'tearing them apart'. You know, same old, same old."

She chuckled a bit at that. "Senpai, you know it's just an act. I know it's…weird, but don't let it bother you."

"Oh, Haruhi. It's bothered me waaaay before he and I started dating." Facing her, I changed the subject. "I'm surprised you were able to get away so easily."

She shrugged. "It wasn't that hard. I'm just happy to see everyone else having a good time here. Seeing them like this definitely makes it worth it to be a Host."

"I suppose." Scanning the area, I groaned. "But now, everyone has multiplied because of the parents—making our job more of a hassle."

"Well I don't think so. We just keep doing the things we do. I don't see a reason to put any extra strain on ourselves. Besides, as long as we leave a good impression, everything should be fine."

"I guess." _I sure hope nothing goes wrong. I just want to get through this day so that all of this trouble will be over._

Not too far away, a huge group of people began to center themselves in one area. Haruhi and I looked at each other in confusion until we finally decided to investigate. Before we even reached the source of the commotion, we hear him loud and clear.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Host Club is truly honored to have you all here enjoying yourselves. There is nothing else we live for than to make you all happy!" Tamaki's voice exclaimed. The girls, while blushing and with smiles on their faces looked to Tamaki—who was holding a rose in his hand, all prince-like—as he spoke. "Noting fills my heart with joy even more to be able to see all of your shining faces." Kneeling in front of a woman—who appeared to be one of the girls' mothers—and held her hand. "Milady, your beauty is what shines my day. Now I know that your daughter gets her magnificence from the exquisiteness that is standing right before me."

"Oh…how charming…" The woman said. She too had a complete look of admiration as Tamaki successfully wooed her.

"Please would you accept my rose, young lady? Even its uniqueness doesn't even come close to your perfection." Holding up the flower, Tamaki flashed an irresistible smile—the woman looked as if she was going to faint.

Taking the rose, the woman seemed to be too swooned for words.

A girl finally spoke up. "See mother, didn't I say that Prince Tamaki was wonderful?"

Haruhi and I just sighed from the whole thing. _What amazes me is that he can draw that kind of attention so easily. _By some cosmic force, the king himself seemed to sense our presence from the outside border of his fans.

"Aki! Haruhi! How are my daughter and sister on this fine day?" Pretending not to hear him, we both looked away. _Don't draw attention to me you moron! I got away from the crowd for a reason. _Tamaki managed to get the crowd to turn their heads and face us. Almost immediately, the crowd was in an uproar as they all realized that three Hosts were in one place. "Now, now everyone, us Hosts would love to spend time with all of you…and we shall. But now," He presented me with his hand, "I must come through on a promise with a friend. My dear Aki, in this atmosphere of friendship and joy, allow me to play the piano in honor of your newfound relationship with Hikaru—"

"No way. I told you not to do that." My voice had a stoic tone to it as I ignored the gawking from everyone else.

"But Aki, I know you'll love it…"

"You're embarrassing her Senpai." Haruhi warned.

"You even think about taking out that piano and I will smash it in half." As I said that, Tamaki retreated to his corner of depression.

At the same time, girls started shouting things like how I was so "Sweet and spicy". Face flushing, I coughed and looked away from them as they surrounded me. You'd think that a lot more of them would be concerned that I had just put Tamaki to shame. This just comes to show you that he's in that corner so often that even _they_ are aware—and used—to it. Kind of tells you something, doesn't it?

Some of the parents looked slightly apprehensive at the scene.

"My word! Is that charming young man okay?"

Haruhi turned to them with a look of indifference. "Yeah, he's just an idiot. Nothing to worry about."

Just then, the whole floor of the building started so settle down and get quiet. As the crowd began to part, a small old, yet intimidating woman in a dull-earth toned kimono walked in the middle towards Tamaki, Haruhi and I. Behind her, stood Chairman Suoh and a very pretty girl I didn't recognize. She looked around our age, had a little longer than shoulder-length dirty-blonde hair and blue eyes that were as vibrant as the blue sky complimented with bright red lipstick. I didn't know why, but something about her gave me the urge to punch her _real_ hard (oh come on, like you guys have never felt like that about someone you just met). Shaking off the feeling, I stood there staring at the three approaching us.

Seeing me in her way, the old lady spoke with a cold, striking voice. "Can you not see that I am walking through here, girl? Get out of the way." _Umm…can you add a "please" to that?_

"Excuse me miss," Haruhi began to say in an inviting voice, "but if there is something you would like us to get you—"

"What I would_ like_ is to get to my grandson that is disgracefully hunched over in the corner. So I will ask that you let me through!" _Grandson? That's Tamaki's grandmother? _

A while ago, I learned that Tamaki was the child of Chairman Suoh and a woman he met in France. They both loved each other very much and eventually had Tamaki. Since the woman was a mistress of the chairman, Tamaki's grandmother, Shizue Suoh, never accepted her or her son. So, for years, Tamaki lived in France with his mother, while his father got to see him only a portion of the time, since he had a business to run here in Japan. Eventually, Lady Suoh agreed to let Tamaki live in Japan with his father (to become and heir) on the terms of him never being able to see his mother again. Thinking that it would be a great opportunity for Tamaki, his mother agreed, which lead to him coming to Japan. Tamaki definitely fascinated me after I learned this about him. He was such a happy-go-lucky guy who loved making people smile, despite the fact that he was forced away from his mother. I never could understand the reasons for his personality—although I think I did prefer a happy and hyper Tamaki over a hateful and lonely one.

Seeing his evil grandmother for the first time made me despise her even more. The more she talked the more of a reason I had to knock her block off. This lady made Taiitsukun seem like a harmless puppy!

Pretending to be cheery, I told her, "I'd be happy to let you through if you asked just a _little_ bit nicer." Giving a hateful smirk, I caught sight of a small twitch from her eye. The crowd gasped in shock.

Noticing that I wouldn't budge, her face scrunched in anger. "Why you insolent little brat. You will do what I tell you to!" Narrowing my eyes at her, I was ready to attack, regardless of her being an old woman. "With those demonic red eyes of yours…Don't you dare look at me like that. Do you know who I am?"

_Do you know who_ I_ am? _"Enlighten me."

Seeing her nostrils flare with fury, she yelled out, "Security!"

"Now, now grandmother," Tamaki must have recovered from his emo corner, because at that moment, he was on the side of me with an arm around my shoulders. With a genuine smile on his face, he added, "There's no reason to call security over here. I must sincerely apologize for my friend Aki here."

"Friend?" His grandmother had a look of disgust on her face. "You mean to tell me that you associate yourself with people like this?"

"You have nothing to worry about Grandmother. Aki is usually a very nice, mature, yet headstrong young woman. She was just worked up is all." He turned his head around to look at Haruhi. "Hey Haruhi, would you and Aki mind leaving me so that I could spend some time with my grandmother?"

"Umm…sure Senpai," she reluctantly said.

"Are you sure about that Tamaki? I mean, I could—"

"No, no. I haven't seen my dear grandmother in a while, so you can understand why I'd like to be with her." _No I can't. _"So…please?"

"But—" Out of nowhere, Kyouya came out of the crowd and grabbed my arm, pulling me away from the scene. "Kyouya, what're you—"

"Come along Akimoto—you too, Haruhi." He commanded.

"And who is this Tamaki?" Lady Suoh asked.

While still holding onto my arms, Kyouya gave a slight bow to her accommodated with a respectable smile. "I am Kyouya Ootori, Lady Suoh."

"Ootori? Ah yes, now that name sounds familiar. It's a bit of relief to know that Tamaki is surrounded by those with merit," She glanced over at me, "as opposed to scum anyone can find on the streets." Feeling a surge of anger, I began to launch out at the hag when suddenly, the hand of Takashi grabbed my other arm.

"Let's go Aki." Takashi, with a bit more force than Kyouya started to escort me away. Feeling that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to one, make a scene, and two, beat an old lady to a pulp, I walked along with him and Kyouya—growling.

"Now that the trash is out, will someone turn off that fan? It's getting too breezy in here."

Tamaki bowed sincerely. "Right away grandmother." _That…is not a fan._

* * *

><p>"Okay, tell me that I'm not the only one who hates that woman." The other Hosts and I stood around an indoor fountain after leaving Tamaki to be with the hag—I mean, his grandmother.<p>

"You're not alone, Aki-chan. I hate her too." _Wow, and Mitsukuni doesn't hate _anyone_. How whack is this woman? _

"I don't understand, why doesn't Tamaki-senpai just tell her how he really feels? I get that they're related, but…it's not fair." Haruhi scanned all of our faces to look for an answer.

"She never treats Tama-chan with any respect—not to mention the people around her."

"Yeah, I sort of experienced that firsthand."

Shaking her head, Haruhi still had a puzzled look. "Why is she like that?"

"Because she's a hateful hag." Clenching my fists, I tried to get the words of that woman out of my head. "Call _me_ scum huh? If Kyouya and Takashi didn't come along, she'd probably be in the emergency room right about now."

Hikaru bumped into me as he talked. "Yeah, Kyouya-senpai, why didn't you just let Aki teach that woman a lesson?"

Kaoru agreed. "I woulda paid _anything _to see that."

Adjusting his glasses Kyouya faced us. "It would have been a big mistake. Shizue Suoh is the head of the Suoh family. If something happened, Akimoto, as well as the rest of us and our families would have suffered some kind of consequence. It's not worth it."

Standing up from the fountains' edge, I crossed my arms. "Worth what? I'm worth literally nothing in this world. What's that old woman going to do? Fire my father from his company? Put my family into bankruptcy? Unless she finds a way to somehow get to my dimension, I don't think that—" Cutting myself off, I realized what I had said and turned to face the faces of my shocked friends.

"Wha—what did you say?" Kyouya asked shakily.

Playing innocent, I asked back, "About what?"

"You just said something about dimensions—"

"No I didn't!" _Crap, crap, crap!_

"Yes you—"

"Hello my fellow Host Club members!" Tamaki's voice rang. I breathed a sigh of relief. _Saved by the idiot! I love your timing so much right now Tamaki. _The pretty girl who was with Lady Suoh earlier stood right next to him.

Quickly changing the subject, I asked, "So, Tamaki, who's your new friend?"

"Huh? Oh! This is Éclair Tonnerre—she's a part of a very prestigious family in France. Grandmother asked me to show her around." He introduced us. "Éclair, these are cousins Mitsukuni Haninozuka and Takashi Morinozuka." They waved to her. "Brothers Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin."

At the same time, they greeted, "Yo."

"This is Kyouya Ootori."

Bowing he replied, "I'm charmed to meet you milady."

Before Tamaki could introduce the rest of us, Éclair spoke up first with a very evident French accent. "Hmm…Haninozuka, Morinozuka, Hitachiin, and Ootori—all very important names here in Japan, and I right Tamaki-dear?"

"Of course."

"Well, you sure know how to pick your companions, I'll give you credit for that."

Tamaki laughed slightly. "Yes, well they are all great friends of mine. But there are two more important people that you just have to meet." Bringing Haruhi in front of him, he smiled brightly. "This is Haruhi Fujioka."

"Umm…Hi! It's nice to meet you." Haruhi said with intended interest.

"Fujioka…" Éclair thought for a moment. "I'm afraid I don't recognize that name. What branch is it under?"

Haruhi opened her mouth to answer, but Tamaki did it for her with an amused laugh. "No, no, no, Haruhi isn't a part of any branch. He's a commoner you see."

"Gee…thanks senpai," Haruhi said under her breath.

Tamaki didn't seem to catch it while he kept smiling. Éclair eyed Haruhi as her only response to what Tamaki had told her was, "You don't say." It may have been my imagination, but I swear I saw Éclair give Haruhi a real nasty look.

"Last but not least is my good friend, Akimoto Tsubaki."

"Ah, yes, you're the one with the attitude." Smirking, she flipped her hair. "Word of advice, Miss Akimoto, you should learn to either, think before you speak, or bite your tongue_ before_ it gets you into trouble."

Giving a fake smile, I replied with a bitter tone, "It's a pleasure to meet you Mademoiselle Éclair—unless it's Madame 'cause, you know, you may have some husband out there that no one knows about…or two." Laughing unpleasantly, I added, "But I'm sure that's not the case."

Catching my glare, she locked eyes with me as well—making me discover just how sharp and conniving she really was. "Charming. You know, it's comments like that that could get someone into trouble. A real lady would choose her words carefully. You keep up with that, and you'll never get a man."

Reaching back for Hikaru's hand, I brought him forward. "I already have a man." _Bitch._

"That's right, she's spoken for!" Hikaru confidently told her.

She scoffed, "Pity. Well you know what they say, 'all good things must eventually come to an end'."

Feeling my body shake in total rage, both Hikaru and I attempted to shoot ourselves out at her. Unfortunately, Kyouya, Mitsukuni, Takashi, and Kaoru predicted our movements and held us down.

Éclair yawned. "I grow bored with this Tamaki-dear. Take me to the piano room so that you can play for me."

Giving her a genuine smile, he agreed. "As you wish, princess." He faced us as he started to walk away. "I'll catch up with you guys later, okay?"

When the two were finally out of sight, the guys holding us back finally loosened up, releasing Hikaru and I. Not only was I extremely pissed at the hag and little rich bitch, but I was sort of mad at Tamaki. I couldn't believe that he'd just sit there and let that girl talk to me like that. What happened do defending your friends? I sort of understand not wanting to hit a girl because of him being a gentleman and all—he's actually the sweetest guy I've ever met—but come on! He could have at least told her off. That guy is way too nice for his own good—it's no wonder why his grandmother acts like that to him: he won't do anything about it! He focuses too much on making others happy rather than his own happiness. It's good to be generous, but he'll never be truly happy if he doesn't fight for what's right for him. Judging by the reactions of the rest of the Host Club, they agree as well.

_Come on Tamaki, just give me the word, and I will risk exposure to beat the crap out of them. _

To be honest, I really wasn't used to people talking to me directly like that. Even if people said something mean about me, they never did it to my face—in my world, they knew better. Hearing Éclair have the nerve to speak to me like that nearly made me explode. I knew perfectly well that this wasn't my world and people didn't know what to expect from me. Nonetheless, I was hoping that my eyes would speak for themselves. Having fierce, near-scarlet eyes—especially when I'm mad—usually made intimidation extremely easy for me. The fact that Éclair was totally unfazed totally surprised me. On the other hand, if I did scare her, she did an _excellent_ job at hiding it.

Growling to myself, Kaoru put his hand on my shoulder sympathetically. "Someone like that isn't worth the trouble." He must have felt the vibrations from my body because he added, "People aren't like that from birth. There may be a reason why—"

"I don't care the reason! Those two don't have a right to talk to any of us like that—especially Tamaki."

"She may not be a pleasant person, but she's crucial to business." Kyouya inspected his clip board without making eye-contact with any of us. You could totally tell that he was quite bothered as well. _Ah…so he _does_ have a soul._ "We shouldn't let our personal opinions interfere with what needs to be done. Just let it go guys—you particularly, Akimoto."

Quickly exhaling through my nose, I reluctantly agreed. "Whatever." _Perhaps they aren't worth the trouble. My powers aren't meant to be used on stuck-up humans. It'd be a waste of energy. _

Kyouya spoke up again. "It's almost time for the next portion of the festival. We should all go get ready so that we make sure to keep on schedule." Everyone nodded slowly as they began to collectively walk in one direction.

When I took a step forward, my body suddenly froze. I tried to move, but nothing seemed to work. _What the—? _A part of my mind wanted to think that maybe the shadow creatures were attacking, but no chilling sensation filled my body. It wasn't them. Besides, in the past, they never made me suddenly stop like this. Attempting to call out for my friends, my voice didn't seem to reach them—or anyone else. The world around me started to move slower and slower, eventually fading to black nothingness. Fear instantly stroke my heart when I realized what might have been going on. Fighting back my tears, I managed to push forward, falling to the ground.

"Let's go, child. It's time to move on." Taiitsukun's at the time, unpleasant voice rang out in the void.

"No…no…no…no…" I kept repeating.

"You can't stay here any longer. Get up."

"N-no…I can't leave…" Body shaking, I wouldn't allow myself to get up and submit to her commands.

"Akimoto, you must listen to me. I'm not giving you a choice—"

"I won't leave!" Even in the dark void, a fierce, strong wind started to blow, making Taiitsukun struggle to keep herself in the air. Without a second thought, I summoned my wand to my hand, instantly preparing for an attack. "_Jupiter Oak Evolution!" _Thousands of small, sharp glowing green leaves appeared around me, every single one conducting a strong jolt of electricity. Pointing my wand towards Taiitsukun, I spin the tip in a circle, causing the leaves to group up and head towards her in a wide trail.

"You dare attack me child?" When the leaves hit her, a bright light flashed, dissolving each leaf. As I gasped, she scowled. "You have no idea who you're up against!" Under my feet, the ground started to crack with a bright red light shining through. Quickly levitating upwards, the ground broke causing a stream of light to shoot up at me, a giant hand forming, attempting to catch me.

Adrenaline high, I breathed heavily while trying to escape the hand. Seeing it inching closer, I pointed my wand downs at it. _"Saisu!" _The crescent-shaped blast of wind shot out and sliced the hand completely down the middle. Right when I thought that it was destroyed, both halves of the hand appeared on both of my sides and clamped me, completely binding my whole upper body. Slamming me back into the ground, my body cried out from the pain.

Taiitsukun floated closer to me. Still feeling enraged, I concentrated a whole bunch of my energy, causing my body to be completely consumed by Wind. Expanding the Wind outward, the hand steadily started to lose its grip. As the severe Wind Sphere grew, I struggled to push my arms up so that I could face Taiitsukun. My body ached the longer I persisted on using my power. Keeping my balance on one hand, my arm slowly lifted up, wand extended.

"Akimoto, stop this futile attempt," she said with her face unfazed.

Tears, streaming down my face, I screamed, "No, I won't! _Ly Breim!" _A wave of blue tinted wind shot out at Taiitsukun. With her arm out, a clear barrier materialized, only seen when the chilling temperature from the attack froze the barrier. Feeling a severe drop in energy, while keeping Wind around me, the red glowing hand regained its strength and pressed down harder, causing me to completely smash into the ground once more.

Trying to use Wind again, the old woman interrupted. "You are a fool. You cannot keep going at this rate—otherwise you'll kill yourself." Ignoring her words, I attempted with all of my might to overcome the arm—but at this moment, my concentration was so messed up, as well as my flow of energy, that I couldn't beat it. "Haven't you figured it out yet? Before when you tried doing that high level spell at the beach, you toppled over and coughed up blood. Not only were you not ready to use something that advanced, but you had gone past your limit. You need to learn about the correlation between magic and your body. Your energy is a part of you. If you use it too much without rest, it could significantly damage your body—inside and out. Gone unchecked, you may even die."

Continuing to cry, I processed her words, but refused to acknowledge them. I let go of the wand and let it roll away from me. "I-I don't understand…I didn't have any visions—there was nothing there to tell me that I couldn't stay. Everything seemed so right…so why?" My face was completely covered in tears, blurring my vision.

"Don't ask questions. Now isn't the time." Taiitsukun sounded unusually calm. In fact, there was a slight softness in her voice…or was that guilt? My judgment was completely clouded by misery. "You must come with me Akimoto. This place…" She shook her head. "You just can't stay here."

"Y-you said," I tried to make words form between the hiccups, "Y-you said that if I was able to get my wish granted, I could stay in the world that it happened in. You said that…you said that, didn't you?" She nodded slowly while looking away. "Well then…I want to stay…in this world. This world has a school full of people who like me, it has the Host Club, and it has Hikaru. I'm…I'm in love with—"

"No!" Taiitsukun yelled, "Don't say it! If you say that you're in love with someone, then you'll end up staying in that world. You can't stay in this world Akimoto…you just can't…"

"But I do…I lo…lov…" For some reason, I couldn't say those words. I really wanted to—more than anything. What was stopping me? Feeling the weight of the hand lighten as it disappeared, I sat up stopping the flow of tears. Raising my wrist to my face, I slightly smiled when I saw the bracelet. My voice went serious. "Let me go back."

"Akimot—"

"Let me go back to say good-bye! You're not giving me a damn reason as to why I can't stay, so the least you could do is let me go back and say good-bye!"

Thinking it over, she finally sighed. "Very well. Make it quick."

The moment I blinked, I opened my eyes to find that I was back at the festival, standing in the same exact place I was before. The only difference was that some time had already gone by—looking out of a large window, it was clear that the sun was already setting.

"Aki? Are you okay?" Shaking myself out of shock, I looked to see that a small group of fan-girls were staring at me with concerned looks on their faces.

Knowing what I had to do, I moved past the girls and dashed toward the club room. Avoiding all of the guests was tough—trying to keep a low-profile was slightly harder—but I managed to reach the room successfully. Gasping in surprise, I found that the room was sealed off with yellow caution tape. In the middle of the door was a note: _The Ouran Academy Host Club has been dissolved. Music Room 3 will be closed until further notice._

_What? _ Putting my ear up to the door, I tried to listen for any voices inside. Nothing. _How can the Host Club be no more? It doesn't make any sense! What happened when I was gone? _In a flash of red, I laid eyes on the underground parking structure that was under the school. Blinking hard, I was out of the vision, and knew where to go.

Running down the stairs to the parking structure, I stopped dead in my tracks. All over the ground was a bunch of unconscious policemen. As questions played in my head, a familiar voice called out to me.

"Aki-chan, over here!" Looking ahead, I saw Mitsukuni, Takashi, and Kyouya in the center of all of the knocked out guys. _Well, that would explain how these guys got their butts handed back to them. _"Where were you this whole time?"

Running up to them, I told them that that was a bit hard to explain then asked Kyouya what was going on. He explained, "Tamaki became engaged to Lady Éclair and denounced the Host Club dissolved."

I was shocked. "What? Why the hell would he do something like that? And what's with the fight that happened here?"

"We're not completely sure as to why Tama-chan would do this, especially when he loved the Host Club so much. But considering that girl is from France, this whole thing may end up being about Tama-chan's mom." Mitsukuni said.

"You think?"

"Again, we're not completely sure. But we do know that Lady Éclair is on the way to the airport with Tamaki as we speak," Kyouya looked around the area, "This happened because my family police wouldn't allow us to chase after them. Turns out that the Tonnerre family sneakily bought out mine to make sure that we wouldn't interfere with the union of Tamaki and Lady Éclair."

Scanning around, I asked, "Where are Hikaru, Kaoru, and Haruhi?"

"They chased after Tama-chan!"

"Akimoto, you can fly, right? I suggest you go after them. They may require your assistance."

"Right!" _I'm not going to allow the club to break up!_ Heading towards the exit, I turned back to them with a sad look on my face. "Don't ever change you guys…" I had said that at a semi-low volume to make it difficult for them to hear.

"What was that?"

Shaking my head, I told them, "Nothing."

Launching myself into the sky, I bolted in the direction of the airport. _The Host Club is important to Tamaki—it's important to all of us. Even with me gone, I don't even want to think of this place without a Host Club, it's not right! Each one of us—them—have a reason for being a part of it. I won't be able to live with myself knowing that I left things like this!_

Flying as fast as I could along a long road, my eyes eventually caught sight of something.

"Hikaru! Kaoru!" Sitting in a vegetable patch, Kaoru looked like he was comforting Hikaru. As my voice finally reached them, they both looked to the sound and gave a smile of relief. On a shaky landing, I ran towards them and slid on the ground, ending up next to them. Hikaru was holding his arm. "Oh my gosh! Hikaru, what happened to you?"

"It's nothing serious—I may have just fractured a bone."

"How?"

"Don't worry about it." With his good hand, he reached out to hold mine. "When I couldn't find you , I thought that you had left us."

"Yeah, you really scared us Aki. Thinking how the Host Club was over _and _you were gone…it was too much." _Please don't say things like that. It makes it harder to accept that I'm leaving._ Hearing those two say those things really made me smile, but knowing that I was leaving these two _and_ the others made my smile instantly fade.

Trying not to stay on topic, I asked, "Where's Haruhi?"

"She went on ahead after the boss."

"By herself?" They nodded. _She's gonna need my help. _Glancing at the twins, their golden eyes inspected me with a look of concern. My eyes started to gloss over with tears. _I so very much wish that I could spend my last moments here with you two. But I know that I have to make sure that your happiness lasts for a lifetime—meaning that I have to make sure that the Host Club is safe. _

"Aki?"

Keeping in the tears, I reached for Hikaru's head and brought him in for a kiss. His lips were so warm and inviting, and I could even feel him trying to intensify the experience. Knowing that I couldn't stay long, I broke the kiss. We looked each other in the eye, but I couldn't help but look away. It was just too much. Turning to Kaoru, I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

Before they could say anything, I quickly stood up and tried my best to give a reassuring smile. "Don't you two worry—I promise to get Haruhi and Tamaki back. The Host Club won't be ending on my watch!"

"Aki—"

"There's no time to lose!" Shooting myself into the sky, I flew even further down the road. _Thank you guys so much…for everything. _

As I flew, the ocean started to come into view—along with an extensive bridge. The majestic setting sun reflected onto the water, causing a magical visual effect. There wasn't any time to sit back and appreciate nature—I had a job to accomplish. About a mile or two ahead, I was sure that I saw Haruhi in a horse-drawn carriage, riding rapidly after Tamaki, who was riding in a bright crimson convertible sitting next to Éclair. Haruhi was riding dangerously fast. If she did any risky maneuvers, something bad could happen. I had to hurry.

Tapping into extra energy, my speed quickly increased as wind swiftly whipped past my hair and body. Even with my efforts, I didn't seem to be catching up to them fast enough. So I pushed it even harder. In no time, my energy emitted so far out, that the water—which was about half a mile down—started to split in the line that I was flying in.

To my horror, Haruhi's carriage began to shake dangerously as she reached out for Tamaki. She started to lose control of the device and swerved hazardously. The side of the carriage hit the barrier of the bridge, causing Haruhi to be thrown out of her seat and over the side of the bridge, plummeting straight to the water—which was, again, a very lethal distance away. I knew that if I didn't go faster, Haruhi could be hurt seriously, or worse. Summoning up all of the energy I could, I ignored the burning of my body as a striking white tail of energy completely engulfed me.

Tamaki stood up in the car as Éclair help onto his arm. _Bitch, if you don't let go…_He had said something to her before launching himself out towards Haruhi. The red convertible continued to drive on as the two plummeted down. Extending both of my arms, I prayed that I would reach them in time. As the ocean raced towards them, Tamaki tucked Haruhi and shielded her head to make sure that she wouldn't be harmed by the impact. Only a few feet left. Giving one more boost of energy…

I closed my eyes, and not a second later, they were both in my arms.

* * *

><p>"It's good to see that you two are okay," Kaoru told Haruhi and Tamaki. The rest of the Host Club managed to catch up a while ago and all met at the small beach at the end of the bridge.<p>

"Tama-chan! Don't do that again!"

"I'm really sorry for making all of you worry." Tamaki laughed while rubbing his neck embarrassedly.

Haruhi sighed. "You idiot. If there is something so precious to you, don't be willing to give it up so easily and forget your own happiness." Seeing his ashamed face, she smiled. "It's good to have you back Senpai."

"You're harshly right as always Haruhi."

The twins put their elbows on Haruhi's shoulders. "You know, there's still a fun festival going on back at Ouran."

"And I'm sure the ladies would love to hear that the Host Club is back on."

"So can we get going now?" They both said at the same time. An unexpected jolt of movement from Haruhi caused Hikaru to yell out in pain from his fractured arm.

Kyouya pushed his glasses up. "You should make sure to get that looked at when we get back, Hikaru."

"Sure thing Kyouya-senpai."

"By the way Haruhi," She faced Kyouya, "how did you two survive the fall anyway? Neither of you even got wet."

She thought about it for a while as the others looked in interest. "You know…It's weird, but I can't really remember."

Kyouya raised an eyebrow, "What a strange phenomenon this is."

She scratched her cheek. "I feel like I should know…but something is clouding my memory."

I smiled as tears raced down my cheek.

Hikaru looked curiously around and at my direction only to return to focusing on his friends. "Who knows? Maybe the Host Club has a guardian angel." They all seemed to smile at his words.

At that, I waked away into the wilderness behind them—not able to stay around them any longer. Walking about twenty paces, my legs finally gave out, causing me to fall to my knees and bawl into my hands.

In a flash of light my wand and spell book appeared in front of me. Through eyes full of tears, I wondered why they were there—I didn't summon them. Suddenly, they both broke into millions of tiny sparkling silver pieces. _What the? _Reaching out for them, my hand just went through as the fragments danced around and circled me. Each and every pore on my body opened up, making me feel as if my whole body was breathing. The silvery dust circled even faster and slowly disappeared as an odd sensation consumed me. Seeing my wand and spell book vanish before my eyes totally shocked me.

Even more tears began to flow. _Wand…my wand is gone…why? _My mind was completely overwhelmed by all the things going on as I lifted my shaky hands to my face. _Why is everything so messed up? I was happy…so happy…now my wand and my friends are gone….why?_

The voice of Taiitsukun came up from behind me as the world faded to black. "I now recognize you, Akimoto Tsubaki, as a Master."

* * *

><p><strong><em>~*Taiitsukun's Memory*~<em>**

"Is she going to leave that world soon?" Asked an unknown voice.

Taiitsukun hesitated. "I don't feel right about doing that to her. She seems so happy. I even looked into the future—she lived happily in that world with the one she loves."

"She doesn't know what she wants. Not yet. You know as well as I do why she cannot stay there."

Taiitsukun desperately raised her voice. "I know but…She hasn't had any visions—not only that, but she isn't replacing anyone. You know the policy, if the girl isn't taking the place of anyone, then she has both the permission and the reason to stay." She cleared her throat. "Besides, she and the young man she was with could make their love stronger over time."

"But it isn't enough! You know that it isn't enough. From the time she met him, you and I both know that the spark she needed wasn't there—at all. Akimoto may be happy in that world, but it's not her destiny. I let her have those visions for a reason: so that she could use her better judgement and guide her in the right direction. There is better out there for her and the universe, and we cannot deprive them both."

Sighing, Taiitsukun looked through a portal at Aki having fun with her friends. "This will devastate her. She believes she found her place."

"She's young, she'll learn." The unknown person's voice softened. "The girl seems to have grown on you Taiitsukun." She gave a loud "humph!" instead of a proper response. "Because of her past, she is different than all of the others and there is no turning back on that."

"Perhaps you're right, this needs to be done. Akimoto must discover all of the Pieces of Heart as well as the spark in order for us to win this battle." Taiitsukun never got used to seeing the young girls she trained unhappy. It was never easy tearing them away from what they thought was making them happy. She felt almost like the Grim Reaper escorting the souls of the dead away from their loved ones. She knew that if she had gone about her job a different way, maybe things wouldn't have gotten as bad as they had—but they did. And she needed to do something about it before the universe ended up being shrouded in darkness.

"Just make sure that she doesn't know all of the details until later. Allow her to continue to discover some things on her own. The time will come when all is revealed."

"Very well then," Taiitsukun's voice regained its usual aggressiveness, "let's get this over with!"

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><p><strong>The song used at the beginning was "Sakura Kiss", the opening for Ouran High School Host Club anime. This certain version was sung by Cristina Vee and is not the official English opening version (the Funimation one is), but it still sounds awesome. <strong>


	16. What Lies Beneath Part 1

**Okay, hey everyone! I don't usually do this, but this chapter and the next will be uploaded together because we've hit a milestone in the story! Chapters 16/17 will be the "Season 1 Finale"! So, think of it like an hour-long special on TV (lol). This first chapter will be Part 1, and the second, Part 2. I hope you guys enjoy reading!**

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><p><em><strong>~*Part 1*~<strong>_

_**I just didn't understand…why didn't people want to be around me? Had I done anything wrong? I'm around those other kids all of the time and no matter what, they never accepted me. Whenever I walked by, they'd give me nasty looks and run away. It had been like that for years now. I couldn't take it anymore. No third grader, or anyone, should have to experience such sadness like this. It's just not right.**_

_**After lunch ended, I didn't feel as if I could endure the rest of the day surrounded by those rejecting eyes. Every other day, I tried my best to withstand it all—pretended that I didn't care. But a eight-year-old can only take so much. When the teachers weren't looking, I struggled to climb over the gates surrounding the school—avoiding any security guards. My skinny arms were never all that strong, that's why I never participated in sports—that and the fact that people wouldn't invite me anyway. But I was determined to leave that awful place, even if it was only for a few extra hours. **_

_**Running down the sidewalk, I thought of places to go. No place seemed quite right until it finally hit me: I could go home. At home, my parents would be there and probably wouldn't care that I was there as long as I didn't bother them. Other parents would be concerned that their kid was skipping school—not mine. They mainly sent me to school to get me out of their hair. So as long as I was quiet, I wouldn't get in trouble. Besides, if I went home, the one person who appreciated my existence, my big sister, Kajou, would eventually come home and embrace me with a smile. **_

_**Panting, I came up to the door of my house, and slowly opened the door. Looking around, I could see that the house was empty—parents were at work and I was all alone. **_**Mom and Dad probably won't be home for a few days…maybe I could just stay here while they're away. **_**Heading towards my room, I scanned at the walls. There were pictures of Kajou everywhere—with her red-orange flaming hair that flowed all the way down her back and big, yet strikingly majestic amber eyes. Being five years older than me, she was always extremely popular with both the girls and the guys. Not only that, she was successful in absolutely everything that she did—always winning certificates, trophies, plaques, and ribbons. She could do absolutely anything. That was why our parents were fonder of her, she brought joy into their lives—I was just a mistake and they treated me as such. Kajou was the only one who ever felt sorry for me, the only one to show me compassion. Even though so many people like her, she only paid attention to me. I loved her so much for that. **_

_**Walking into my room, I wondered if I should turn the lights on. Everything in my room looked so barren—no pictures of friends, no pretty or cool designs…just…blah. **_**Okay, so the lights stay off. **_**Going in further, the weight of everything suddenly fell on me, and I couldn't take it anymore. I usually kept up such a tough front to show people that I wasn't weak—that I wasn't affected by the things they did or didn't do. But the truth of it was that I had to cry every now and then—away from the judging world around me. Feeling tears well up in my eyes, I fell onto my bed and buried my face into my pillow. I cry my eyes out, feeling my pillow get damp from the tears. Everything just hurt so much, I asked myself over and over what was keeping me there—why I would keep forcing myself to endure all of this. I hoped that my life wouldn't continue being that way, but something told me that I just couldn't escape from that misery. Looking up slightly, I noticed a large black ring surrounding me—everywhere I went, it was there even if I couldn't always see it. It wasn't always there, I sort of remembered a time when I was younger and I didn't have to worry about something like this. But the moment it appeared, people avoided me even more—saying that I caused them to have negative feelings like worry, doubt, and fear. They never understood that it wasn't my fault. **_

_**Senses clouded, I didn't hear anyone come into my room. But suddenly, someone else's weight shifted the bed before a familiar hand rubbed my back. **_

"_**Aki? What's wrong, honey?" **_

"_**Kajou…" Glancing at my sister, I saw her sitting there with a sympathetic look. She was still in her school uniform: a long white dress shirt under a brown vest, jacket, and ruffled skirt, complimented with a sky-blue bow at the collar. Seeing how she was there made me realize that I had been crying there for the past three and a half hours. **_

"_**Aki, did you skip school today?"**_

_**I shook my head slightly. "Not the whole day. I left after lunch." Turning onto my side, I faced her. **_

_**She gave a small smile. "My, aren't you the sneaky one?"**_

"_**Mom and Dad won't be mad at me, will they?"**_

_**This time, she shook her head. "I'll make sure that they won't get mad. You won't get into any trouble, I promise." If Kajou were never there, my parents would be a lot harsher on me. Thanks to her persuasive skills (and the fact that she was their favorite anyway), she managed to have them go easier on me whenever they were upset. She was like an angelic shield that protected me from an even worse life. "I'll tell them that I went to pick you up because you were feeling sick. They'll believe that."**_

_**Between hiccups, I asked, "Don't you have volleyball practice right now?"**_

"_**Silly," she said with her smile softening, "I sensed that you were sad and came straight home. Nothing in the whole universe—especially sports—is more important to me than you. I want you to be happy, Aki, and I'm the only one who can do that." She moved to lie on the bed next to me, scooting me up to her to hold me in her arms. My body suddenly went warm as she strokes my hair in a motherly way. "Now tell me, what is making you so unhappy?"**_

_**Trying to find the right words, I hesitated for a moment. Kajou patiently sat there as the words formed in my mind. "I just feel so lonely, Kajou. For some reason, nobody wants to be near me or talk to me, and no matter what I do, it seems like things only get worse. I feel like some kind of freak. I just don't understand. What's wrong with me?"**_

"_**There is absolutely nothing wrong with you, my dear little Akimoto. You're beautiful, you're smart, and you're more unique than anyone in the whole world. To me, you're absolutely perfect." Her voice suddenly went dark. "It's everyone else that's the problem. I've told you before: In this cold world, you can't trust anyone. People will only make you sad and disappoint you. That's why I give you this bit of advice little sister: don't make any friends, you don't need them. They'll just end up making you even more miserable. They'll use you, forget about you, and treat you like dirt. It hurts less just to not be involved with them."**_

"_**Why?" I asked curiously.**_

"_**Because people are fools—they are too stupid to contemplate what it right and truly beautiful. You know how bad you feel right now?" I nodded. "Well, when you befriend one of those idiots and lose them as a friend, you'll feel much, much worse—leaving a scar in your heart that most likely will never heal."**_

_**Trying to process her words, something came to my attention. "But Kajou, you have a bunch of friends. You know…those people who are always around you."**_

_**She bitterly laughed. "There is a difference between fans and friends. They are really only around me for their own personal gain in the long run. I would never think for a second that one of them even truly cares for me. For those who do believe that I'm their friend—well, let's say that they are fooling themselves and I like watching the fools play." Winking, she told me, "No one said that Kajou couldn't have any fun, could they?"**_

_**As tears started to flow again, Kajou noticed and wiped them away. Once she did so, I asked, "What am I supposed to do then? I hate feeling so lonely."**_

_**Taking my hand into hers, she brought me even closer. "You don't have to feel lonely, because I love you Aki and I know you love me. We only need each other—all I need is you and all you'll ever need is me. We can ignore the world around us, and I promise to always be there for you. Don't make any friends—I'm the only friend that you'll ever need and I won't disappoint you."**_

"_**What about our parents?"**_

"_**I am grateful that they have given me a home as well as the gift of my life and yours, but other than that, they are of no significance to me. In fact, I sort of hate them for not accepting you, my dear little sister." I opened my mouth to speak again but she beat me to it. "No more questions. Just promise me that you'll take what I say to heart." Without hesitation, I nodded. "Good." She put her hand firmly under my chin and lifted my face to hers. Softly speaking, she said, "I love your red eyes so much Aki. And I'll be happy as long as those beautiful eyes are only looking at me…and no one else."**_

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><p>Maybe Kajou was right, perhaps if I never even made friends in those worlds, I wouldn't have been in so much pain. Regardless of whether they meant it or not, my old friends had hurt me—knowing them…and losing them…cut deeper than any physical wound possibly could. Perhaps making that wish was a mistake. After losing Kajou, I needed to fill the void and find someone who would love me—to find someone who would be my silver-lining in a life that was so messed up. All of this made me think if making the wish and going on the trip was worth it. My mind was so clouded that I didn't know what was right for me anymore.<p>

I couldn't stop the tears from flowing—they seemed to be on automatic as my body walked on its own behind the floating Taiitsukun. Usually by this time, I would have been hounding the old lady with questions and complaining. Doing this for the third time, however, kind of dried me up of any of the energy I had before—it was completely gone, just like my wand was. Taiitsukun had said that I was a Master now, but the truth was that I didn't feel any more powerful or confident. I just felt…empty.

As my head hung low, I felt Taiitsukun inspecting me from the corner of her eye. "You know, child, you are the first out of all the girls to skip Mage and go straight to Master. It is quite remarkable indeed." Feeling as if my voice box didn't work, no response came from me. "Your emotions, as of now, will affect your flow of energy, so I'm going to have to make sure that you're stable enough to use your magic. Also, since you can now use magic without a wand, I am having you go into training to get used to the feeling." She stopped. "I am sending you to another world."

My body froze in fear. _No! I can't do it again. I can't! _Even more tears ran down, each and every one dripping onto the floor.

She either didn't notice or chose not to acknowledge my pain. "This world is not meant for you to achieve your wish. No. You are just there to get a hand at casting spells without a wand. Ordinarily, it would probably only take a day for you to get it. However, because of your emotional state, it is inconclusive as to when you will recuperate. So I suggest feeling better soon."

Through the tears, my body started to shake with anger. _Feel better soon? She has absolutely no idea what I'm feeling. She acts as if each and every one of my emotions has some on/off button that I can access at any time! Maybe if I had that…things wouldn't be so hard. But I don't, and they are. _And I was starting to think that that was how it was always going to be.

Suddenly, there was a bright red light shining in front of us as a figure materialized from it. The figure turned out to be a pretty woman who looked like she was in her early thirties, with short light, coffee-brown hair with her bangs parted on one side and comforting dark brown eyes. She was wearing a light green, long-sleeved blouse, and deep blue jean capris. She looked around the black void for a few seconds and had a look of awe and nostalgia on her face. When finally noticed me, her eyes lit up and a huge smile ran across her face.

Running over, she grabbed both of my hands. "My, aren't you cute! You're just too adorable. How old are you?"

Taiitsukun gave an exasperated sigh. "She's seventeen, Emiko."

Turning her head towards Taiitsukun, the woman's smile faltered a little, but remained genuine. "Oh, Taiitsukun, didn't see you there."

"Of course you didn't! You've always been so absentminded."

The woman laughed a little. "You're still uptight Taiitsukun!" Never letting go of my hand, she turned back to me. "I'm sorry I almost forgot! My name is Emiko Niwa and you're Akimoto Tsubaki, right?" Nodding slowly, I brought my face up to see better through my bangs. She gasped. "Oh my goodness, have you been crying?" She stroke my hair on the side. "Did the mean ol' Taiitsukun make Aki cry?"

"I most certainly did not!" Taiitsukun exploded. "And I'm not mean!" Coughing to clear her throat, she regained her composure. "I brought you here for a reason Emiko. You need to take her to your world and make sure that she gets some training in on using her magic without a wand."

"Tell Auntie Emiko why you're crying. I wanna see that pretty face smile!" Hearing Emiko say the words similar to Hikaru's made me feel slightly worse.

"Emiko! You completely ignored me!"

Turning around to face the old lady, Miss Emiko giggled. "I heard you loud and clear, Miss Uptight. I know what I gotta do, we went over this." Putting her arm around my shoulders, she brought me in closer. "I'll gladly take young Aki under my wing to help her out. I'd be happy to! My house is always more exciting when a new friend comes along!"

Seeing my somewhat baffled face hidden behind the miserable one, Taiitsukun said, "Emiko here is going to help you with your magic. Her family has been practicing magic for generations—although slightly different magic—so she is probably the best I can get to make sure that you don't slip up."

"Hey, don't speak to her like that. She won't slip up." She shook her head. "Jeez, why are you always so negative?" At that, Taiitsukun blushed a little and turned away. _Huh, I never thought that someone could ever get to her like that. _"Everything will be fine! We'll have Aki swinging around spells without a wand like a pro in no time."

Sighing again, Taiitsukun extended her arm to open another door-sized portal. Giving me a slight push, Miss Emiko and I walked towards the gateway.

"I want her to be ready no later than a month, Emiko," Taiitsukun warned.

Emiko gave her a playful scowl. "A month? Just that little time? You shouldn't rush these things. She's a teenage girl and these feelings aren't easy to handle. Girls are delicate little flowers that need time and care in order to heal—"

"Thirty days, Emiko!" Taiitsukun got all in her face and everything to yell out that message. Miss Emiko turned away as she led me through the portal. In the blink of an eye, we were in some type of big chamber made of cement stones, lit only with several large torches.

As my tears started to dry, I looked around with sensitive, most-likely blood-shot eyes. The place looked pretty clean, but it had sort of a dungeon-y feel to it. _Is this her house? What kind of place is this?_

She smiled. "I know what you're thinking, and yes, this is a part of my house, but only the basement. This is where you'll be doing your training." _Are you kidding me? This place isn't nearly big enough to withstand this kind of magic. _"I know the place doesn't look all that impressive for something like that, but the room is actually protected by a barrier that makes it so that it doesn't get destroyed with any kind of spell. It took a while to put it up, but it was well worth the effort." Looking from her to back to the room, I thought, _well, if she says so. _I walked around trying to get a feel for the place. Miss Emiko giggled again. "You're not much of a talker, are you? Or are you just shy?" She started circling around me as if she was doing some kind of investigation. "It's funny. Taiitsukun told me that you were a bit stubborn and hard to handle. I don't see that at all." Her face suddenly fell and lost its peppiness. "It's because you've been hurt, isn't it? With the things you've been through, it's no surprise why you're like this."

Finally speaking, I said in a low tone, "You don't know what I've been through."

"You'd be surprised about what I know."

"Bullshit!" I shouted. "I'm not talking about any of that lame teenage girl crap that all girls go through when they mature. I wish those were my problems…" Falling to my knees, I brought my hands to cover my face as tears ran out once again.

Hearing footsteps come my way, I felt a hand on my shoulder. "I know things are hard right now, Aki. But you have to be strong and fight through it so that you could achieve your happily ever after." Bringing my face up, I turned to her to see her smiling. "Some things are worth fighting for, right?" My eyes went wide. _How does she know about me? How much did Taiitsukun tell her about me? She had no right._ Taking hold of my hand, she helped me up. _Well, at least this woman seems sincere._ Drying my tears, she said, "Why don't we get you something to eat before we get started on the training?" Feeling too vulnerable to argue, I gave a slight nod. She led me over to a flight of stairs that circled up to the first floor of the house.

The inside of the actual house was pretty normal—other than the dungeon-y, magical training ground that they had under it. The hallways and rooms were brightly lit, decorated with a cheery décor, family pictures, plants, furnishings, etc—everything a comfy home should have. She led me into a kitchen filled with the delicious aromas of many different dishes—and a young girl who looked about my age. She had short, silvery hair with thick, long bangs, sea green eyes, pink lip gloss, and three piercings in each ear. She was wearing a no sleeve indigo maid outfit with a short skirt, a pink apron with a poufy bow in the back, and an indigo maid head piece. When she saw us, she immediately ran over and hugged me.

"Miss Emiko! She's just adorable!" She squealed. _Jeez, is everyone in this world clingy like this?_

"I know, right? And look at her eyes!" The weird girl backed off a bit to look at me in the face with her big jade eyes. "She has the exact same eye color as Daisuke!"

"You're right, she does!"

Miss Emiko clapped her hand as an epiphany came to her. "Oh yeah! Aki, this is Towa, she's a friend of the family—"

"As well as the family maid." She did a small curtsey. "Towa at your service Miss Aki! Miss Emiko told us that we would be having a guest for a few days. So I prepared a meal for you!" It seemed like she had prepared some type of beef stew, some rice, and a salad. To be honest, I wasn't all that hungry, but I didn't want to be rude after they'd shown me this kind of hospitality. So I sat down at the table as Towa handed me a plate of food. They both stood at the side of the table watching me with smiles on their faces until someone else came into the room. It was an old man with a gray beard, gray spikey hair, and dark brown eyes the same color as Miss Emiko's.

Taking my mind off of the untouched food, I looked over to the newcomer. He waved. "So you're finally here huh? Well it's nice to meet you. I am Daiki Niwa, Emiko's father. If there is anything I could do to help out with your training, don't hesitate to let me know." _Damn! Does everyone in this world know about me? _He faced Miss Emiko. "How long has she been here?"

"She's only been here for about half an hour. After eating, I was going to take her back down and get started. No time like the present, right? Things may be a bit shaky at first, but she's a strong girl, she'll get it in no time!" Apparently, I had absolutely no say in any of this stuff. There was always the option to run, but where was I honestly going to go? Part of me really wanted to not only get the heck out of there, but quit with whole wish journey. The other part told me that I was in this way too deep to get out of it, no matter what I was feeling. The universe was totally getting a kick out of my pain at this point.

After eating (two bites), Miss Emiko realized that I wouldn't get very far with the meal, so we headed down back to the basement for the start of my training—well, it wasn't really training because I already knew my powers, so it was more like a reteach, but without the wand. She told me that after using my magic for a while, I'd definitely work up an appetite. But I doubted it.

Having me stand in the middle of the room, she stood in front of me with her hands on her hips. "Okay, before we get into spells and stuff, we need to make sure that you can still openly access your power. Behind every spell that you use, it's your energy that manipulates the elements or entity that you wish to control. Take away the thing your controlling and you have pure energy. With or without a wand, any magic user should have the ability to make their energy manifest on its own, even if it's only for a second." Lifting her hands up as if she were holding a ball, she said, "Let me demonstrate."

Suddenly, I felt an odd sensation fill the room. My body started to feel slightly heavier, like the gravity in the room went up a couple notches. It wasn't hurting, or uncomfortable, it was just…and odd feeling. When I looked at Miss Emiko, I noticed that her body was starting to emit a flickering, but bright pale gray light. Soon enough, a small sphere of light of the same color appeared in her hands. I stood there in awe in what I was seeing.

She giggled. "You see? This is the basics of magic. It's kind of a small light, but being a descendant of a family full of magic users, it's possible for me to do this. I'm sure that your light will be even more impressive!" Her glow disappeared as she pointed to me. "Now focus Aki and make your power appear before you. You'll see that you don't need a wand at all!"

I didn't want to just stand there and do nothing, so I figured that maybe this would get my mind off of things. Searching within myself, I closed my eyes and tried to find the core of my power. I felt kind of lost because I had absolutely no idea where to start. Thinking of my dilemma, I decided that if I what she said was true, I'd start off by telling my body that I was going to use Wind, but before it actually manifested as Wind, I'd make it form as actual energy like she had done and said. Concentrating, I focused on Wind, my natural-born element that had never failed me before—completely ignoring the times when it seemed to work almost too well—almost causing tornadoes that completely destroyed an area. Deep inside, I hoped that I didn't end up destroying this poor defenseless house. She may have said that there was a barrier protecting it—well, she hasn't seen what I was capable of.

I had sat there for a while trying to find my power, but something felt wrong. The more I tried to reach it, the farther I seemed to be going. It was hard to completely concentrate since I was still depressed, but nonetheless, accessing Wind shouldn't have been a problem. But it was, and was making me feel inadequate and like a failure. Sweat trailed down the side of my face as I concentrated more and more, with little to no results. _What kind of Master am I if I can't even do this? What if Taiitsukun was wrong, what if I had actually lost my power? _Since leaving the previous world, I felt detached from everything—including my power—and I felt nothing.

Starting to feel a bit fatigued, everything in my vision began to spin with my head getting feeling light. Panting, my legs felt uneasy making me almost fall.

Emiko's voice rang out, "Aki! That's enough!" She ran over to me to keep my body up from collapsing. "It's not good to try and force it like that. You have to think of your energy like a stove: what you were just doing was like turning the knob to turn the fire on, but all you get is gas. Without the spark, the fire, or your power, will never start and you'll keep wasting energy, causing you to tire out a lot faster than you normally would while using magic."

Breathing heavy, I told her, "I can do it. Just give me some time."

"And you'll have that time. But not now, you need some fresh air." Turning her head away from me and towards the stairs, she yelled, "Towa! Would you be a dear and take Aki out for a little walk?"

"Sure thing Miss Emiko! I'd be happy to!" Towa shouted back. Miss Emiko's yell still rang in my ears as I winced in pain. _Sheesh! Don't those two believe in walking up to someone to talk to them? _

She must have noticed because she nervously laughed while her face went a bit red. "Oh, I am so sorry about that!"

Rubbing my temples, I said, "Don't worry about it…"

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><p>As we walked around, Towa had been telling me how the Niwa's were a really nice and exciting family. She also said that there was someone that she just couldn't wait for me to meet. I was wondering if it was that Daisuke person that they said I had the same eye color as. But considering she was making such a big deal as well as keeping it a secret, I figured that the person she was talking about was somebody different entirely. Scanning the town, I realized that it was a pretty nice and clean place. The streets were made of bricks and the houses were sort of old-fashioned-looking on the outside. It was actually kind of cute how the set-up of it all was. There was even a trolley! The people seemed really friendly as well. All of this lead me to believe that this was a peaceful town where nothing bad ever happened. The question was if the town had more to it than it lead on to believe.<p>

We eventually stopped in front of a small café. Towa said that she recognized two of the girls sitting outside under an umbrella drinking tea.

"Miss Harada Twins! How are you two girls doing?" Towa asked with a bright smile. _Twins? _My stomach did an uncomfortable twist. _That is the last thing I needed when going to a new world. _

The one with long brown hair and a huge pink bow smiled back and answered using a cute, high-pitched voice . "Miss Towa, right? It's been a while! We're fine."

"Miss Towa, it's not necessary to call us 'Miss Harada Twins'. We are Riku and Risa, okay?" Said the girl with short, reddish-brown hair who sat across the table. _They must be fraternal twins. _Both of them looked a couple years younger than me and had the same chocolate-brown eyes and wore the same school uniform: A long white shirt and collar with a short, off-red vest and a burgundy skirt. "Who's that with you?"

"Oh! This is Aki Tsubaki! She's staying with me and the Niwa's for a few days."

The one with long hair gave me a smile. "It's nice to meet you Tsubaki. I'm Risa Harada and this is my sister Riku. Welcome to the town!" She looked at my wrist. "That is the most beautiful bracelet I've ever seen! Where did you get it?" I couldn't help but look away when she asked. It was still hard for me to accept that I was forced to leave the first guy I ever really like and possibly loved. This was the only thing I had to remind me of the happiness I had there, and in it contained Hikaru's feelings for me.

Her sister, Riku, chimed in trying to change the subject probably from seeing how uncomfortable I was. "Staying with the Niwa's huh? Are you Daisuke's cousin?"

Towa blushed and talked frantically, "No, nothing like that. She's a friend of the family from out of town."

"Where out of town?" Riku gave sort of a skeptical tone when she spoke—which sort of annoyed me.

"Way out of town," Towa replied.

"That's not really an answer…"

"Well…uh…" Towa looked back at me with a "help me out here" look. Coming up with something—that would qualify as a "snappy" comment towards Riku—I was interrupted by a guy's voice from behind.

"Who are you?"

I turned around to face a guy who looked around the same age as Riku and Risa. He had light, baby-blue hair and cerulean eyes while wearing thin-framed glasses. The most noticeable thing of all was that he was sitting in a large black stretch limo. I couldn't even understand how I didn't see that thing coming down the street. Were my senses really _that_ messed up at that moment?

"Hiwatari, what are you doing here?" Risa asked the guy curiously.

Acknowledging her, he answered with a flat voice, "I was just passing through when I noticed this strange woman standing here." _Who're you calling strange? _The more I thought about it, the more I felt as if there was something strange with that guy. There was something different about him compared to everyone else, but I couldn't quite find what it was.

"Her name is—"

"My name is Akimoto Tsubaki." I ended up cutting off Riku the moment I couldn't stand being spoken for any longer. It annoyed the hell out of me how people had been answering for me since I arrived there. I may have been depressed and didn't feel like talking much, but I was still me. It was usually against my morals to show weakness and tread around all depressed like I had been. But I was just so upset that the sadness just flowed out. So I realized that I needed to try to keep it together slightly more than I had been—even if it was tearing me up inside.

Riku gave me a somewhat irritated look before she spoke again. "She's apparently staying with the Niwa's."

Risa gave a sly smile. "You're just upset 'cause Niwa didn't tell you anything aren't you? Are you jealous Riku?" Riku instantly blushed at the question.

"Of course not! Don't be ridiculous!"

"Staying with the Niwa's huh? How…Interesting…" He eyed me top to bottom. It wasn't in a "checking me out" kind of way, more like in a "there's something odd about this particular girl" sort of way. This led me to ask myself how perceptive this guy was. His window started to go up but stopped it to say, "It was nice meeting you Miss Tsubaki." After that, he was driving off down the road.

"Okay, so who was that?" I asked.

"His name is Satoshi Hiwatari. He's a classmate of ours and a friend of Niwa's." Risa told me as she took a sip of tea.

It was clear to me that she was speaking about a specific Niwa, not the family as a whole. This whole thing reminded me of how I hated that whole Japanese thing of calling someone by their last name. Not only was it annoying, but it left a lot of room for confusion when someone was talking about or to somebody especially when they meant someone else. You have no idea how much of a relief it was when I moved to America and people were calling each other by their first names. No one ever got confused (except for those times when people had the same first name, but that wasn't nearly as confusing as calling every person in a family by their last name)!

I sort of wanted to ask them which particular Niwa they were talking about, but decided that I was probably going to end up meeting them anyway. Not only that, but if I asked, Riku here might wonder as to why I didn't know one of the Niwa's when I was supposed to be a "friend" of the family. If I was dealing with stupid people here, my life would be a lot easier.

"So…Tsubaki," Riku began, "where did you say you were from?" _Damn the distractions didn't work!_

Towa started to panic in my place. "W-we already told you, out of town! O-oh look at that, the sun is setting." She pretended to look into the distance. "What's that Miss Emiko? You need us home? Right away!" Taking my hand, she bolted down the street. She suddenly stopped to face the Harada twins with a smile glued to her face. She shouted, "Sorry we couldn't talk much longer, really wanted to! Have a nice day and see you later!" Then continued to run so fast that the world around us became a blur. Talk about déjà vu.

* * *

><p>Hearing the door slam behind us, I hunched over, panting from all the running. <em>Okay, I understand running away from those two. What I don't understand is running all the way back to the house. We could have easily avoided them by just running one block. <em>

Towa, who didn't seemed fazed at all, stood in front of me with that same smile that was going borderline creepy. "Sorry about that Miss Aki. Are you okay?" _Am I okay? Where the hell do you get all that perkiness from?_

Miss Emiko poked her head out from around a corner. "Aki! Towa! I'm glad you're back!" _And speaking of perky… _"There is someone special that I would like you to meet." She yelled to the hallway in back of her. "Dai! They're back!"

At the sound of a door opening and closing, footsteps of some unknown person came closer. Soon enough, a boy who was slightly shorter than me and looked around the age of those teens I met at the café stood there. He had spikey hair similar to Mr. Niwa's but his was a bright crimson red along with eyes of a very similar color. It was his eyes that tipped me off as to who he was.

"Aki, this is my handsome and sweet son, Daisuke. Daisuke, Aki."

The boy walked up to me to shake my hand—I complied. "It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Tsubaki." That's when she showed one of the most charming, sincere smiles I had ever seen. In fact, it would probably be a good challenge against Tamaki's. Looking at him closer, I saw that his school uniform—that consisted of dark brown dress pants, a red undershirt, and a short-sleeved white shirt over it with a collar that had a red stripe on it—was the boy version of the uniform that the Harada twins were wearing.

"See Dai? She has the same eyes as you, isn't that interesting?" Miss Emiko asked.

He blushed and laughed uncomfortably. "Yeah, sure mom."

All of a sudden, Miss Emiko had this devious twinkle in her eye. She reached into her pocket and hugged Daisuke from behind with one arm. Thinking that she was going to do something bad to him, my body tensed up, ready for anything. What I didn't expect was for her to take out a wallet-sized photo and showing it him. _What the?_

"Wait—mom!" His whole face went red as his body started to pulsate.

"Sorry about this Dai, but Aki deserves to meet the other member of the family…and I have a plan, remember."

As I blinked in confusion, Daisuke started to grow several more inches, finally getting taller than me. His spikes became skinnier as well as longer, mostly in the front as his bangs fell longer as well. An extreme change occurred when his hair went from red to a deep violet. When he opened his eyes—that had gone significantly sharper and more mature, and had also gone from red to violet—he smirked the moment he saw me. _What happened? He' s a completely different guy now!_

He spoke with a deeper and smoother voice. "It's way better out here now that I get to meet you in person." Lifting my hand up, he kissed it softly causing me to blush slightly and look down. _What the hell is with this guy? _My stomach turned in that familiar way it did when a cute guy was around. And despite the fact that I was still attempting to get over leaving Hikaru, my body couldn't deny when it was attracted to someone. Damn hormones. "Dark Mousy at your service Miss Akimoto Tsubaki." He continued to hold my hand.

Looking over at Miss Emiko, I gave her a "what the hell" look. She giggled. "You see Aki, part of the magic of our family is that whenever a male is born, and after they turn fourteen, they take on the responsibility of harboring Dark inside of them." She probably knew what I was going to ask, so she said, "Don't worry so much about why that happens. All you need to know is how I know how down you're feeling and thought that Dark here could show you a good time. After all, pretty girls like you tend to feel a lot better with a smart, and extremely handsome young man with them." She turned to him. "You don't mind, do you Dark?" I didn't need this right now—in fact, this was the last thing I needed. Emiko knew where I came from was still trying to set me up with this guy. What kind of name was _Dark_ anyway? Was she really so insensitive to get me to fall for another guy just so that I could use my powers? Not only did it probably not work like that, but I was starting to think that she was more conniving than I initially thought.

I gave her a scowl as Dark answered. "Of course I don't mind. I'm actually looking forward to it." Winking at me, I turned my head and blushed again. _Oh great. He's a flirt. _

"All of this really isn't necessary…" I said in a quiet tone. Maybe he didn't mind, but I certainly did. But apparently, my opinion didn't matter.

"So it's settled then!" Miss Emiko exclaimed as she took my hand. "I am going to get Aki ready as you do the same. Okay Dark?" _She didn't listen to a damn thing I said!_

"Will do," He told her.

At that, she rushed me into a back room.

* * *

><p>"Introducing…Aki the magnificent!" Miss Emiko shouted from around a corner as she pushed me out into the open. I was wearing skin hugging, cashmere, purple one shoulder, no sleeve shirt with a short, blue jean dress and black boots. She even had me wearing lipstick! I felt totally embarrassed—<em>way<em> too much skin was showing. Seeing my bracelet on me still gave me some comfort, but not enough to actually go walking about while looking like this. I mean, come on!

Dark stood in front of the door while wearing a black beret and a silk, dark, olive green button-up shirt with a black dressy jacket and pants. He saw me and smiled, causing me to flush even more. _I can't do this! _

"You look really hot, Aki. Now I'm really excited for our date."

"It's not a date!" I said quickly. "I didn't even agree to this…" This whole thing felt wrong. How the heck was I expected to go on a date? I still technically had a boyfriend! Well…no…that wasn't entirely true. Hikaru and I—by some cosmic standards—were broken, sort of, up even if it didn't really happen. Nonetheless, my feelings were still with him. So I _couldn't_ go on a date with anyone—especially with someone as good-looking as Dark. It just made me feel…dirty.

Opening the door, he bowed in a gentlemanly way. "It'll be whatever you want it to be." Looking up slightly at me he added, "After you, milady."

My body refused to move. I just stood there mentally beating up myself for looking the way I did and going out with a guy who looked like that. Noticing my hesitancy, Miss Emiko and Towa gave a "gentle" push…right into Dark.

He laughed a little. "Hasty, aren't we? I didn't know you wanted to play _like that_." I immediately backed off and headed out the door.

"In your dreams," I muttered.

"Hopefully I can make those dreams into reality." And at that, I was walking fast down the sidewalk trying to avoid them from seeing my flushed face.

* * *

><p>Sitting at a bakery near the café where I met Riku, Risa, and Satoshi, Dark and I decided to rest there after walking around the town at night for about an hour. I had to admit that the town was significantly more dazzling at night—with the lanterns burning bright and stars twinkling, it was the perfect romantic setting—causing me to keep those types of thoughts out of my head and stay a safe enough distance from Dark. He seemed to find that amusing and tried to get closer whenever I showed resistance. Yup, he's definitely a flirt <em>and<em> a playboy—so confident that he could woo me. If I didn't have any self-control, I won't lie…he may have had a chance—a slight, _extremely_ small chance. _Damn those annoying, too-often-getting-in-the-way hormones. _

Dark sat there with an amused smile as I attempted to put my attention elsewhere.

"You're cute when you have that embarrassed look on your face," he said. Feeling my face warm up again, I resisted the urge to look at him. "Do I make you nervous?"

"Of course not!" My reaction was unexpected, but my body was practically shaking from not being able to express myself like I usually did. The more I thought about it, the more I was discovering that it took a lot of work to be depressed. When I was younger, it was like my second language—even despite my sister being there. In fact, I found that it was difficult to be any other way. But somehow, since this whole journey began, I'd been finding it harder and harder to stay sad. It was true that my life was like Hell in more ways than one, but something was preventing me from completely internalizing those old feelings of misery and dread. What had happened? Yeah, I was still upset—no doubt about that—but I actually felt like I could handle it all.

"I finally got a reaction! Now we're getting somewhere."

Sighing, I sat back in my seat and rested my arms of the table while folding my hands. "You don't have to be with me out here Dark."

"I know I don't_ have to_. But I want to. You're a very attractive woman." When I finally looked at him, I saw that he was intently looking at me.

Feeling slightly intimidated, I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. "No I'm not."

"Ah, I see. You're just like Riku: so modest about your good qualities." _He knows Riku? _After thinking for a second, I realized that it made sense considering he was a huge flirt. "It's actually quite cute when some girls deny things like that." He suddenly went serious. "But that's not what we're here to talk about." _You're telling me that there's actually a legitimate reason for this illegitimate date _other _than trying to hook me up? _"You and I are a lot alike, Aki."

My face fell as my instincts went on high alert. "What do you mean?"

"You heard Daisuke's mother—my mother—back there when she told you how the Niwa men for generations had to share their DNA with mine. Which means that I have been around for many, many years—around four hundred to be exact." My eyes went wide. _Four-hundred years? He's that old?_

I tried to keep my composure. "Yeah, so?"

He smiled sadly. "So…I've known a lot of people and even fell in love with someone." _He…what? _"You can imagine how hard it would be to form any real relationship especially when you know that you have to leave them behind eventually. Something like that could really scar a person, make them give up on people forever." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Dark actually knew exactly what I was feeling because he had practically been through it his whole entire life—and then some! In fact, he probably had it worse since everyone he had ever known eventually died while he continued on living. Four hundred years is a long time. "I had considered shutting people out, just doing what I had to do without interaction. But it's hard Aki. There will always be people around, even if its family. So no matter what, people like you and I who have a purpose will always be around people as well as feelings from the past no matter what we do."

Without knowing it at first, warm tears started flowing down my cheeks. So to cover it up, I quickly wiped them away with the back of my hand and turned away from him. "So…those horrible feelings of loneliness never go away?"

"In a way, no. They will always be a part of you and who you are. But you have to make sure to remember something very important."

I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. "What's that?"

"Just as those feelings of loneliness are with you, the feelings of joy and happiness are with you as well. Even though you leave friends behind, you can never truly forget them or the happiness they brought you. It's those positive feelings that beat the bad ones of loneliness and misery every time. It's okay to be sad because you have to leave them, but it's important that you don't stay that way. You have to remember the happy memories instead of the sad departure." His smile became brighter. "Even if it weren't people like us—who are forced to move on—the fact of the matter is that saying good-bye is a part of life. It's how you deal with it that makes you who you are. It's true that I don't know your whole story and the hurt you've endured, but if I can relieve some of the pain, then I'll be happy."

My vision was becoming blurry from the tears again. "Dark…" _Damn these emotions! _But he really was being very sweet to me. I just didn't know if I had his strength.

"Be happy that you knew them and that you still have the memory of them in order to do so. Then, make sure that you make the most out of life and be happy. After all, doesn't it feel better to smile?" It was then that I remembered Mrs. Hitachiin's words. _**"It's always more fun to be happy. You should try giving your happiness a chance, right?"**_

Thinking their words over, a waiter came by and dropped off a piece of chocolate cake. Drying my tears, with my hand I looked up and thanked him before he bowed and walked onto the next customer.

Picking up the fork I poked at the desert. Dark smiled at me softly while leaning his head on his hand with his elbow in the table. "Try it. I guarantee it's the best cake you've ever had."

"I'm not really into many sweets."

"It's delicious, I promise."

Looking down, I scooped up a small piece and put it into my mouth. My whole body felt pleasantly warm the moment it touched my taste buds—it was like, fluffy, chocolaty heaven.

"Oh my God this stuff is amazing!"

Dark saw my reaction and closed his eyes while he smiled genuinely. "Told you."

"How did you know about this cake?"

"The recipe had been passed down in the family and I was tempted to try it some years back. Never regretted the decision." He opened one eye. "You have some frosting on the side of your mouth."

I blushed. "I do?" Grabbing for my napkin, I lifted it to wipe it away. Putting his hand on mine, he said, "No, let me get it." Scooting his chair closer to mine, he grabbed my chin and lifted my face to his. A second later, he lightly licked the frosting off causing me to instinctually fall out of my chair—shuffling to get back up and away from him, face fully red.

"What the hell?"

He snickered. "You're just too cute when you get worked up."

That was when a familiar, yet uncomfortable chilling sensation consumed my body—creating goose bumps all over. My heart started to beat rapidly in a totally different way than it did when I was embarrassed from Dark—it was racing out of fear.

Slowly stepping away from the bakery, Dark looked at me with concern and confusion. "What is it Aki?"

"I—I can't…I'm sorry!" I yelled before I turned and ran away.

The shadow creatures were near and I had absolutely no way of fighting them.

* * *

><p><strong>Time for intermission! Do what you gotta do so that we can go onto Part 2!<strong>


	17. What Lies Beneath Part 2

_**~*Part 2*~**_

**Emiko's 3rd POV  
><strong>

Emiko was in the kitchen of the Niwa house washing dishes and humming a catchy tune. Suddenly, a sharp feeling shot through her senses causing her to accidently lose her grip and break a glass plate.

Her large brown eyes went wide as her body began to shake. "No…not now…"

"Miss Emiko, what's wrong?" Asked the alarmed Towa.

"Aki…" She turned her to the side of the sink where a small creamy-pink bunny-like creature with long ears, a long fluffy tail, and big red eyes. "With! Dark needs you. Go to him, hurry!" At the command, the creature known as With sprang itself out the window and towards its master.

"Miss Emiko?"

"Please you two…stay safe."

* * *

><p><strong>Aki's POV<strong>

Feeling the creatures surrounding me from all directions, I kept running. I had to get them as far away from as much civilians as possible. But considering it was night time and they were shadows, I wasn't sure about how far I was actually able to get. Not being able to use my powers left me completely vulnerable, but I wouldn't allow people to suffer their wrath because of me—after all, this was _my_ fight.

Seeing a tall clock tower in the distance, I ran towards it hoping I could either lure the shadow creatures into one spot, or hide hoping they wouldn't find me—the latter wasn't likely, but I was _really_ hoping on it. It seemed like the clock tower was in the middle of a park which traditionally meant people. Luckily, I didn't really see anyone around which continued to make my civilian count remain at zero.

Dashing up the steps, with my legs burning, I finally made it to the top. Resting against a pillar that overlooked everything, I looked down hoping that the park still looked like a park. Unfortunately, all I saw was a sea full of evil and dangerous shadows. Stepping away from the edge, I unexpectedly ran into the arms to someone. Turning around, I faced a guy that sort of reminded me of Dark, but at the same time not…_totally_ not. He had golden blonde hair that had long strings of hair flowing in various places, one being right in the middle of his face. His eyes were also gold and he wore all white. In back of him were large majestic angelic wings. As a whole, he sort of looked like an angel. So why did he feel so wrong?

As I backed up from him, he spoke with a sly voice. "Akimoto Tsubaki, I presume?"

Still wary about the shadow creatures having us surrounded, I asked, "Who the hell're you?"

He bowed. "Why, I'm your guardian angel, my dear. And my name is Krad."

Processing his words, I assessed the situation. _My guardian angel? _I spoke skeptically. "My guardian angel, huh? Why should I believe you?"

"I know all about you Lady Akimoto. You're lonely from leaving people behind, from being hurt by absolutely everyone around you. You wish to give up and leave it all—or better, make them all pay. I can do that for you…" He reached his hand out, "If you're willing to trust me."

Slowly extending my hand, Krad's smile began to widen. That was when I pulled back—completely faking him out. I smiled deviously—a skill I learned from the Hitachiin twins. "You're gonna have to do way better than that in order to fool me. Maybe those things you said were the case, but even so, I'd never buy that crap about you being my guardian angel. I'm pretty damn sure that an angel is not supposed to make a person feel like said angel should be listed on the list for biggest creeps." His smile faltered. "Your clothes may be white on the outside, but I have a feeling that your fleece isn't as white as snow." _Man that felt good!_

"That hurts Miss Akimoto," A bunch of shadow creatures began to emerge behind him, making me back up further. _I knew the guy was a creep. But since when did the shadow creatures ally themselves with someone? _"I was really hoping that this would be short and simple. But I guess without a challenge, this wouldn't be any fun." Some of the creatures launched out at me, putting me in a "dodge or die" situation. My stamina was already running on low from running here—man, did I miss flying—and any kind of magic seemed impossible. All I could do was dodge.

A voice called out to me, "Aki!" I looked out towards the sky to see Dark flying—flying!—with large black angelic wings.

Feeling a wave of relief, I sighed. "Dark…"

Dark landed in front of us and folded in his wings. _How have I never noticed those before?_

Krad had a smug look on his face. "Ah, Dark. It's nice to the see that you've joined the party. I hope you don't mind, but," Shadow creatures sprang up from under me, grabbed my torso and slammed me into the ground as they held me there, "I've stolen your date."

Dark growled. "Krad…"

"Don't worry Dark. The fun is only beginning!" White, black-lined lightening flashed all over the place, all coming from Krad as he brought out a long white feather. Dark corresponded by taking out his own long black feather. Soon enough, electric black and white lightning was being zapped back and forth. Struggling to get up, I noticed a few of the shadow creatures surround Krad as their gold eyes glowed. Immediately after, Krad's power increased and began to overwhelm Dark. _Those things are making Krad stronger! I have to…help! _Mustering up all my energy, my body unsteadily shook as I sat up, throwing the shadow creature off of me.

Krad grunted as a huge burst of energy shot out from him. _No! I'm not going to let someone get hurt because of me! I may be powerless, but I'm not helpless! _Struggling up on my feet, I ran towards Dark, pushing him out of the way. In an instant, my body was stricken with the lightening. My whole body felt as if it were on fire and being ripped apart all at the same time. My body's reaction to the pain was causing me to black out.

"Aki!" Dark yelled.

"Well, this was a bit unexpected, but if it'll hurt Dark in any way..." Using his power like a tractor beam, he brought me off of the edge and over the ground which was about one hundred feet below. I was starting to panic, but still losing consciousness.

"Krad, don't!" Some of the shadow creatures that were tormenting me went over to Dark and pinned him down. "She's not part of our battle Krad, leave her out of it!"

"Despair and helplessness is a good look for you Dark, but let's try…" He released me. "…horrified."

Unmerciful gravity took hold of me the instant he let go. Plummeting straight towards the ground, which rushed up at me in speeds that made the heavy wind resistance body numbing, I was never so much more aware of how there was nothing there to save me. I wouldn't be able to fly and the chances of me being rescued were slim to none. In some location towards the deepest reaches of my mind, I knew I must have been screaming. But I couldn't hear anything_—_no...the world was mute to me. Closing my eyes, I began to accept my fate and upon doing so, time slowed down. Even in the urgence of my death becoming more and more of a reality, I could take note of all the details around me_—_the roofs and upper levels of the town in the background, some individual leaves on the trees, the lamps that were placed around the tower, who's lights were shut off due to the shadow creatures' presence...the shadow creatures... So many unblinking, yellow eyes and blackened forms staring up at me, none of their expressions distinguishable. I was going to die amongst strangers...all alone, with the distracting thought that I would only be doing myself a favor by escaping from all of the misery that I had to endure.

That's when Dark's words rang in my ears: _**"Make sure that you make the most out of life and be happy. After all, doesn't it feel better to smile?"**_Make the most out of life...did I even know how to do that? Was I even capable? The world spontaneously sped up again, and it would only be a few moments before I was a bloody mess on the ground. Oddly enough, an eruption of stubbornness and determination overcame my consciousness. _If I give up now, then I'll only be submitting to the universe. And that is NOT okay! For the first time, I actually have a say in my destiny_. I don't expect it to be easy...because it's me I know it'll never be easy. But even if it's just one step closer, then that's one step further than I've ever been able to take. _  
><em>

__And another thing:__ My eyes shot open.__ I REFUSE TO DIE IN SUCH A LAME WAY!__

Right when I thought that I should be making contact with the earth, the tables turned as I felt my body unexpectedly lighten as it was being caught by strong, familiar arms. As the disbelief washed away, my eyes drifted over to my savior, leading me to gaze into fierce golden eyes and thick, silvery hair—complimented with the pointy dog ears. Tears were welling up in my eyes as a smile ran across my face.

"Inuyasha! Is that really you?" He looked down and gave a confident smile. Although he was transparent and wouldn't say anything, I knew it was him as I rubbed my head in his chest. "It is." Crouching down, he jumped high into the air, bringing me back up to the top of the clock-tower. Memories of the days when he'd carry me like this flooded my mind causing me to smile even more. Sure we were all fighting demons, and I was still discovering the elements, but we were all together and those guys were the first bunch of people to really accept me as a friend, even if I was annoyed with their lack of confidence in my abilities.

When we reached the top, Inuyasha let me down as I faced Krad. I expected my enemy to act surprised, then angry, and then try again, but instead, I saw how he was being pelted with multiple blows of fierce kicks and punched from a carrot-topped, fanged guy from my past.

"Kyo!" I shouted to the also transparent, but obviously solid guy.

Krad attempted to block all of the hits, but found it too difficult. _Good luck getting away from those kicks Krad. Whenever Kyo gets like this, almost nothing can stop him. _My grin widened as I remembered how I'd be in Shigure's home watching Kyo and Yuki go at it because they had ticked each other off. Part of me said that I should stop them, but it was kind of entertaining. Not only that, but some people say that violence is a way that some people express themselves. It's bad…but sadly true.

The shadow creatures seemed slightly taken aback by the whole scene—and it was odd seeing them so baffled. I was quite puzzled too, but that feeling was being overwhelmed by feelings of joy. I couldn't get distracted though, the shadow creatures and Krad were still a problem—Kyo was just a distraction.

_But what can I do?_

Feeling a warm hand reach around my shoulders, I looked slightly to the side to see my ex-boyfriend standing there.

"Hikaru! Hikaru I—" He smiled at me and lifted my arm that had the bracelet on it. Suddenly, my whole body started to tingle as I felt a mysterious power rise up. My body started to emit a bright golden light that pulsated around the whole clock tower. The light was so warm and friendly, it made me feel like there was nothing wrong in the world—it gave me a shred of hope. In the fraction of a second, a huge wave of light brighter than the sun shone from my body, making all of the shadow creatures instantly flee and knocking Krad into a nearby column, knocking him out.

Feeling completely exhausted and drained beyond belief, my body fell to the ground. That whole thing with the light only lasted for about seven seconds, but it felt like so much. Did I really have that power inside of me? Or was it because my friends had come back to save me?

Dark ran up and held me. "Aki, tell me that you're okay!"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said while scanning the area. Looking over at where Krad landed, I saw that glasses-wearing kid Satoshi in his place. _Well that makes sense…that feeling I got from him earlier was because of Krad. So Satoshi is like Daisuke…_Continuing to look around, I realized that Inuyasha, Kyo, and Hikaru were already gone. But it was okay—I wasn't sad that they left, I had already suffered through my mourning stages, but instead, I was happy that they were there for me. _Thank you guys._

* * *

><p>After that battle, Dark flew me back to the Niwa residence. Upon opening the door, Miss Emiko ran up and hugged us.<p>

"I'm so glad that you two are okay! You have no idea how worried I've been—I felt so helpless."

Eyes widening for a second, I softened up and smiled. _Thanks for worrying._ "Miss Emiko, I have something for you." She backed up as I rested my body against Dark's. Focusing on my energy, I tapped into the core of my power, something that my negative emotions hadn't allowed me to do before. Unlike before, my body actually became surrounded by a glowing, light gray light as a big sphere of energy floated from my hand.

With tears in her eyes, Emiko smiled. "Aki, you did it!"

Nodding I said, "I remembered something from when this whole thing began. My wand came from _my_ body, it was a part of me—just in a physical manifestation. When my powers evolved, it came to realize that I no longer needed that extension of myself to use my power. So, my wand blew off into the wind just as the energy from other spell do once they are complete." De-summoning the ball of energy, I gave a confident grin, "All I gotta do is have faith in my powers and the elements and I'll be able to do any spell!"

"You figured all of this out on your own?"

Glancing at Dark, we smiled at each other. Keeping my cool, I crossed my arms and bumped into him. "I had some help."

Wiping her tears, Miss Emiko did a fist pump into the air. "All right then. I can see that you're super-charged so let's get to that training!"

* * *

><p>Almost nonstop for the past twenty-nine days, Miss Emiko and I had been working through many, <em>many<em> spells, making sure that I could do them without any trouble. Let's put my experience this way: I was cramming for an intense exam which determined my future, and I only had a month to prepare...well, twenty nine days since the first day was sort of a flop. As much as we both knew that sleep was significant, a month was too short a time to waste by resting. Every now and then, the residents of the Niwa household would stand by and supervise. The only time we took a break was when Miss Emiko thought I was getting too close to the red zone—the point when my body starts to break down from the inside, causing me to cough up blood...and perhaps even worse if I pushed it too far. Although quite intense in more ways than one, leaving me both mentally and physically exhausted, I thought the training was was successful.

But only my performance in the field would prove this to be true or not.

The thirtieth day had finally crept up on us pretty fast, and we had come down to the last spell. Miss Emiko, along with Towa, Mr. Niwa, Dark, and Taiitsukun stood off to the side, judging my final performance.

"All you have to do is get this spell Aki and your training is complete," Miss Emiko told me.

"Right!" Facing the wall—which was indeed being protected by a barrier—I focused my energy on the final spell. It was the same spell I attempted back on the beach in the other world—the one that caused me to cough up blood and be sick. But now, I was confident that I was strong enough to perform the_ Dragon Slave_. Extending my arms out, I closed my eyes and focused on the ring of dark energy around me. I had discovered that although it proved a _huge_ problem for me socially, it was actually a pretty great power source when used effectively. Guiding the ring, I brought it above my head. _"Darkness beyond Twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows. Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows. I pledge myself to conquer, all the foes who stand. Before the mighty gifts bestowed in my unworthy hands," _Threatening red lighting flashed and gathered in my hand as a ball of red and black energy formed. _"Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess!" _Bringing my arms in front of me aimed at the wall, I finished the spell, "_Dragon Slave!" _Within the huff of a breath, a _huge_ red and black beam shot out from my hands (probably six feet thick) and onto the wall, lighting up the whole room with the intense energy almost blowing everyone away. When I felt that it was enough, I eased off until the beam was totally gone.

Turning to face everyone, I gave a thumbs up and grinned confidently as if it wasn't difficult at all.

Towa and Miss Emiko ran over to hug me as Mr. Niwa and Dark walked over. Taiitsukun floated over to where we were.

"Miss Aki, you are so cool!" Towa said.

"Aki, you were great! No, better than great, you were magnificent!" Miss Emiko praised. "Boy does all of this really bring back memories!"

I gave a confused look. "Memories?"

Taiitsukun sighed as Emiko back up closer to her. "Is it okay if I tell her? I think she deserves to know." Taiitsukun looked at me with a stern face before nodding.

"Tell me what?"

"Well…about seventeen years ago, I made a wish to find a man who would be willing to be the father of the future Phantom Thief Dark. And that was when Taiitsukun showed up." Took a few seconds before I was able to catch onto the gist of what she was saying. _What? Then that means…_"I was on this journey as well to find my true love—elemental powers and all."

That caught me off guard so much I almost toppled over. "But—but how? I mean, you still know stuff!"

"I've given back her memory so that she could help train you." Taiitsukun finally spoke. "Remember what I said about the three girls that actually went back to their worlds without any trouble? Emiko was one of them."

My brain was all over the place—I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This whole time, I had been faced to face with someone who was actually in my shoes, who knew what it was like to go through all of this—other than Dark that is. "But why her?" I asked.

"Because, Wind is my natural-born element as well! Didn't you notice that when we both made our energy manifest that they were both the same light-gray color? That's because we're Wind Elements!"

Trying to suck in all of that new information, I spoke up again. "Okay, I get all that stuff, I suppose. But why did you stop your journey? How did you get your happily ever after?"

She smiled. "You know, I actually went through about twenty different world's on my journey."

_Holy crap that's a lot! _"Twenty?"

Taiitsukun nodded in exasperation. "It's true. Out of all the girls I took under my wing, she was the only one to ever do that many."

Giggling, Miss Emiko went on. "I was upset being born a girl because I wasn't able to continue on with the Niwa family tradition of becoming the Phantom Thief Dark. So, to make up for it, I came up with the new dream of giving birth to the little boy who would become Dark. So after making the wish, I went form world to world asking men if they would want to be the father of my baby boy." _What the hell?_ I grimaced. _Why is it that I get a Miroku vibe here...? _"Each and every one of them looked at me weird and turned me down." _Of course they did! You don't just run up to a random guy and say something like that!_ "Even though it meant leaving behind friends, I was determined to go throughout the worlds looking for the man that would finally say yes." _Gotta at least admire her enthusiasm._ "Eventually, I became too exhausted to keep on going—I missed my family and figured that another girl should be allowed to go through this journey, not waiting for me which could've taken forever. So after I lost my memory of the journey, the first guy I asked to be the father of my son actually shown me interest and we started to date. Then my dear Kosuke and I got married and had Daisuke. I am so happy now!"

"Aren't you a little upset? I mean, you went through all of that just to find someone who was already in your world." No doubt I'd be pissed off...you know, in a scenario where I failed and would still be allowed to keep my memories.

She shook her head. "I'm not upset at all! I'm actually thankful that Taiitsukun allowed me to go on that journey."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because now I know for a fact that I could go through all of the men in the universe and know that none of them is as perfect for me as my Kosuke. The same thing will go for you, Aki. Someday you'll discover the spark. You'll find your soul mate and when you do, you'll never question your love for him and you'll never want to be away. The moment you get that feeling, that's when you know that you have found where you truly belong." _A spark...huh?_ My head dropped lower as I avoided her gaze, weighted down by my own pessimism. _Sounds a bit too good to be true... _Walking up to me, she took my hand sensing my doubt. "I have faith in you Aki, and I know you're a magnificent sorceress. You even made it to Master! Taiitsukun told me that there was only one other girl before you who had made it that far. I myself only got to Mage. But I'm happy, and I know you will be too. Just keep on fighting for your happiness." I nodded, still not completely convinced, but moved by her faith in me nonetheless. Suddenly, her countenance became serious, then she added one more thing. "Don't let the darkness get to you Aki. There are sinister things lurking in the universe—even more sinister than when I was in your shoes—and you're gonna have to be strong in order to fight it."

_Yeah...I know. _I really wished I know more, but as with in the past, I'd have to learn things the hard way.

Well then...it was a good thing I was no pushover, could I could sense that things would get a hella lot harder than before.

"It's time to say your good-bye's Akimoto," Taiitsukun warned. I nodded back to her as I faced my new friends, finally emotionally prepared for the first time to deal with another parting. And hopefully, it would be the _last_ parting.

"Be careful out there, young lady," said Mr. Niwa as he put his hand out for me to shake—which I did.

"I will, thank you sir."

Facing Towa, she had tears in her eyes. "Oh, Miss Aki! I wish you could stay longer and that we could have hung out more. Promise that we will always be friends!"

Looking over at Dark, she smiled at me before I returned my attention back to Towa. "Yeah, of course we will be." _Even though you'll forget who I am, I believe that our friendship will stay alive as long as I continue to remember. _As abnormally optimistic as that was for me, I knew that there was still some doubt in my heart. But deep down, I think that maybe, a part of me might have believed it...even if it was just by a little bit.

Next was Emiko. "I've already bored you with my whole story. I just hope that you stay safe, my Wind-bearing daughter." Hearing her call me her daughter filled me with joy. In four days she had managed to show me more motherly concern and compassion than my mother ever had my whole life. Hell, as far as I was concerned, Emiko Niwa was my mother. She gave me a warm hug and she patted the back of my hair. "No matter what Aki, keep on going."

"I will….promise."

Last, but definitely not least was Dark. "Well, I guess this is it, huh? Too bad, it woulda been nice to go on a lot more dates with you."

"Oh Dark…" Instead of getting mad, I just smiled. "Thanks for those things you told me before. They really put a lot of things into perspective for me. I really appreciate it—especially while knowing that I'm not alone." Remembering something, I said, "Make sure to tell Daisuke that I'm glad I got to meet him even if was only for a little while. I'm sure whatever girl he gets will be very happy."

Dark cocked an eyebrow. "And what about me?"

"Well—" I was cut off when he suddenly leaned over and kissed me on the lips—with his soft, soft, lips. With my eyes widened, he broke our lips apart with a smile and a wink.

"I've been waiting to do that."

Slowly reaching my hand up to feel my lips, I exploded with a flushed face. "What the hell Dark?" Before I could do anything to punish him, Taiitsukun reached over and tugged on my collar.

"We're leaving now!" Dragging me into a portal, Emiko ran out to us.

"Taiitsukun! Before you take away my memory again, I just wanted to say thanks! You really were like my fairy godmother." Seeing her wave was the last thing I saw from that world.

Huh...

There were only three girls out of thousands who had come back from their journey...I couldn't help but wonder how that might have made Taiitsukun feel. She served as a mentor (more or less) to all of us, our caretaker (in a way). If she had formed any sort of attachment to any of them, then how did it feel losing so many of those she had cared for? **"Taiitsukun! Before you take away my memory again, I just wanted to say thanks! You really were like my fairy godmother." **That might have been the only time that Taiitsukun was thanked for everything she's done. Except for the two others who got out unscathed, many, many other girls had been lost, putting all of Taiitsukun's time and effort in vain. Emiko was a success story. Well...she got her fairy tale ending anyway, so as far as she was concerned, she got everything she wanted. What about the other two? And as for me, regarding what was said before, I have more of a burden than the others, so my happily ever after had been pushed further away from me because of other interferences. Could I really reach it? If I failed, would Taiitsukun be sad? If my fate were the same as the unlucky thousands of others, she might be, but really...it was hard to say.

Would I ever be able to reach a point where I could say "thank you" to this woman?

Returning to the dark void, I thought about a few more things before calling out to Taiitsukun.

"Those shadow creatures…they are the other girls aren't they?" Stopped dead in her tracks when I asked the question. "That's why you didn't want to say anything before."

Without turning around she asked, "How did you figure it out?"

"Well, it took a while and I wasn't completely sure if I was right. But when you told me that all those girls disappeared, I figured that they couldn't have just vanished from existence. They were still there, just in a way that was unrecognizable. I'm not entirely sure what happened to them, but when Miss Emiko told me not to let the darkness get to me, something finally clicked that told me that that was what happened to the others. The misery from not knowing where you belong and failing to find your love can really scar your heart. Something caused those girls to bring out their inner darkness instead of their inner light, which caused them to turn into those things." Taiitsukun still didn't say anything. "I'm probably missing a lot of detail and there are still things that I'm not completely sure of, but I know I'm right so far."

Out of nowhere, that mysterious male voice from before entered my head. "_Only you can do it Akimoto. The journey you take will decide if the universe is consumed by darkness of blessed with light. You must stay strong!"_

Even though I didn't know who it was, I nodded as I spoke to him and Taiitsukun. "I left my world behind and I don't plan on backing out now. In each different world I had been in so far, I ended up crushing on a guy who showed me that they cared." Because I just wasn't used to that kind of affection being shown towards me. I got too comfortable and let my emotions get the better of me because that affection was what I yearned for. I had to admit that I didn't think as rationally as I should have. For a while, I let my heart's desires cloud my brain. Love wasn't an easy thing, I assumed. I would have to be smart about it if I ever wanted to be successful. From now on," I brought up my wrist to look at my bracelet, then smiled, "I will take it slow. That way I know that I'll get my wish."

A few seconds later, she finally spoke. "Is that all?"

Pretending to think about it, I told her, "Yup, I think so."

"Well then, there's no time to lose. It's time to go onto the next world. And believe me when I say that this one is probably the most important than them all."

Raising my eyebrow, I sounded amused. "Really now? Well now I'm curious. Quit it with the suspense and let's go for it!"

All of those people were right—Mrs. Hitachiin, Hikaru, Kaoru, Miss Emiko, and Dark were all right. Even though I knew that, it would still take a while for all of me to completely accept it and take the advice wholeheartedly. It was much more of a relief on my mind and body to at least give an effort to be happy. This whole time, I had been rejecting what made me feel good, and now that I see the other side of the argument, I realize how stupid I had been. It was finally time for me to let the light into my life and be strong. If I was going to go through with this, then I was going to have to give one-thousand percent of myself with absolutely no self-doubt..._ha...yeah...no self-doubt...if only such a day would come._ True, wounds take a while to heal, mine may take a lifetime, but I was finally willing to allow them to try.

Just one step at a time

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><p><strong>THE STORY IS NOT OVER!<strong>

**The next upcoming chapters (chapters 18 and up) will be a part of "Season 2"! I look forward to future readers and hope that you all continue to read (cuz I luv writing this story)! =D.**


	18. Room For Two,Wait, What?

**Yay! It's time for Season 2 everyone! Thank you all for waiting so patiently for this. It really means a lot to me to read in my reviews how you all looked forward to this and how you've liked my story so far. So to all of you who left awesome reviews and to those who were just introduced to this story, I give you a big THANK YOU! I really do love you all for taking the time out to read ^_~**

**One more thing, I feel that I should warn you all. Season 2 is centered around an anime a lot of people (surprisingly) haven't seen/read. So, in order to make things interesting, I request that you wait a while before watching/reading the anime. (It's just a request, if you want, you can go to youtube right now and start watching! I don't mind).**

**Anyways, can't wait for the reviews, and I hope you enjoy! **

**~Aki**

* * *

><p><em><strong>~*Season 2*~<strong>_

Body shaking with anticipation, I looked ahead in the darkness waiting for the next world where I would potentially get my wish.

A little over than half a year had gone by for me since I started this journey—so technically, my body had probably aged to eighteen years old, but considering my world was still frozen, I may still in a technical sense be seventeen. I know, it's confusing, but I realized a while ago that many things didn't make sense.

Backing up the story a bit, I need to do a short recap of my life since the beginning of my tale.

After a rather ugly scene between my "friends" at the mall in my world, I found that I just couldn't take the way my life was going anymore. Ever since I could remember, life for me has been miserable. Not only did my parents wish that I was never blessed into their lives, but because of some odd dark force around me, people have always shunned me, saying that just being around me caused them to feel horrible—recalling feelings of anger and depression. There were only three people in my life who ever gave me the time of day: My older sister, Kajou, who was the only one to really love me, and my two "friends" Saruwatari Michiyo and Kyoko Fujiwara. Well...there were technically four, but I wasn't completely sure to include that particular person or not...

But eventually, even those relationships came crashing down. My sister died when I was ten due to something that is still to this day difficult for me to mention. Not long after that, Saru and Kyoko began to drift apart from me—finding other crowds that suited their own interests, and only coming to me when they needed to blow off steam or needed help with something. Those three (plus one) were the only people at the time who seemed to be able to withstand the dark ring that was always surrounding my body. Regardless though, they all left me in a world filled with people who wouldn't even try to give me the time of day.

But I managed to stay strong on the outside—never letting anyone see that how my life turned out to be really bothered me. If anything, I was going to show the world that I was strong and that I didn't need affection to go throughout my life. However, loneliness is a deep wound that takes a while to heal and one that could grow worse and worse over time. Even with me being tough, I couldn't deny that I was miserable and needed someone to be with me…even if it was just one person. I needed someone to care about me and accept me, be willing so face challenges to be with me. I needed to find my true love.

So, one day, I took a chance with the universe and wished that I could find this person. And that was when my long and interesting journey of discovering the powers hidden inside of me began. I met a lot of people and just as easily left them to continue on with my quest. Sure, it was sad to leave behind something that I have craved for years, but knowing that I still remembered them and that the memories will always stay in my heart made me grow stronger as a person. No matter what, I was willing to see this thing through to the very end.

It started to become obvious a while ago that this journey was a lot more than just finding my soul mate. Being the most recent girl to go on this journey, I have to go up against an unknown entity as well as the troubles souls of the girls who had been weakened to let darkness overcome them. I didn't know why these things were happening , how, or why I ended up being the one to have to fix this mess. But just like in the beginning when Taiitsukun didn't give me much to go on, I'll have to tough this thing out and find my own answers.

So here I was, once again, going into the unknown leaving my fate to the universe.

Yup…I'm in for an interesting ride.

"So…Taiitsukun, I'm curious. You said that this new place I'm going to is really important. How come?" We kept walking in the familiar darkness that we always seemed to go through whenever I went to a new world. The question of why we had to keep walking around like this always ate at me. I mean, couldn't she just open a portal wherever she wanted? Or do we actually have to walk around for the right place to open the correct portal? I honestly didn't want to ask the old woman—she tends to get annoyed when I ask things like that—usually because it comes out as complaining.

I expected her to stop in mid-air like she normally did when I asked a question, but she continued on. "When you produced that wave of light in that last world, those creatures that you fought—"

"Shadow Maidens," I interrupted.

That made her stop. "What?"

"Shadow Maidens, that's what I decided to name the shadow creatures that have been attacking me." _Now that I sort of know what they are I figure that they deserve a name. It was getting annoying calling them "shadow creatures" all the time. It just sounded too ambiguous._

"Fine, Shadow Maidens then." She decided to keep moving forward. Releasing a deep sigh, I thanked the universe that she didn't chew me out for correcting her. "When that wave of light impacted those Shadow Maidens, they immediately started to concentrate themselves into this particular world. I honestly thought it would take a lot longer for them to be pushed back _that_ much and _that_ dramatically."

This time, I stopped in my place. "What? Wait—you knew that I'd end up wherever you're making me end up? Did those other worlds I was in even matter?"

"That's irrelevant." Part of me really wanted to lash out at her for making me go through all of that just to take me to an already pre-determined destination. But the more rational part of me—which had just began to form—was just happy that I was able to go through all of that. Sure, a lot of bad things happened, but a lot of good things did too. So with every fiber of my being, I mentally held onto those good things to refrain myself from smacking Taiitsukun. _Not only that, if I did attack her, it probably wouldn't end up very well…for me. So I kind of have no choice but to grin and bear it. _"The point is that you have gotten them trapped in a single place. Unfortunately, I feel that since they're regrouping, they may get even stronger." She turned to look at me out of the corner of her eye. "You need to be careful Akimoto. You may be stronger now, but until you can tap into the true light inside of you, you don't stand a chance."

I scoffed. "I did it before. What's the problem?" The first time I successfully got rid of the Shadow Maidens was when I remembered my happiness with Inuyasha and Kyo. A small amount of light flashed around me causing then to retreat. The last time was when Inuyasha, Kyo, and Hikaru all came to help me—even though I'm not completely sure it was really them. For only a few seconds, a wave of light overwhelmed them and totally made them disappear.

"You fool! Both of the times that you survived were mere luck. Not only could you only produce that power for a few short seconds, but you failed to actually destroy the Shadow Maidens. The only thing you accomplished was making them retreat. As of now, you lack what it takes to defeat them."

"Then tell me how I can become stronger! Tell me what I can do." Waiting a few seconds for a response, I realized that—like everything else with this woman—I wasn't going to get it so easily. It always aggravated me that she wouldn't tell me things that would make my life simpler. Showing a bitter smile, I looked away. "I see, so you're going to force me to do this on my own as well, huh? What will it take for you to be completely honest with me? Do I have to be on the verge of death or something?" No answer. "Well then…I guess it's same old, same old. I'm ready to head into the new world."

There was honestly no benefit to me being bitter about this. I've accepted a while ago that Taiitsukun could be very unfair. But the fact of the matter was that she was the one who answered me when I made the wish. So even though I wanted to complain a lot, it wouldn't be cool and I was actually getting used to figuring out stuff on my own. As I looked back on things, Taiitsukun did help out in her own way, and my journey did have the tendency to make certain issues come to light. After all, I was able to figure out how to use a wand, how to use the elements professionally, how to fly, how to not use a wand, and I figured out that the Shadow Maidens were the missing girls. And usually along the way, I've had help—so I know that things will be revealed eventually. _It's just so damn annoying waiting for it to do so!_

"Very well then—a few things first." _You know, something suddenly hit me. Taiitsukun seems like the sort of person who wouldn't hold back when she's angry. In order for her to dismiss what I say like that, she must either be really guilty about something or her self-control is worth applauding. _"Unlike before, feel free to use your powers as much as you want—they no longer have to be a secret." I figured that I didn't need to ask why because I had absolutely no complaints with that. It was driving me crazy having to keep that secret especially when it was already such a big part of my life. "However, you still have to refrain from telling people about your wish. For if you tell, an outside force may influence your decision and that isn't what you want." That, I could do. The subject never came up all that much, and I could easily say a lot by saying very little just as I had done with Hikaru. I managed to tell him without _telling_ him.

"So basically, ex-nay on the wish info and I'm able to spell-cast and kick ass as much as I please. I think I can handle that." But everyone knows that life isn't that simple—it wouldn't be healthy for me to be stuck in the illusion that it was. The universe just loves to keep me on my toes.

On a side note, I knew that everything would be fine—at least in the beginning. I'm a Master Sorceress and I finally had on a suitable outfit that Miss Emiko gave me to fight in. I wore a black tube top that showed about three inches of my stomach and white spandex bike shorts with various black and blue designs. The outfit was complimented with a white wind-breaker jacket with similar designs to the shorts and black high-top shoes with white laces. And of course I still wore the beautiful crystal flower bracelet that Hikaru gave to me. Maybe it was true that we were (technically) over, but I still cherished it and never wanted to take it off. It may not have been practical for fighting, but it was staying. The sorry dumbass that comes along and causes me to lose it would be on a straight way to Hell should they ever cross me.

Feeling a sudden jolt of adrenaline, I brought my fist up in front of me and said, "Okay Taiitsukun, enough with the waiting. Just drop me off already."

She turned around to face me as she cocked an eyebrow. "Well… aren't _you_ fired up?"

I nodded and used a fist to punch my opposite palm. "You could say that. Sure there're some unknown force that I have to face, but this also means that I am that much closer to having my wish granted. If this world is another step in the right direction, then I'm all for the challenge."

She extended her arm to the side and not a second later, a huge hole-shaped portal appeared on the ground next to us. Catching the hint, I walked over to its edge looking down at the doorway to yet another new life. Taiitsukun soon floated over to me.

"Good luck, Akimoto. We will be meeting again. By that time, I'm sure you'll have more questions for me."

That immediately caused me to shoot my head up. "Wait—what questions?" Without an answer, I felt her hand forcefully push me forward into the portal.

A few seconds of free-falling later, I found myself landing hard on my butt.

Rubbing my bottom, I shouted, "Dammit Taiitsukun! I am so freakin' sick of you always getting the last word!" Before I started to curse like a sailor, I heard a whiny and panicky voice coming from somewhere. Standing up, I decided to investigate more thoroughly. Without much trouble, I was able to find what was making such a racket—or shall I say_ who_.

"Yui! Yui! Where did you go? You were just here! Please don't tell me that that guy kidnapped you. Oh Yui, please answer me!"

_Wait a second…I know that girl. _She was a couple years younger than me and was wearing the same middle school outfit that my sister and I wore: the short brown jacket, skirt, and vest, along with the sky-blue bow on the collar of the long white shirt that I knew was also included. Her eyes were a dark olive color, but it was the way she put up that red-brown hair of hers that tipped off who she was. She had neat bangs in front and her hair up in two buns on her head, one bun sporting each side with a red ribbon keeping them tied up. When I was younger—like elementary school younger—that was_ my_ hairstyle. She got it from me.

"Yui! Please answer me!" She shouted.

That girl's name was Miaka Yuki.

* * *

><p>"<em><strong>Give us the teddy bear, little girl," said a rough looking kid.<strong>_

_**He as well as other bigger boys surrounded a small girl, no older than five or six, with reddish-brown hair in two braids holding on tight to a newly bought light- brown teddy bear. She had tears in her eyes making it obvious that she was afraid of the bullies around her. Regardless of her fear, she refused to let go of her toy.**_

"_**N-no. L-l-leave m-me al-alone!" She stuttered in between hiccups. **_

"_**We weren't **_**asking**_** twerp. Give us the toy!"**_

"_**Don't you know it's better to share?" Grabbing the bear by its head, the boy managed—with little trouble—to snatch the toy away. **_

_**She started to cry even more. "Give it back to me, please! It was a gift from my daddy!" **_

_**The bullies began to cruelly laugh at her misery. "Watch the little baby cry!" She ran up to him and tried to get it back, but the group of boys began throwing it amongst each other, making sure to avoid her advances.**_

_**She eventually gave up and sank to the ground—the back of her hands covering her crying eyes. "Keisuke, big brother, where are you? Th-these guys are taking my bear!"**_

_**The boys ignored her crying and seemed to have gotten bored with the tease. As they began to walk away, they didn't expect to see me standing there blocking their way. **_

_**They chuckled. "Who's this Odango head?" I automatically gritted my teeth, but did so in a way to not allow them to see how much they ticked me off. **_**I hate it when people call me that. **_**They were referring to the two buns I wore as a hairstyle. I rather liked it because my sister said it was cute. But it always annoyed me when not only would people not play with me, but when they would talk behind my back and call me "Odango head". "Do you have something for us to take as well?"**_

**I know I shouldn't care about else and that I probably shouldn't get involved, but... _I could just never understand why I sometimes cared about the well-being of others when it was obvious that they didn't care about me. I looked down at the little girl. There was a high chance that she was no different than the rest of them. But still... Something about seeing a seemingly innocent girl be harassed really bothered me. _**_**Bringing my head up from behind my bangs, I glared at the group of guys. The moment they saw my eyes, they immediately froze. **_

"_**Those red eyes...you can't be…"**_

"_**It's the third-grader, Akimoto Tsubaki!"**_

_**My face remain stoic although I was a bit surprised. **_**I didn't know that I was so popular**_**. "Do me a favor and give the poor girl her bear back."**_

_**Regaining their composure, they started to surround me in a similar way that they did to the girl over there. "Why should we? And since when did YOU help anyone out?"**_

"_**And what are you gonna do about it? There's six of us and only one of you."**_

"_**I'm glad that you guys know math, but what does that have to do with anything?" I asked without showing fear. ****There wasn't any way I could respect people who ganged up on someone like that. Regardless, it didn't matter how many of them there were. This whole thing was going to end up exactly how it always did. As upset as I was towards them, there was a small ping of guilt for what as coming. But I couldn't let them see the guilt...or the fear...or anger, or anything they'd be able to use against me.  
><strong>_

_**That remark seemed to tick them off. "Of course we know math! Most of us are in the third grade too! But besides that, no one will be coming to help you out." He pointed to the girl behind them. "That girl definitely won't. And since you're a loner, you have absolutely no chance against us. So are you going to run away, or do we have to make you cry first?"**_

_**There was an incredible urge to clench my fist, but the self control Kajou had taught me told me to hold back. I remarked quietly, "You guys could never make me cry. Vice versa, however…" Feeling the anger well up inside of me, an odd feeling went throughout my body had somehow…branched out. All of a sudden, the group of boys started to shiver and hold themselves, with looks of fear in their eyes.**_

"_**Wh-why do I f-feel so cold?"**_

"_**Dude, you're crying!" One of them pointed to another.**_

_**He countered, "Shut up! You are too." They all sank to the ground all saying how they feel something bad and it frightened them to death. None of them could explain what was going on with them, but I knew. This was what happened when people got too close to me. Their minds would recall how they felt when they were the most miserable and make them emotionally experience it once again...but much, much worse—whether or not the catalyst for the fear was actually there.**_

_**Knowing that I had already won, I told them in monotone, "If you want the pain to go away, then you'll give the girl back her bear and go home." And with that, the boys immediately got up, threw the bear to the ground, and ran off. **_

_**Picking up the bear, I slowly walked over to the still crying girl. She finally looked up to me with big green eyes. Extending the toy out to her, she took it back and hugged it. Crouching down and keeping a straight face, I mechanically patted her on the head, temporarily forgetting that my negative powers were still flaring a bit. **_

"_**Just because I'm having a bad time doesn't mean that you should either. Try not to have those guys bully you again." When it didn't seem like she wouldn't stop crying, I rattled my brain. **_**What do I say to her? I can't just leave her like this, although I know I should...she's probably just a first grader or something, and she doesn't seem like the type to do anything wrong. _Fighting against my best judgement which told me to exit the scene, I did the unexpected and tried engaging in conversation with her. _**_**"What's your name?"**_

_**Through a few stray tears, she said, "M-Miaka Yuki."**_

"_**How old are you?" **_

"_**Today's my birthday. I'm six." **_**Well that would explain the new bear, but how did she end up in this mess? **_**She started talking again. "I was walking with my big brother, Keisuke, but we got separated. And…and…"**_

"_**And then all this happened." She nodded. I was also on a walk with my older sister, Kajou, when I felt that something was wrong, so I ran ahead of her. It was hard to explain...how I had just been drawn to Miaka like that...  
><strong>_

_**She started to cry again. "They almost took my bear! I love my bear!" **_

"_**C'mon Miaka, stop crying, they're gone…" **_**How do I get her to stop crying? _It was so irritating!_ **_**Reaching inside my pocket, I took out a lollipop. "If I give you this candy, will you be happy?"**_

_**Almost immediately, she had a wide smile on her face. Looking back to my hand, I realized that the lollipop was already gone and in her mouth. **_**Was that really all it took? That was easier than I thought. **

"_**You're my big sister!" She proclaimed. **_

_**I gave her an alarming look. "What?"**_

"_**Big Sister Aki!" She sang. "I have a big sister and she is so awesome! She gave me food and I love her! My big sister Aki!"**_

"_**Wait a second—" The girl then jumped up and launched herself at me, wrapping her arms around my neck as she rubbed her cheek against mine. My arms were spread away from my body to avoid complying with her hug. I honestly had no idea what to do, but my face was heating up faster than it ever had.  
><strong>_

"_**Big Sister Aki! Aki-nee-chan!" **_**What have I gotten myself into? And why isn't she bothered by me? **

_**Before another second could go by in that awkward situation, Kajou rounded the corner with a worried look on her face.**_

"_**Kajou…" **_

"_**Aki, I couldn't find you. Why did you run off like that?" She tried to keep a strong face, but I could tell that she was really stressing on this. And seeing me being hugged by some stranger probably wasn't helping at all...  
><strong>_

**_As quickly as I could, I pushed Miaka away and stepped closer to my big sister, not knowing how to give a good explanation. _**"_**I'm sorry, I just felt like I had to."**_

"_**Aki-nee-chan?" My body cringed at that honorific. "Who is this?"**_

_**I shook my head knowing that I couldn't fight the determination of a six-year-old, especially when it came to labeling things. "It doesn't matter."**_

_**Kajou looked from me to Miaka. It sort of seemed like there was a slight frown on her face when she saw the little girl, but quickly replaced it with what seemed like a fake smile. "Oh you...you made a friend?"**_

_**Knowing that she told me not to stay attached to anyone, I said, "No, not really. I was just helping Miaka out."**_

_**Kajou reached down for my hand. "Well I'm sure you've helped her enough. Let's go now, Aki." **_

"_**Onee-chan? Are you going away?" Usually, I would have gone away with her, but something was telling me that I should stay with Miaka at least until her brother found her. Really...why did I even care?  
><strong>_

"_**Miaka…" Kajou must have noticed my hesitation because a sour look started to form on her face.**_

"_**Miaka!" Shouted a male's voice. Out of nowhere, this guy who looked a few years older than me with short light-brown hair ran up and embraced the little girl. "I thought I lost you! Never scare me like that again!" **_

"_**Keisuke!" **_**Well, once again, that was easy.**

_**I looked up at Kajou. "I'm okay with leaving now."**_

_**Hearing my voice, the boy named Keisuke looked up at my sister and I. But the moment he saw Kajou, his face instantly went red. He shot himself up and cleared his throat. "Kajou Tsubaki-sama, I didn't think that we would be meeting this way. Thanks for finding my sister. My name is—"**_

"_**Keisuke Yuki-kun," Kajou interrupted as she put back on that fake cheery smile. "We used to go to the same elementary school until I graduated—you graduate this year right?"**_

_**He nodded slowly as his gaze stayed focused on her. "Uh-huh…"**_

_**She flipped her long flaming hair over her shoulder. "Well that's good, can't wait to see you in middle school! By the way, it was my sister here who found **_**your**_** darling little sister." **_

_**Without hesitating, he came up to me and grabbed my hand out of gratitude. "Thank-you so much little sister of Kajou-sama."**_

_**Miaka tugged on his jacket. "She's my big sister Aki-nee-chan!"**_

_**He smiled at me. "Well, thank you Aki-chan." Even though I knew that half of his gratitude was because of his obvious little crush on Kajou, I couldn't help but blush a little myself. I had never been thanked so much for anything before. It sort of made me feel…good.**_

* * *

><p>After that, we had said our good-byes with Keisuke drooling after Kajou. Quite frequently afterwards, Miaka would get into even more trouble with other kids or if she was upset because of bad grades…there were even times when she came and found me when she was hungry. On some level, I knew that she was a nice girl, but she was so clingy and annoying that part of my daily mission began to be "look out for Miaka: 3pm". Yet somehow, she always managed to find me and she didn't seem to be affected by the negative energy around me. This completely baffled me, and it didn't seem to change her needy nature. It also didn't help that we went to the same elementary school. However, two lucky incidents made my life simpler: the first was that I was two years older than Miaka and would eventually leave her school (which I did), the second was that she eventually met a girl named Yui Hongo who she started to cling on. Miaka still visited me every now and then, but Yui gave her more…<em>reliable<em> company. I also started wearing my hair down after Kajou died right at the same time as Miaka decided to wear her hair in buns more frequently.

But even after all of that, seeing her there…in that foreign world…completely threw me for a loop.

"Yui! Yui!"

_But seriously, though. WHY THE HELL IS MIAKA HERE? Our world is supposed to be frozen!_

Rushing over to her, I thought that she would immediately embrace me, but she was too caught up in calling for Yui who may or may not have been there. Again, what the hell? _I wonder if it's really her though…_

"Yui! Where did you go? I'm getting hungry!" I sighed. _Yup, it's her alright. _

Seeing as how she wasn't going to notice me so easily, I put my hands on her shoulders, facing her head-on. "Oh, Miaka."

"Yui!" Her panicking was getting on my nerves.

"Miaka…"

"Yui!"

At this point I was shaking her feverishly and yelling. "Miaka Yuki! Get. A. Grip!"

Finally, she opened her eyes and saw me standing there. Her eyes went wide in disbelief. "Akimoto Tsubaki-nee-chan?" Groaning, I nodded. _And here I thought as she got older, she would quit calling me that. I guess some things don't change. _A little off cue, but still as expected, she wrapped me in her arms and buried her face into my chest. "Aki-nee-chan! I'm so happy to see you! How long has it been? Five years?"

"About that long." Like the rest of my life in Japan (except Saru and Kyoko), I left her behind when I moved to America. Trying to get to the point, I asked, "Miaka, what are you doing here?"

She broke apart from the hug as her smile faltered. "I'm not sure. I don't even know where 'here is'. Yui and I—oh! Yui! Have you seen her?"

"Was she here?"

She nodded. "Yeah, she was just here with me. Two guys came by and tried to hurt us, but then this other guy came along and saved us. I looked down for just a minute but when I looked up, the two of them were gone! You don't think that that guy kidnapped her do you? I wouldn't be able to live with myself if they did." She sank down to her knees and started to cry. "It's all my fault for reading that stupid book in the library!"

_Huh? Book? What does she mean by that? _Disregarding the idea for the moment, I told her, "I'm sure that Yui is okay. She's a smart girl—and I'm sure that she's smart enough to not go along with some random guy who happened to save you. He probably only did it to get some anyway."

"Get some what?" She asked curiously.

Chuckling, I was instantly recalled on her naivety. "Never mind. The point is…she's probably okay."

"You're probably right Onee-chan. But…but…" She started to sob once more.

"What is it?"

"I've been calling out for her for so long that all my energy is gone. I need food!" Slapping my head to my forehead, I gave another sigh. _This girl is stuck in a completely different world, and all she can think of is food. Yup…that's my Miaka. _She began flailing on the ground over-dramatically.

"I thought you said that you had no energy."

"I'm running on back-up fuel. We need to go find something to eat and fast!"

"Okay, okay." Looking around, I tried to look for something to help out the situation. That was when I saw something that could help us.

* * *

><p>Miaka and I managed to hitch a ride on the back of a passing-by wagon in high hopes that it would lead to some sort of civilization with food and…other people. As we rode, I decided to dismiss this whole "Miaka being here" thing as one of those things that Taiitsukun said I would eventually ask her about. So I finally managed to get a feel of the kind of place we were at. This place was completely different than all of the other dimensions I was in. We seemed to have traveled back in time to a less…technologically enhanced civilization. There were mostly green fields and farmland everywhere and the occasional shack that people lived in. Actually, the more I thought about it, the stupider I felt when I knew that I had been in a similar place—when I was in the Feudal Era. <em>Wow, it's been so long that I'm already forgetting stuff. How could I have forgotten that? <em>

Anyway, this place didn't give off a Japanese feel. The feel was definitely Asian, but not Japanese. Was it Chinese perhaps? I didn't dwell on where I was for too long because I knew that the answer would eventually reveal itself. Even though I knew that I would eventually find out why Miaka was there, but it still irked me. I wasn't thinking that I didn't want her there—it was just that I thought her being there would put her in danger. She was defenseless and I didn't want to be in charge of her like I was when we were younger. The scale on danger is much, much higher now.

"Onee-chan?"

I snapped out of my thoughts. "Huh? What?"

"I asked how you've been all this time."

"Oh, well…I've been fine I suppose."

"I was really worried about you after Kajou-senpai…well, you know…" Her voice suddenly went sympathetic. "I was thinking that maybe going to the USA would do you some good."

_Well, it definitely all lead to one hell of a journey. _"It did. Leaving Japan definitely wasn't a mistake."

"Oh…" Now it seemed like she became sad because of my words.

"It wasn't because of you, I promise! It was…a bunch of combining factors. But things have gotten better." _And I'm sure that dimension-hopping had something to do with it. _

"Well, I'm glad to hear that! And I'm sure that Yui will be happy to hear it too!" Yui Hongo and I had never really been friends—we were more like acquaintances. We really only knew each other through Miaka. But I did know that she was a nice, mature, and rather brilliant girl who—through some cosmic force—found a best friend in the naïve and not-so-brilliant-but-still-kindhearted Miaka. I was actually really glad that those two had each other. "You're graduating from high school this year, right?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah…" _I've been scrambling around worlds so much that I forgot that I was a senior getting ready to graduate. _Miaka may have been two years younger than me, but I was three grades higher than her—bringing us back to that whole me being born in October and starting school early thing again. "Aren't you graduating middle school? What high school do you want to get into?"

She suddenly pepped up. "Jonan Academy! Yui and I plan on getting in together!"

"Jonan, huh? I remember that being a tough place to get into," I started to get skeptical. "Are you sure that you can get into such a place? I mean…there are other high schools." It felt so weird to be speaking to someone from my world again. Talking about high school issues with her just felt a bit more real than they had when I went to Kaibara High school with the Sohmas or Ouran Academy with the Host Club. Not that I missed being back at home, I really didn't, but regardless of my bewilderment of her being in that new world, it was a bit refreshing to have Miaka around again.

"No! I want to go there with Yui. I can do it—all I have to do is pass the entrance exams! Sure, my grades are only average, but I know that if I study hard enough, I can get in. Yui is a genius, so I know she'll be accepted no problem…"

Seeing how much she wanted to get into that school, I patted her head in a similar way that I had nine years before, however this time, I bothered to show some sympathy. "You're determined and I can respect that. Keep going on with your dream Miaka, and I'm sure it'll become a reality. I mean, you'll have to study like crazy, ya know, just 'cause it's you, but I believe you could probably do it." Like myself, she had a wish that she wanted granted and she was willing to work hard for it. I couldn't help but applaud her for her determination.

She giggled as her face went a light pink shade. "Thanks Onee-chan."

Getting that embarrassed, warm, but pleasant feeling inside of me again, I laid my head back onto the pile of hay that was on the back of the wagon. I tried to change the subject. "So, Miaka, I'm a bit surprised that you aren't freaking out about being in a different dimension."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, does this look like modern-day Tokyo to you?"

"Oh, that. Well, I just decided that this is all a dream and that I must have fallen asleep in the library waiting for Yui. So I'm just gonna go with it."

"A dream huh?" Extending out my arm, I pinched her real hard on the arm, causing her to jump in pain.

"Ow! Why did you do that?" She cried.

"Nope, I don't think that you're dreaming. That pinch just proved it." Feeling accomplished, I brought my hand back and closed my eyes. "You can be stuck in the delusion that this is a dream, I just wanted to make sure that you got the message that this was real before you continued fooling yourself."

"What? Not a…dream?" Her voice started to waiver. "Then that means that…bandits…guy with a sign on his forehead…Yui…" Hearing her fall back suddenly next to me, I opened my eyes to find that she had fainted.

_Seriously? _Initially, I decided to not wake her up for a while, but when I discovered how the scenery suddenly turned into a city full of people and marketplaces, I figured that it was time to go on foot.

Summoning energy to my hand, I effortlessly formed a four-inch diameter sphere of water. Throwing it in the air above Miaka, it wasn't too soon later when I heard a splash followed by the girl scrambling to get up.

"Cold!" She shouted. "Where did that water come from?"

Before giving an answer, a plan formed in my head. _Taiitsukun said that I am free to use my powers as I please here. But what if—just for fun—I was to keep my powers a secret? Since I have a complete handle on my powers now…I could have some fun with this. I mean, there's no pressure if they did find out—no consequence—so I don't have to stress about it at all. _Sure, maybe I hated the fact that I couldn't tell anyone before, but now that I'm allowed to let people know…I don't want them to know—yet. Three cheers for reverse psychology!

So, I shrugged. "Good question. But since you're awake, maybe we should get off."

"Now?"

"You want food don't you?"

She gasped and held her stomach as it growled very prominently. "And I was finally able to get my mind off of it!"

Grabbing her hand, I said, "C'mon!" as we jumped off the still moving wagon. I managed to land on my feet pretty successfully, but Miaka lost her grip and fell flat on her face.

"Ow!" She sat up and held her nose. No blood was coming out, so I was sure that it wasn't broken.

I was about to ask if she was alright when I realized that we were being watched. Scanning the area, it was revealed that quite a few people were looking at Miaka and me. It seemed like the majority of them were wearing rather simple clothes—nothing too obvious and extravagant and obvious like back in my world…or any twenty-first century world. Like these people, all you really need is a shirt, pants, skirt, dress, robe, whatever gets the job done. But since I am a twenty-first century girl, I need a little more than that. Their stares were understandable—our clothes made us stand out. This was bad for me considering I hated it when a bunch of eyes are centered on me—it made me self-conscious and paranoid.

Standing there, I tried to get my mind off of being looked at by doing some more observations. This place seemed slightly more advanced than back in the Feudal Era Japan, this looked like it was actually a city full of stores, houses, and such. None of this answered for where we were though.

_Wait a second…_Something felt…off. It was too quiet around me. Not quiet as in it was silent, because there was still a bunch of people moving around going about their day. It was quiet in the sense that Miaka wasn't talking. She wasn't even there.

"Miaka?" I looked around and I couldn't spot her anywhere. Starting a rather brisk pace, I went past a bunch of gawking people to find my absentminded friend. "Miaka! Where did you go?" Feeling a sense of panic, I was beginning to think that maybe someone took her. Before things got out of hand, I had to make myself calm down and think in a more positive sense. Stopping in my tracks, I pondered. _Okay, think Aki. If Miaka were kidnapped in some way, someone would have said something. And people—well, smart people—don't usually commit crimes in the open unless they're complete morons, or very sneaky. I just have to think like Miaka. _Allowing my senses to take control, I realized a delicious aroma floating around in in the air. Following my nose, I was relieved to find that Miaka was at a booth staring at a dozen of dumplings.

_Should have seen that coming. I can't believe that I didn't think of this first. _Stomping up to her, I put my hands on my hips. "Miaka, what the hell?"

With drool coming out from the side of her mouth and eyes alit, she turned to me. "Oh, Aki-nee-chan, I didn't see you there."

"And I suppose you didn't _see_ that you completely ditched me back there. You scared me!"

"I'm sorry. I was just so hungry and I smelled this awesome food!" She turned her attention back on the dumplings. I gulped. _They do smell good…_Feverishly shaking my head, I tried to get a grip on myself. _This isn't the time to think about that!_

"Miaka, I—"

"Here, Onee-chan!" She held out a dumpling to me. "I bought this for you. I know that you gotta be hungry too!"

Calming down, I gave a small smile. "Thanks…" _She may be a goof, but she's still a really sweet girl. _I took the dumpling out of her hand as she began chomping down on her own. _Wait a second…how did she even pay for these? Did she somehow get this word's money? For some reason, I don't think that Yen works here…_

Believing that the dumpling maker would eventually catch on, I silently suggested that we walked fast, mixing ourselves with the crowd. This wasn't the type of commotion I wanted to cause. As we walked away, she talked in between bites. "This is so yummy! By the way, when I went chasing for the food, I was asking around to see if anyone had seen that guy who saved Yui and I."

"That guy huh?" While we were on the wagon, Miaka was telling me how she and Yui went to the National Library to check out a book. Apparently, Miaka got side-tracked—big surprise there—and ended up exploring the place. I've been to that library before and it's huge. Anyway, she said that she saw some kind of magnificent big red bird flying around and decided to follow it. The fact that a bird like that was even in that library made me sort of skeptical but then she told me of how she then found a book called _The Universe of the Four Gods _which was written in Chinese—which is what led me to believe that we were in some kind of ancient-Chinese world. When Yui joined her, the two of them were somehow sucked into the book and ended up here. Before I came along, some slave-traders tried to kidnap them—as if they weren't already freaked out enough. Then some guy with a dark teal hair color and the character for "ogre" glowing on his forehead written in Kanji came along and kicked their asses. After that, both Yui and the guy seemed to have disappeared. That was when I made my appearance.

It was a good idea looking for this guy—especially if he really did have anything to do with Yui's disappearance. Even if he wasn't her kidnapper, he must have been a decent enough guy to go out of his way to save a couple of odd-looking girls. If there was anything I learned during my journey, it was that finding an ally in a foreign world was definitely a primary thing to do.

We went about walking through the crowd asking various people if they had seen this mysterious stranger. Wherever we asked, no luck.

"What are we gonna do?" Miaka whined. "What if we never find that guy or Yui?"

"Don't worry. In situations like these, answers tend to eventually reveal themselves." Which was true—aggravating, but true.

Soon enough, the inevitable happened: the man who was selling the dumplings came running through the streets after us yelling, "How dare you give me foreign money! Give me real money that I can use! Come back here and pay!"

We simultaneously turned our heads around to find the source of the yelling. The moment we realized who it was, we ourselves went dashing even further into the unknown city.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" Miaka repeated a few times. "I was just so hungry!"

"Dammit Miaka! You gotta eventually realize that your actions have consequences!" Seeing a corner up ahead, I grabbed Miaka's hand and hid ourselves in a group of oncoming people. When I was sure that we were out of sight for a few seconds, I had us go around the corner and into an alleyway. Lungs already burning as if on fire, I was never the best at sports or running—my body was just never used to physical stuff like that. So you can imagine how running my ass of like this wasn't easy. But for the sake of not beating the crap out of an innocent guy just for the sake of not getting in trouble, we had to ditch him no matter what, even if it meant enduring the pain my leg muscles were experiencing.

"Onee-cha—" I slapped my hand over her mouth until the guy ran by.

When the cost was clear, I released my hand as we both let out a deep sigh.

"Miaka, you really got to think things through next time."

"Well how was I supposed to know that he'd chase us?"

"We're in a completely different world. What gave you the notion that your money would work here?"

She started to whine. "I don't know! If you knew, Onee-chan, why didn't you say anything?"

"Why do you think I had us walk faster? Besides," I blushed a little as I looked away, "we had to get food somehow."

She giggled. "So you were hungry too!" I continued to blush without saying anything. _It was still wrong. _

"Hey, you two girls," A man came up to us from the street while Miaka and I were talking.

Putting my guard up, I asked, "What is it?"

He put on a sincere smile. "I heard around that two girls with odd looking clothes were looking for a guy with the 'ogre' character on his forehead."

Miaka perked up. "Yes we are! You know the guy?"

"Know him? He's a good friend of mine!"

Something didn't seem right. "Good friend huh? Then what's his name?" The guy's smile faltered a bit before he quickly put it back on. Seeing Miaka's eyes light up with hope showed me that she didn't notice how the guy's stature suddenly changed when I asked the question.

"I don't think that he would want me telling strangers his name. You know how it is with a bunch of weirdoes running around out there."

I frowned. "What a load of—"

"Yeah! He's right you know," Miaka said while going up to him. "People can be really creepy. We completely understand where you're coming from sir. I wouldn't want my name out there with strangers either!" _Oh come on Miaka, don't tell me that you're actually buying all of this._

"Yeah, I can take you girls to him if you want."

_Please, we're not that stu—_"Sure! That would be super nice of you!" Miaka exclaimed with gratefulness in her voice. _You've got to be kidding me. _

"Well, just follow me and I'll take you there. He's been meaning to catch up with you." He went further down the alley we were in and onto a street that appeared on the other side. Without hesitation, Miaka followed with anticipation in her eyes. Now, I had two options here. The first was that I could beat the stuffing out of this guy right now before he got us into trouble. Of course, with that scenario, I wouldn't be completely sure that he was truly up to no good. The other option was that I'd let him think he fooled us—more like me, 'cause he definitely fooled Miaka—up until he does something he'll regret. _Then_ I could beat the stuffing out of him. In some off chance that we did run into the guy with the "ogre" symbol on his head while going along with this guy, then it wouldn't be wise to pass it up.

So we followed him.

Soon, seconds turned to minutes, and minutes turned into an hour. We had been walking further and further into the unknown city. I expected people to continue to stare at our odd outfits, but I began to notice how the number of people we saw began to diminish more and more the deeper we went. And that's odd for any city. Can you say "trap"?

Luckily Miaka wasn't completely a lost case because even she was starting to become skeptical. She leaned into me in a conversation meant for only us.

"Onee-chan, don't you think that we should have reached this guy by now? Why is it taking so long?"

"I have my theories." I decided that my annoyance level had started to rise at an increasing rate, so I shouted at the guy. "Hey! How long until we get there?"

He stopped. "Why, we're here."

"Really?" Miaka looked around excitedly. "Where is the guy with the 'ogre' symbol?"

The guy started to snicker evilly. _Okay, good guys don't usually laugh like that. _Turning around to face us, he reached into a pocket on his outfit revealing a knife. Miaka and I stiffened. "Sorry ladies, but you have been tricked." I rolled my eyes. _No, really?_

"Tricked? What do you mean?" Miaka asked.

From the shadows, six other looking-for-trouble-men came emerged completely surrounding us. Each with a mischievous look on their face, they talked as if we weren't there.

"You were right, they are wearing peculiar clothes. Where do you think they're from?"

"Who cares, we'll probably get a good amount for them. I'm sure that some people would pay pretty nicely for young girls like these. We could also sell their exotic clothes for a pretty nice price as well."

"Hey, maybe _we_ could have some fun with them first."

"I agree." The guy who led us here turned to face us. "What do you say, ladies? You gonna cooperate or not?"

My fists clenched in anger. I absolutely hated guys like this—guys who treated people like items and though that they could have their way with any one that they harass. No matter where you go, no matter which dimension you travel to, there will always be guys like this. To make things worse, they planned on selling us. I knew that chump was leading us on, but an ambush? Come on! Bad guys were really lacking in creativity nowadays.

Miaka's body started to shake as she tried to hide behind me. "What do you guys plan on doing?"

He sneered. "It's best that you don't know." At that cue, the circle closed in on us as the criminals tried to grab at us and pin us to the ground. Miaka and I managed to slip from their clutches and up against a wall that we didn't know was there. One of the guys had a rope that he tried to capture one of us in, but it was no use when we dodged that one as well. Trying to avoid even more trouble and Miaka in danger, I grabbed her hand and attempted to run away. Unfortunately, a knife came rushing past my head and onto a nearby tree.

Letting out a sigh of relief, I thought, _thank God, he missed. I forgot that those guys have weapons like that. I may have no choice here. _One of them used my being distracted as an opening and body slammed me onto the ground.

"Dammit. Miaka, keep running!" I yelled out at her. _I'll handle these guys once she's at a safe distance. _

"Shut up, wench!" The one on top of me yelled. _Seriously though, can't these guys come up with a better disrespecting name for me? Why do they always call me that? _He yelled out to his partners. "Don't let that one get away!"

Each one of them raced after her as she just stood there, in shock.

"Miaka! Now is not the time to play statue! Get the hell out of here!"

With that, she blinked and took a step forward to the six guys coming after her. _What is she doing? _She suddenly threw off her brown school jacket to the ground, making the guys become curious and stop in front of her. Pushing up her white sleeves, she flashed some of her biceps at them.

In her toughest voice, she proclaimed, "I have watched many wrestling matches with my brother as well as a bunch of action-y anime! So you better not mess with me! I've seen enough to be able to imitate their moves almost exactly!" Although they pretty much didn't understand a lot of what she said, they must have understood that she basically said that she could take them. Knowing that, they all laughed hysterically. I could even feel the vibrations from the laughing idiot on top of me.

Feeling insulted, Miaka threw herself at the bunch with an array of punches, kicks, and slams. It was actually quite a sight to see. She managed to throw a few of them away from her. At another point, she jumped off from a rock and performed a leg-drop on top of the chest of one of the guys she managed to throw causing him to gasp as the wind was knocked out of him. She then took a risk and grabbed a guy next to her around the waist and did an almost professional looking suplex, ending in the guy crying out in pain on his back. Of course, my eyes were wide, and jaw was dropped during this whole thing. _Holy crap Miaka. _

As she stood back up from the suplex, one of the guys grabbed her in frustration and threw her straight to the ground, using his body weight to keep her down. Two of limped over to hold down her legs and feet to make sure that she wouldn't escape.

"Help!" She screamed.

"You little bitch, you honestly thought you could take us?"

Feeling that the last straw had been broken already, I used a huge gust of Wind to blow the bastard right off of me. Alarmed, the remaining three came racing towards me to avoid my escape. Well, they had absolutely nothing to worry about.

Summoning Wind to my hands and feet, I got ready to make sure that they paid for crossing me. As one of them approached, I ducked under his punch and, instead, punched him in the gut with Wind sending him flying right into the nearby wall. _"Tornado Fist!"_ Another one determinately came at my side causing me to bring my leg back, only to swing it forward right into the side of his arm resulting in him being shot into the bark of a tree. Sure, maybe my physical attacks weren't as…colorful as Miaka's, but considering the fact that I was trying to keep my magic a secret and that I was still managing to kick these guys' asses, who the hell cares?

Right as I was in my prime, a threatening voice came from behind me. "I will have you even if I have to rip you up in _PIECES_!" It was the voice of the guy who I blew off my back—the guy who had lead us there. Looking back out of the corner of my eye, I saw that he was directly behind me, ready to stab me in the back. When I tried to get distance between us, he grabbed onto my jacket to pull me in as her brought back the hand with the knife in it. Fearing that I couldn't escape or react fast enough, I braced my body for the pain I knew would inevitably come.

When my hope seemed to have completely died, something impacted the guy sending him flying straight _through_ the same wall that I hit his friend into. Ignoring the gasps from all of his buddies, I quickly turned my body to the force that saved me. Then I was face to face with a nicely tanned guy who looked about my age with dark teal hair that was in a long, loose ponytail that went down to the middle of his back while the top of his hair and his bangs were messy, but in a neat sort of way (if that makes any sense). Wearing a midnight-blue, long-sleeved Chinese shirt with a yellow collar and cuffs. On his waist was red a long tied-on piece of cloth along with long black pants and flats. He had gentle violet eyes that made me feel that I was definitely in safe in his hands.

Feeling my face completely flush at the sight of my rescuer, my eyes went wide as I discovered that in the middle of his forehead was a glowing bright scarlet character for "ogre".

This was the guy we had been looking for.

* * *

><p><strong>Well there you go! That was the start of season two—I hope you enjoyed it—feel free to leave reviews! I'd love to hear how you feel about the story so far. ^^<strong>

**See you next chapter!**


	19. Twist of Events

"Need a hand there?" He asked.

Recovering from the surprise, I turned my head to hide my flushed face. "Cutting it a bit close there don't ya think?" He cocked an eyebrow. "If you're gonna come in saving the day 'n stuff, don't cut it so damn close!"

Eyeing me top to bottom, he gave a laugh that made my stomach do a few flips. "I usually take thank you's but I guess that will suffice for now." Returning his attention back onto the outlaws holding down Miaka, he charged at them before they could react. Jumping in the air, he performed a spinning kick that knocked two of the guys out at the same time. The remaining two that were left to Miaka scrambled to get up and run away—but they never got the chance. Extending out his hand as he dashed, the guy with the glowing character on his head grabbed onto one of their shoulders, using his forced to slam him into the ground with one hand. Having the crook at his mercy, the guy brought his arm back and struck him harshly in the face instantly knocking him out.

Just one guy left.

He was a good few yards away and there was always the option of letting him escape. But the truth of it was that I just wouldn't be me if I had allowed him to do that. Miaka and the guy seemed as if they were both distracted, so I used my power over Earth to create a tall, rock-solid wall in which the bandit ran straight into when he wasn't paying attention. Hearing him fall straight back onto the ground, the guy who saved us and Miaka both looked in his direction with puzzled looks.

"How long has that wall been there?" He asked.

"Maybe it was…always there?"

Attempting to change the subject, I clapped my hands and said, "So, Miaka. Didn't you want to ask this guy something? I mean, we've been searching all over the place for him…"

"Yeah, I did hear that you were looking for me." A smile played on his lips as the character on his forehead seemed to dim and fade away completely. "Did you manage to find some money to pay me back with?" _Money? Wait, so he didn't save her and Yui earlier for free? So much for being a decent guy. _Miaka shook her head as he frowned in disappointment. With a sudden jolt of hope, he asked, "So, I see that you have a different friend with you," Looking over at me, his eyes gleamed. "Maybe _she_ has something of value to give me?"

Scoffing, I gave him a dirty look. "Not even in your dreams."

Hearing me say that made his eyes go wide and face go red. "That is _not_ what I was implying! Jeez, get over yourself!"

Lashing out at him, I countered, "Get over _myself_? At least _we_ don't think so highly of ourselves enough to go asking people money in exchanged for their lives. No one charges someone to save them! That's just a bunch of bull!"

Refusing to immediately comment on my statement, he just turned around in the opposite direction towards the city in frustration. "Whatever! You apparently don't have anything to pay me with so I'll be on my way—"

"Wait!" Miaka grabbed onto his leg, using her whole body as a weight.

"Hey, get off of me!" He called down to her. Attempting to kick her off, she wouldn't move. "I don't want to waste any more valuable time with you odd women!" Still she wouldn't let go. "What the hell do you want with me?"

"Where is Yui?"

"What the heck is a 'Yui'?" He dragged his leg along at another attempt at getting rid of her.

"She's the girl who was with me when you saved us earlier. Please tell me that you know where she's at!"

He stopped struggling to ponder on her words. Looking around as he thought, he finally replied, "If you're talking about that chick with the short blonde hair, then I have no idea where she is—sorry."

"Really?" I could hear Miaka's voice crack as tears formed in her eyes.

Wanting to prevent her from becoming even more upset, I tried to see if I could get more info from this guy. "How do we know that you're any better than these guys? For all we know, you could be lying and have Yui locked up somewhere."

He gave me a serious look—one that showed absolutely no sign of joking whatsoever. "I don't know where she is. That time I saw her earlier—that was the first and only time I've seen her. It's not really my thing taking teenage girls." Without breaking our exchange of glares, he added. "Do I seem like the kind of person who would take advantage of someone like that?"

Seeing that look in his eye, I could tell that he was telling the truth. There was absolutely no falter or any doubt. Relaxing, I looked down at Miaka. "Let go of him Miaka. He doesn't know anything."

Reluctantly, she unwrapped herself and stood up. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks."

I gave an exasperated sigh. "No, we should be thanking you. And sorry, we don't have anything to pay you with."

"Yeah, yeah, I guess it's on the house this time." He turned his body once more towards the streets. "Well, I'll be seeing you guys around."

"Hold on!" Miaka yelled. "You have to help us find Yui!"

"What? I already told you, I have better things to do."

"Please! You know your way around better. You just have to help us!" She whined.

Feeling that he didnt have the energy to debate anymore, he decided to ignore her determination and walk away. Before he could get even three feet away, Miaka reached out and grabbed the back of his shirt. No matter how many steps he took afterward, she just followed and held on. I couldn't help but laugh a little at the sight. Sure, when I was younger, it was irritating as hell to have Miaka cling onto me in a similar fashion. But seeing it happen to someone else made it so much funnier!

Dropping his head in a deep sigh, he looked over at me—who was trying to contain myself from laughing like a hyena. "Can't you contain her?"

I shrugged, keeping my cool. "She's her own person. She should be able to do what she wants."

"Tell me, is she always so—"

"Persistent? Clingy? Yup." Resting my hands in the back of my head in a nonchalant fashion, I gave him a teasing look. "You know, she'll let go if you just agree to help us out here."

"Why should I help you?"

A playful grin formed on my lips. "Because as a gentleman, you should be more than happy to escort two unfamiliar ladies who happen to be looking for their friend in an unfamiliar place. Now is that so much to ask?"

Trying to stay strong, he kept on walking with Miaka attached to him. "I don't care what you guys do, but I'm leaving."

* * *

><p>After that was said, we walked through the busy, gawking-at-two-peculiar-girls-with-odd-clothes town along with the very annoyed man. I could tell that he was trying to tune us out completely as he acted as if we weren't even there. That's how it looked from my end anyway for I was trailing behind the two. My imagination and better judgment was telling me how the guy probably had a real pissed off look on his face. I sort of felt a bit guilty for intruding on him, but like I had said earlier: we needed an ally in this new world and this guy had already helped out Miaka twice—<em>and<em> he was a good fighter. It was also true what Miaka had said earlier: he knew his way around and we didn't. So I suppose we'd have to break him before we could permanently get him on our side.

"How long will it take to get rid of you two?" He asked back in an irritated tone.

"As long as it takes," I answered smugly.

Miaka continued to hold on. "We just need your help looking for Yui. And I plan on hanging on for days if I have to."

He stopped. "So you're not going to let go?"

"Nope. In fact…" She inhaled deeply and started to yell at the top of her lungs, "SLAVE TRADER! THIS GUY IS A SLAVE TRADER!" People stopped what they were doing to look our way. It was kind of a brilliant plan on Miaka's part, but this did bring on even more people to look into my direction. And the last thing I needed was even more people watching me. Looking down, I avoided their gazes.

The guy started to panic and speak quietly. "Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

"THIS GUY IS LEADING MY BIG SISTER AND ME ON! WHO KNOWS WHAT HE'S GONNA DO TO US? PLEASE STOP THIS SLAVE TRADER BEFORE HE—"

Turning to face her quickly, he slapped a hand over her mouth. Addressing the crowd, he laughed nervously. "She's just joking. I'm not a slave trader of any kind—I assure you. Yup, it's all a joke." As everyone else went along with their day, he released his hand and sighed.

I snickered. "She can be pretty clever, huh?"

Shooting me a look, he said, "Shut up." Returning his attention back to Miaka he told her, "Fine, I'll help you guys. But this time, I expect payment." Instantly putting a smile on her face, she nodded eagerly.

"Are you_ kidding me_?" _After all that, was he really gonna make us pay for his help? What a schmuck! _

"Okay, we have nothing on us right now…So, what do you want?"

He thought about what would satisfy him the best. All of a sudden, a bunch of people crowded around on the sidewalk on both sides, ready for something go down the street in between. With our curiosities peaked, the three of us made our way over to see what was going on. A bunch of heavily armed soldiers on both horses and foot marched down the road in front of everyone holding giant red flags and banners. _What's with all this?_

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the man had a devious, "I-just-had-an-idea" look.

He turned to Miaka and me. "Okay ladies, I have an offer. You see that thing holding up the emperor over there?" Pointing down the street, we saw six of the soldiers holding up a veiled litter vehicle—basically, a wheel-less, human powered vehicle used to transport people—that probably had someone important on the inside—_Wait, the emperor? _Miaka nodded. "Well, if you were to get me just one of the jewels off of his crown, I would be set for life! I would definitely help you guys out then."

"You're asking us to steal from the emper—" This time, he slapped his hand over my mouth.

"Will you keep it quiet? We'd be sent straight to prison if someone heard you say that!"

Grabbing his hand off of my mouth, I retorted, "Well, no freakin' duh! I can't believe that you'd expect us to do that!" Just thinking about what I had said caused me to immediately look around for Miaka. As expected, she wasn't around. _Please Miaka, just once, can you think about what you do? _Making my way through the crowd, I made it close enough to the street to see Miaka run in front of the emperor's wheel-less carriage.

She flailed around her arms. "Hey! Mr. Emperor! Would it be too much trouble to ask you for just one of your jewels on your crown? It doesn't have to be a big one!"

I slapped my forehead while the man and I simultaneously said, "That idiot." Losing her balance on an imaginary rock, she instinctively reached out for something to stop her fall—which in this case was the veil that the emperor was using to cover himself.

"Such insolence!" One of the guards shouted.

"Who is this woman?"

"Arrest her!"

A good number of the guards charged for Miaka as she started to scream. Before I had time to get her, the man raced by. In an instant, some sort of smoke-bomb was thrown, causing a huge cloud of smoke to block everyone's vision. Getting the feeling that the guy was the one who threw the smoke bomb, I used the cover to launch myself from the ground, levitating higher than the cloud of smoke. Searching around, I tried to find the two. _Where are you Miaka? Come on…where? _Suddenly, something emerged from the dark cloud—it was the man carrying Miaka in his arms as he jumped above them all. Seeing their lips moving, I knew they were talking to each other, but couldn't hear a thing. I just knew that I was far enough above for them to not notice my location. Then something completely surprised me, he kissed her on the forehead. _What the hell? _I was even able to see Miaka's face turn red from the notion. _That guy said that he wasn't in it for_ that_ kind of prize. _

As they land back onto the ground, they are lost once again in the cloud of smoke. When I thought that it would be difficult finding them again, a bright red light shone through—beams shouting out as far as the sky. Wondering what was going on, I flew down and used Wind to blow away the remaining smoke. Just as it all cleared, I caught sight of Miaka's body in the guy's arms literally fading in and out—covered in some kind of red energy. Light dimming, she became solid again.

Running up to them, I asked her as they stood up, "Miaka, are you alright?"

"Onee-chan! Yui is alright!" She beamed with tears in her eyes.

"Where is she?"

"She's back at the library, she—"

"Arrest those three!" A voice yelled out.

"They have dishonored the emperor!"

* * *

><p>And that was how we ended up in a prison cell for who knows how many hours. Sure, I could bust out at any time—hell, I could have gotten our asses out of there before they could even get near us—but if I was going to play helpless, then I had to milk this thing out as long as I could and use my powers only when things got real bad. Or if I got annoyed—whichever came first.<p>

Leaning against one of the steel bars of the small, depressing cell, I talked to Miaka and the man who were sitting against the wall behind me.

"Nice going you two."

"What did I do?" He asked.

"You gave her the suggestion."

"I honestly didn't think she'd do it."

"Well next time, you'll come to fully comprehend Miaka's determination." I sighed. "Well, I guess we'll be in here for a while." I turned to him and gave him a taunting look. "If you thought that us bothering you earlier was wasting your time, then you must _really_ be enjoying this."

He growled. Miaka chimed in before he had the chance at a snappy comeback. "I hope we get out of here. I hate depressing places like this." She looked to the man. "Tamahome , do you think the emperor will be nice to us?"

"What?" I asked. "So your name is Tamahome huh?"

He nodded. "I already caught Miaka's name. What's yours?"

"I'm Akimoto Tsubaki, though I prefer to be called Aki."

As he nodded in acknowledgement, Miaka wrapped her arms around her lower torso and moaned. "When will we get out of here? It's creepy and I'm starting to get hungry." She got louder, catching the guard who was on duty's attention. "Hey! When do we get to eat?"

"Silence! You will wait patiently for your judgment." He responded. _Yeah, we'll just see whose judgment comes first dude. _

"Aww…" Miaka cried. Then a look of an epiphany formed on her face. Reaching inside her pocket, she reached for a nearly empty pack of gum. "Maybe I could just chew this to temporarily stop my stomach from growling. Want some Onee-chan?" Shaking my head, I noticed how Tamahome was eyeing the gum in a peculiar way.

Unfortunately, the guard noticed the substance as well. "Hey, what are you putting in your mouth?"

She got up and went up to the bars to show him. As she chewed, she said, "It's just gum." By the way he was looking at her, I could tell that he had absolutely no idea what that was. "See?" Blowing out, she blew a huge bubble almost equivalent to the size of the guards eyes. When the bubble popped and splatted all over Miaka's face, the guard completely freaked out.

"She's a witch! Keep her away!" Once that was said, he immediately ran away out of sight. Can you say: Three cheers for underdeveloped civilization?

Sucking back in the gum, Miaka held a look of bewilderment. "What's wrong with him? If he didn't like gum, all he had to do was say so."

Tamahome walked up to her, keeping his glittering eyes on the pack of gum in her hand. "Wha-what is that glorious stuff?"

Her confusion switched to our new gawking ally. "Umm…it's gum."

"What do you do with it?"

"You…chew it. Here," Giving a sweet smile, she handed him the last piece, "you can have this. I don't mind." His grin immediately widened at the present while his eyes got even wider with excitement.

"Thank you Miaka! This is the best thing, ever!"

Chuckling a little, I brought my attention to the keys that were left from the guard that had fled. They were about seven feet away from us, but I was sure that I could use a spell to retrieve them.

Making sure that Tamahome and Miaka were distracted by the gum, I casted, "_Jikerdor." _A small sphere of light formed in my palm causing the keys to move. The spell was a magnetism spell that attracted any kind of metal to it—or if used on a person, makes the person magnetized. Knowing this, the keys quietly made their way to my hand.

Calling away the spell, I turned around with a pleasant smile on my face. As I held up the keys, I jingled them to get their attention. Miaka and Tamahome immediately ended their conversation as they saw the source of our freedom in my hands.

"How did you get those?"

Shrugging, I said, "They conveniently fell close to the bars." Avoiding any questions, I faced the cell doors and used the key to free us. Swinging the door open, we needed no extra time in getting the hell out of there.

Walking around, we gazed in awe at the huge palace that we were now a part of. Mixtures of reds and gold seemed to be the main colors—complemented by impressive banners, statues, columns, you name it. This was all a part an extremely huge Chinese décor that was nothing short of amazing. The place was so big, though, that we were failing miserably in finding our way out.

Which reminded me… "Hey, Tamahome. I forgot to ask earlier, but where are we?"

"What do you mean? We're in the palace."

Raising my voice, I said, "Not that you nimrod—I know we're in a palace. I'm talking about geographically. Where are we?"

"How do you not know?" He asked in a smug tone.

I stopped and turned around to face him with an irritated face. Holding up a piece of my jacket, I asked, "Do these clothes_ look_ like we're from around here? I know that even _you_ have noticed that Miaka and I are a bit out place."

Catching the insult, he refrained from fighting back. "We're in the empire of Konan—at its capital city of Eiyou."

"Konan, huh?" _Okay, I may know the name of where we're at, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I actually_ know_ where we're at. Well, it _does _sound Chinese, which means that we are in some sort of ancient Chinese-like place—in a book (which is still a bit odd). So, I can't really snap at him 'cause he did answer the question… _

During our conversation, Miaka seemed to get distracted by something. Getting curious, I looked in her direction—to face a huge golden statue of a majestic bird. _A bird…didn't Miaka say that she saw a giant bird in the library?_

"Hey Tamahome," She asked in a droned state, "why is there a statue of a bird? Why is it so important?"

Upon hearing the question, he had a surprised look on his face, but then replaced it with a look of understanding. He finally getting that she and I weren't from there and both required a lot of information.

"That's the statue of our—the Empire Konan's—god, Suzaku—which you can see takes the form of a scarlet phoenix. Everyone in the country relies on Suzaku for protection, health, and good fortune." Hearing what he said, I thought of something.

"You said that Suzaku is the god of Konan. Does that mean that there are other god's as well?"

He nodded at me. "There are. In the north, the god Genbu—in the form of a turtle/snake hybrid—protects the country of Hokkan, in the west, the god Byakko—in the form of a white tiger—protects the country of Saito, and in the east, the god Seiryuu—in the form of a dragon—protects our enemies in the country of Kutou. Suzaku, as you may have guessed, is our god here in the south." _Four gods…just like with the book Miaka and Yui were reading…That bird Miaka saw must have been Suzaku.__He must have brought her here for some reason, but why?_

_Speaking of Miaka…_

"Hey, where did Miaka go?"

Tamahome looked scanned the area around us. "Wasn't she just here?"

"Well yeah, she was the one who asked you the question about Suzaku." I groaned. "This happened with us earlier. She probably smelled food somewhere and went chasing after it when we weren't paying attention." _Honestly, with all the food that girl eats, how the hell does she stay so damn thin?_

He had a troubled look on his face. "That idiot. We have to find her before the guards get to her."

I nodded. "Agreed. We should probably split up considering the size of this place."

Cocking an eyebrow, he gave a sly grin. "Are you sure you can handle being on your own?"

Giving him an "I know something you don't know" smile, I told him, "You'd be surprised about what a gal like me could do in a difficult situation."

Taking me up on that, he nodded again and headed in one direction while I went in the opposite. After about fifteen minutes, there were still no results. It's only after searching around a huge royal palace when you truly understand how outrageously gigantic it is. What made things worse was that the guards were starting to get wise to our escape and have scrambled around trying to search for us. For a Master Sorceress out in the open, ditching them would have been a piece of cake. For a Master Sorceress who's, once again, trying to play helpless, ditching them meant acting like a ninja and hiding in whatever shadows I could find. _You know, this whole playing powerless thing is becoming a drag. Maybe I should just blow this place up to find her. _I shook my head. _Nah…let's leave that as a last resort. The benefit to all of this? Seeing the faces of all the people who thought I couldn't do anything when they realize that I _can_ do something…and then some._

Eventually, I got fed up. "Oh my gosh, I am so sick of this!"

"Having a bit of trouble there?" Mentioned an unknown voice from behind. Jumping from surprise, I quickly turned to see a woman standing there. She had long, wavy, styled violet hair that went down to her waist and a small portion of it in a bun. Her clothes seemed to be some kind of fance, traditional Chinese robes with colors of white, pink, and yellows. With bright red lipstick, a tiny, almost unnoticeable black mole under her left eye, and a devious look in her pink eyes, she grinned. _How did I not know that she was there? _"I don't think that I've ever seen you here before. What's your name?"

Laughing nervously, I instantly began to think of ways to get out of there. "Umm…it doesn't really matter. I mean, what's in a name anyway?"

She inched closer. "Oh I believe that a name is quite important. It can tell your lineage, your wealth…especially whether or not you should be in this palace or not."

_Crap. _"Well, it's so obvious that I do belong here." _No it's not._

Chuckling, she eyed me top to bottom. Closing her eyes, she talked in a snobbish tone. "Not in those odd rags you don't." With my teeth gritting, I thought, _she did not just go there! Who the hell does this bitch think she is?_ Opening one eye to me, she smiled mischievously . "In fact, I do believe that you belong in that not-so-fancy prison cell, don't cha think?"

Body stiffening, I knew that I had to think faster. "I'm not quite sure what you mean."

"Sure you do! Let me see…two girls with peculiar, exotic clothing and a commoner man—all ordered to be imprisoned on my dear highnesses orders." _"My dear highnesses?" Does that mean…_

"Are you his wife?"

Her face immediately turned red as she slapped her face with both hands and held them there. With a huge goofy smile she began to babble. "His wife? Oh, I wish. But we are destined to be together and someday we shall. Once he sees how right we are for each other, how can he say no? I can just see that faithful day when he walks up to me and confesses his burning love and desire for me. It will be magical! The wedding will be spectacular and all the women of Konan will be jealous that I am the wife of the gorgeous, giving, incredible, and powerful man that is the emperor." As she talked more and more, my guard started to drop. _Well ain't she just a hyped up fan-girl. Who woulda thought? I almost mistook her for an actual threat. _

Seizing an opening, I gradually stepped further and further from the swooned woman. Before I hit home-free, her eyes instantly snapped back onto my attention. "And where do you think you're going?" _Umm…away from here?_

"Mmm…Nowhere."

"You're damned right 'nowhere'. You could be my ticket for finally getting the emperor to notice me!" _Crap! She's gonna expose me in the name of love! Wow…that sounded both corny _and_ lame…_

Thinking quickly, I looked behind her with a surprised look on my face. Bowing respectfully, I stuttered, "Oh, Y-Your H-Highness! I-I'm so sorry that I've dishonored you!" Hearing what I said, she blushed again and quickly turned.

"Oh Your Highness! I didn't know that you were there. I—" She blinked a few times before anger set in. "Hey! The emperor is not—" When she turned to face me, her face went completely blank. "What the…Where did she go?"

Little did she know, I levitated onto the roof nearby and was watching from a safe distance. I laughed to myself quietly as I watched her scrambling around. "Sorry, but I am _not_ playing matchmaker at my expense." _This emperor must really be something though…_

Hearing some commotion coming from the back of me, I turned to see that Miaka and Tamahome were being surrounded by the palace guards. _Well it's nice to know that we're keeping the routine of "find each other, find trouble". _Jumping off the roof, I got ready for battle just as Tamahome threw the first punch.

"Leave Miaka out of this!" He yelled. I couldn't help but appreciate the fact that he was looking out for her without any form of payment. Maybe he wasn't as bad a guy as I thought him out to be. Calling Wind to my fist, I surprised a guard and tapped him "lightly" on the back, allowing the wind to blow him spiraling into one of the palace walls. Nodding in approval, Tamahome flashed me a thankful smile. That was when I noticed that the glowing red character was once again shining brightly on his forehead. Ignoring my urge to blush and gawk in fascination, he and I simultaneously jumped in front of Miaka to keep her safe as the guards closed in on us with sharp, point spears.

Just as the situation almost called for a bit of destructive magic, a male voice rang out, "Enough of this! You shall not harm them!" Upon hearing the command, the guards immediately lowered their weapons and parted, holding their upper bodies lowered in a bow. Down in the middle of the lined-up guards, a man—a _very_ attractive man— who looked around my age (maybe a little older) walked towards us. He had a golden hazel eye color and long dark-brown, almost black hair—same hair color as me—that went to his waist and was in an extremely loose ponytail that was tied about three inches from his shoulder. His bangs—which were parted on the right—were incredibly long and flowed a bit past his chin. On top of a long-sleeved white shirt, wore a long red Chinese garment with golden designs and collar, tied at the waist with a long blue piece of cloth, that went down to his ankles, but were cut on the sides to show his dark burgundy pants.

Considering how they were all acting, I assumed that this was either the emperor or someone who was paying them a lot of money just for a bow.

"Your Highness!" One of the guards said. _Guess I was right. _

"Your Highness? This woman is the emperor?" Miaka asked. During a few seconds of awkward silence, everyone—including the guards—all looked at her with embarrassed looks. _She thinks that that guy is a woman? You've hit a completely different level with this one Miaka._ "What?"

"Miaka…" I couldn't even finish my sentence 'cause of the ridiculousness of what she said.

Tamahome seemed to share my feelings about the situation. "You idiot—the emperor is a man!"

"No way! She's way too beautiful to be a man!"

The emperor had on a delighted smile. "Well, yes, my beauty has been known to put people in awe, so I don't really blame you for the mix-up."

With a surprised look on Miaka's face, she walked up to the emperor and felt around on his chest—the rest of us stood there with our jaws dropped, but the emperor seemed pretty calm. "It's true, the chest is completely flat! Then that means," She looked below his waist, "he must have one of _those_ down there!" _It's a miracle that we haven't been executed by now. _

Grabbing at her collar, Tamahome pulled her away from the emperor. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Scratching her cheek sheepishly, she told us, "I couldn't help it, I was curious!"

* * *

><p>I breathed a sigh of relief. "So you're not going to kill us?"<p>

After that whole…_fun_ scene outside of the palace, we were eventually lead to the throne room with the emperor sitting and us presented before him—Tamahome bowing as Miaka and I looked around in fascination. He sat there with more prominent Chinese-like royal gowns consisting of mostly reds whites and yellows. On his head was a small closed crown in which he had tucked his long, luscious hair into. I still couldn't believe that Miaka thought that he was a girl. Good grief.

"I wouldn't think of killing you. Believe me when I say that that was never my intention." _Then what was? _He chuckled a bit. "I was actually intrigued by you three and wanted to figure your curious bunch out." _So that's the reason you made us go through all that. _Memories of earlier when Miaka ran in front of his parade flashed through my head. I sighed again. _Well, we sort of deserved it…_

Miaka giggled. "Hotohori seems too nice to do anything bad to us any way."

I looked at the young emperor. "Hotohori? Umm…Your Majesty?"

He smiled at me. "Like Miaka here, you are free to call me Hotohori. I really don't mind at all." _So they've already been introduced. _"You are also quite fascinating—what is your name Miss? Miaka tells me how you are her older sister."

_Oh she did, did she? _"Umm…not biologically. She kind of decided that on her own a while ago—anyway! I'm Akimoto Tsubaki."

Before I told him my nickname, he said out loud, "Akimoto…what an exotic name." My body had a pleasant shudder. _There is just something about a hot guy saying your name that just makes you giddy. _"Miaka tells me how you two are from a different world."

Immediately facing her, I gave her a look. _She did what? _She looked at me in a puzzled way. "Was I not supposed to say something?"

Not realizing that she was speaking to me, the emperor shook his head. "No it's quite alright! In fact, I'm really glad that you did. Because of my newfound knowledge I now know that we have been blessed with two Priestesses of Suzaku." My body stiffened. _He said what now?_

Miaka looked all around. "Who are they?"

"Why you two of course." He began to explain. "We have a legend in our land. In the time where the country is in disorder and may fall into ruins, a girl will be brought to us from another world who seeks the power of Suzaku. And when she gets that power, she will lead our land to times of peace and glory—"

"Hold up there princey!" I held up my hand to him in a "stop in the name of love" sort of way. "I am not any priestess of anything."

"Yeah!" Miaka agreed. "I'm just a normal teenage girl who is trying to pass her entrance exams into a school where her best friend is most likely going to go. Not only that, I have a bunch of other teenage issue's to go through. I can't do something as big and important is this. I just don't have the time! It seems like way too much pressure."

Thinking over what we both said, he asked, "Well…isn't there a wish that you two have? Something you wanted upon entering this world?" _A wish? Is he saying that if I go along with this? I'll be able to get my wish? _Hotohori sat there looking at us expectedly. _No…it seems too easy. It doesn't seem like I've been going through all of this just to be handed my wish. Something tells me that, a.) Taiitsukun wouldn't let me have it just like that and b.) I'm meant for something completely different._

Giving an apologetic smile, I told him, "Sorry. But I'll have to decline your offer—"

"I'll do it! I'll be happy to do it! My whole life has been leading up to this moment!" Miaka proclaimed. Putting my arm around her shoulders, I turned us away from Hotohori.

"What are you doing Miaka? You can't seriously be considering this."

"Come on! Think about it Onee-chan—Hotohori said that as this priestess, I could have any wish that I want! I could have all of the best foods in the world, automatically pass the entrance exams, have the sexiest body in the world and have all of the boys drool over me, I could have the best singing voice, have the most perfect hair, I could—"

"Okay! I get it." _Those wishes of hers are so…materialistic. But I guess I can expect those things from a regular fifteen-year-old girl who only has to worry about things like that. Oh, if only those were my worries as well. _"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely!" As I released my arm, we turned back towards the throne. "I will become your priestess."

"Excellent!' Hotohori looked over at me once more. "Have you reconsidered Akimoto?"

Thinking for a few short seconds, I gave my answer. "No. Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't think that it's for me. After all, according to your legend, it said 'a girl' implying just one. I don't think that your Suzaku wants to have two priestesses. That's overwhelming don't you think?"

The emperor nodded. "While it does sadden me that you have declined, I shall respect your decision." Replacing his frown with a mature smile, he stood up causing everyone in the room –guards included—to lo expect something to happen. "Even though one of the mysterious girls wishes to not be our priestess, this day has not been in vain—our prayers have been answered. The whole kingdom shall bow to Miaka, the Priestess of Suzaku."

Almost immediately, everyone—including Hotohori—lowered themselves to the ground to kneel to her. It was quite interesting actually, they were treating her as if she were all mighty.

Anger suddenly raged inside of me. _That should be me! I've worked so hard just to get my wish, and she drops in and her wish is at her very fingertips. _

Suddenly, the mysterious male voice rang in my head. _You are meant for something much greater Akimoto. Your time will come. _

Shaking my head from the negative thoughts, I tried to reason with myself. _No, don't think like that! Yeah, I really want that wish more than anything, but I shouldn't take this away from Miaka. I think that Suzaku brought her here so that she could become the Priestess. Using all of my willpower, I will not selfishly take this away from her. _

As they bowed, Tamahome eyed me in a "you better bow if you know what's good for you" kind of way. _Like hell I'm going to bow. I've known the girl for nine years before she even got to this place. Besides, she's not _my_ priestess. _

When that was all said and done, everyone stood up and Hotohori sat back on his throne. "So, Akimoto, what is it that you're going to do?"

"I'm—I'm not sure." _I do kind of have my own agenda. But…_I looked at Miaka. _I can't just leave her here fending for herself. She should be back on our world anyway…Argh! Things are so messed up now!_

"You're welcome to stay here in the palace as long as you would like—enjoying all of the luxuries of being a guest to the emperor of Konan."

"Well, I—"

"Sorry, we can't stay! We really should be getting back to our world. Or at least I need to. I have to get some of my textbooks, tell my mom and brother that I'll be away for a while, you know, stuff like that." Miaka seemed to be looking around for a way out.

I sighed. "Miaka, traditionally, when things like this happen, you can't leave. You don't even know how to get back to our world. We don't even know why or how Yui got back. You took the responsibility so you'll have to tough it out for a while."

"But…but…" She started to whine.

"It's okay. I'll be here with you the whole time, so you have nothing to worry about." Well, I hoped that there would be nothing to worry about. We were in a completely foreign world—a world that's dangers are a complete mystery at the moment. Considering the Shadow Maidens were lurking and regrouping around somewhere and the fact that Taiitsukun said that my powers could be used whenever, I had a feeling that there had to be some mysterious forces that we couldn't even comprehend yet. All of this brought back the question of why Miaka was even there. As far as I could tell, she didn't have any powers. Sure this Suzaku character was supposed to be blessing her with his almighty power, but I'm sure that there were some conditions to those—and whether or not these powers were anything more than just making a wish. She can't defend herself in this place—both because of her lack of any kind of defense mechanism and extreme naivety. It was our childhood all over again.

She smiled warmly at me. "Thanks Onee-chan."

* * *

><p>A few days had gone by since Tamahome, Miaka, and I had been invited to live in the imperial palace. The mystery as to why Tamahome was there baffled me, but I didn't complain. He had proven himself somewhat reliable, a good fighter, and an ally—more or less. He hadn't really said anything that day in the throne room, and ever since, all he had been doing was either training his martial arts or walking around. It made me wonder what he was thinking about and why he continued to stick around. Maybe he had an obligation? The more I thought about it, I also noticed how he's been spending a good amount of time with Miaka. Usually, I would have thought nothing of it, but after seeing him kiss her on the forehead, I couldn't help but think that something was going on. There was also the chance that he was just a good guy trying to comfort her since she was feeling so down about being away from home. She even told me how he hugged her and said he'd be her older brother until she could return to her own older brother, Keisuke.<p>

And speaking of obligations, I was beginning to wonder what exactly Miaka had to do in order to fulfill her duties as priestess. Hotohori hasn't told her anything about the subject which was making me believe that a lot of what he was saying was over-dramatized. What if this whole Priestess of Suzaku thing was just a title? Did you actually get a legitimate wish from some god?

So many thoughts were going through my head about everything that had been happening to me in this new world. It also occurred to me that going off on such a tangent as this was not bringing me closer to _my_ wish. Sure, it's good that Miaka would be happy (still making me ask why she was even there), but I couldn't go off from my initial mission—the thing that I had been working so hard for. Miaka was my friend and with my powers, I knew I could protect her, but I had to face facts: she was a huge distraction! I could not express how much it was bothering me that she was there. No matter how hard I tried at putting it off until Taiitsukun made her predictable rounds, it continued to just eat at me. If all of this was happening, what was going on in our world? Could it have been possible that Miaka was on the same journey as me? No...Taiitsukun said that the quest was made with just one girl at a time.

Laying down on a patch of grass near a pond in the palace, I watched the clouds go by and groaned. "Of course the universe is adding stuff to my already difficult life just to make me go insane. What a bitch."

Covering my hand over my eyes to shield the sun from my face, a figure blocked the sun and provided me shade. As his face came into focus, I realized that it was his-hotness himself, Hotohori. _Wow…Ouran High School déjà vu. Oh, and both of the people who blocked the sun both have names starting with H! How ironic…Yup, the universe is definitely a bitch. _

"Are you alright Akimoto?" He asked.

"Oh, yeah I'm fine Hotohori. Why do you ask?"

He sat down next to me and placed some parchments he was carrying on the ground next to him. "Well, I've been so busy attending to royal duties and I haven't even been paying any attention to my honored guests. I was actually on my way to see Miaka to apologize. I noticed that she had been looking rather down and wished that I may assist her…"

"You don't need to apologize. We both know that you're busy—it's expected of an emperor." Turning my head, I gave a small smile. "And she's doing much better. She's been talking to me, and Tamahome has been making her feel even more at home. No worries."

"For someone who has come to a completely different world, you are rather relaxed."

Resting my wrist over my forehead, I thought, _well, I have been doing this for a while. _I shrugged. "I guess it's just never been in me to make a big deal outta such a thing." He cocked an eyebrow. "Let's just say that at this point, it'll take _a lot_ to surprise me."

He chuckled. "You are truly fascinating." Looking at my wrist, he said, "What a magnificent piece of jewelry! It's an absolute work of art. It's so extravagant that I even I would consider wearing it. Tell me, where did you obtain it?"

Looking at the bracelet, I couldn't help but smile sadly. "Someone special gave it to me as a present."

"Your husband?"

Shooting my upper body up, my face immediately flushed. "H-husband?" My mind instantly began to picture me being proposed to by Hikaru…in an elegant white dress marrying him…on our honeymoon…sleeping with—I shook my head to clear my over-active imagination. _What the heck am I thinking? I can't believe I even had those thoughts! I know I've said it before, but damn teenage hormones! _ Waving my arms around in a panicky way, I tried to explain myself, "No, no, no, no Hotohori, you've got it _all_ wrong. _Completely _wrong."

"You're not married?"

"Of course not! I'm only seventeen (or eighteen) but that's a different story! Me, married?" I laughed nervously. "Yeah, right." _Hikaru and I never had a chance anyway. The universe simply wouldn't allow it…_

"Huh, it puzzles me. Such an exotic and rather attractive woman such as you is not married yet. Well, it's a loss to those men out there—especially the fool who gave you that bracelet and had the indecency to let you go." My face remained red and warm. _Exotic? Attractive? Is the emperor flirting with me? _My brain came up with a rationalization. _Okay, he's an emperor, so he probably flatters everyone he meets. It's all a part of being diplomatic. It's in his blood—he's been learning to do that for years. _He continued to look at me and I tried my best to not look away. "You know, I don't think that I've ever met someone with eyes like yours. You truly are from a different world."

"Well, I get that a lot—about my eyes, not the whole… world thing." Trying to quickly change the subject, I said, "So, what are those scrolls and stuff you have with you there?"

Looking as if he had forgotten, his eyes went wide as he picked up the parchments and scrolled over them. "They are documents are important in the prophecy of the priestess. I was going to show it to Miaka."

Noticing movement behind him, I pointed. "Here's your chance!" Miaka and Tamahome saw us sitting down and allowed their curiosity to decide to come over to us.

"Ah, Miaka! I was just about to come to you."

"Hotoho—I mean, Your Highness! What is it?" She asked cheerily.

He brought up the documents. But before he talked about him, he showed her an apologetic smile. "I am quite sorry that I haven't had any time to spend time with you my dear priestess."

"Oh, I understand! It's okay, really!"

Feeling a wave of relief, he went on with what he was going to say. "I need to discuss with you how you can obtain the powers of Suzaku. You see, everything we need to know is here in _The Universe of the Four Gods." _Both I and Miaka's eyes went wide at the name of his scrolls. _The Universe of the Four Gods _was the name of the book that Miaka and Yui were reading when they suddenly got sucked in and ended up in this place. How could Hotohori be in possession of similar papers? Looking over at her, I knew that she had to have been thinking something similar. "This book has been in the royal family for generations and holds the prophecy for the destiny of the Priestess of Suzaku. Let me explain: these documents tell of the twenty eight celestial constellations of the heavens. Each of the cardinal points: North, South, East, and West contain seven of these constellations."

_The cardinal points? _"Don't the four countries of those cardinal points have their own respective gods? I don't exactly remember the name of them all—of course I remember Suzaku for us in the south—but there are three other gods, right?"

He nodded in approval. "Why yes, you are correct Akimoto. So just as the scrolls say, Suzaku contains the seven constellations: Nuriko, Chichiri, Tamahome, Mitsukake, Hotohori, Tasuki, and Chiriko."

In surprise, Miaka and I both said simultaneously, "Hotohori and Tamahome?" Even Tamahome looked shocked by what he heard.

Hotohori nodded again. "Yes. Like Tamahome and I, there are five others who have the name of the constellations written as Kanji characters somewhere on their bodies. Mine appears on the left side of my neck—just as yours appears on your forehead."

Tamahome touched his forehead with a peculiar look. "Oh, so that's why that happens."

"You seriously didn't think that your head glowing was…irregular?" I asked.

"When I was young, yeah, but I got over it. After a while—and after years of teasing—I sort of just forgot it was even there. I mean, I knew my name had to do with a constellation, but I didn't think it had anything to do with something this important."

"It's part of an ancient legend of your land and you didn't know _anything_ about it?"

"Hey!" He yelled. "Quit giving me the third-degree here! _You_ didn't know anything either!"

"_I_ have an excuse: _I'm_ not from this world."

Hotohori cleared his throat to get our attention. "Yes, well, we, as celestial warriors of Suzaku must protect our priestess at all times. But it is up to the priestess to go out and find her warriors if she ever wants to obtain the powers of Suzaku." _Huh, so there is some work required in all of this._

Miaka started to panic. "What? I have to go out to who knows where to find five more people that I don't even know? How am I going to do that?"

I stroked my chin. "Yes, that _does_ seem like it would be rather difficult. I mean, there are _a lot_ of people in the world. Even if we're just talking Konan, I'm still certain that it's pretty big and that a lot of people live here." My words seemed to have been sinking into their brains. "Seriously what are the chances that we could actually find five more people?" _I don't even know a spell that could help us with this. Some kind of location spell? No, this is way too specific. All my spells are either defensive or offensive. Nope…nothing can help._

"Well," Hotohori began, "there is a bit of a clue to find the third constellation. This person is incredibly strong and perhaps lives in a huge, extravagant place such as a palace." We all looked at him. "Yes, that's right, we're in a palace. Perhaps finding this person will not prove all that difficult. Maybe the key to finding them all is just taking it slow and using our brains to figure out their locations."

"Ahh!" Miaka's panic escalated. "I have entrance exams coming up! I don't have the time to whack at my brain and figure out this stuff. What are we going to do?"

Tamahome put his hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "Everything will be fine. I know you're eager to get back home, but things will take a lot longer if you panic."

"Well, better her panicking than the rest of us as well, I suppose," I said under my breath. Tamahome shot me a look. Trying to defend myself, I told them, "Well, she might as well get all of her panicking, whining, and complaining out of her system before we keep going with all of this."

"Onee-chan…" Miaka started to cry, "Do you really think that I do all of those things?"

Patting her head, I closed my eyes and smiled uneasily. "I was just being honest. You're a cute girl Miaka, so you don't have to worry about anything."

"What does that have to do with—"

"So, Hotohori," I switched my attention in the conversation, "how you do propose we find this strong person?"

Before he could say something, Tamahome chimed in with his idea, "Well, if this person is supposed to be in this palace and is strong, then why don't we just get the strongest fighters and soldiers in the palace all together and see out of them all, which ones the strongest?"

"That's not a bad idea," Hotohori contemplated.

* * *

><p>After the plan was set, the next day, all of the bravest and valiant warriors in the palace were gathered in the courtyard—presenting themselves to Tamahome, Hotohori, Miaka, and I.<p>

I sighed as I sat down next to Hotohori's outside throne. "These bunch of chumps all look alike to me. How the heck to we find who we're looking for?"

Miaka, who was standing next to the emperor replied, "I don't know." Thinking of an idea, she raised her voice to them, "If any of you have a glowing character anywhere on your body, please step forward now!" Slapping my hand to my forehead, I thought, _that never usually works. _The men all looked around at each other with puzzled faces and chatter._ Although, I gotta give her points for trying that method. I seriously would have applauded her if that worked._

The next idea came from Tamahome. He suggested beating the snot out of all of them to see which one of the men could fight back the best or even perhaps defeat him. That idea went down the drain when, after five minutes, half of the men were on the ground either unconscious, or moaning from the incredible pain that Tamahome had dished out. It was quite epic actually. At that point, I was certain that I wanted Tamahome fighting on my side.

He cracked his knuckles and creeped forward the rest of the fighters. I shouted out to him, "Hey, Tama! That's obviously not working. Give them a break before you break _them_. We still need them, remember?"

"Come on! The guy we're looking for should be able to take it. Besides, I was just getting started—" Before he was able to finish his sentence, I walked over to him and grabbed him by the ear, dragging him back to the spectators' spot.

"Hey, ouch! That hurts you know!"

"No kidding." Dropping him off, I returned to my spot on the ground.

Hotohori sighed. "We didn't come up with this whole thing just for you to show off Tamahome."

"Okay, I have another idea!" Miaka proclaimed. _You used up your turn, Miaka. _"If this person we're looking for is such an honorable warrior, he would never attack a sweet, innocent girl like me—especially since I'm the Priestess of Suzaku."

"So what, you're gonna use yourself as bait?" I asked. "I don't think that's a good idea."

She gave a confident smile. "Don't worry Aki-nee-chan! You know how fast I am. Should one of those men actually try to attack me, I'll just get the hell outta there!" _Either that or Tamahome and I have to swoop in to save her. _

The better part of me told myself to not let her go through with this plan, but we had to get some progress somehow. _Actually…now that I think about it, it would probably be a lot safer if I went through with this plan instead—_

"Hey you morons!" Miaka shouted out in the middle of the courtyard. The soldiers' attention immediately went to her. "Why don't you come over here and try to fight me!" _That idiot. _"Bet you can't! I bet you're all just a bunch of whiny little girls who just dress up like men every day. You all probably fight like wimps. My pinky is tougher than all of you combined. Come at me you sorry excuses of the male species! You all bring dishonor to your lives, your family, and your gender. Why don't you all grow a pair?"

"How dare she…"

"We will never take that kind of talk from anyone…"

"Not even a woman…"

"Not even if she is the priestess!"

"Get her!" The extremely pissed off bunch of warriors lashed out with bunches and kicks and any other violent thing you could possibly think of.

Running away from the attacks, Miaka yelled, "They're attacking sweet little me? I don't think that any of these guys are a celestial warrior!"

"Of course not, you idiot!" Tamahome and I shouted back. Springing into action, we both ran out for her. Calling forth Wind to my hands and feet, I used the _Tornado Fist _to send a good number of them flying. Tamahome helped out by taking some of the guys on his side. Just as I thought we were winning, something weird started to happen to me. With each punch I threw and as my body grew tired from all of the physical force, Wind died down more and more. The only reason I used the _Tornado Fist _was for times like this when I felt that I had to do hand-to-hand combat. Wind only gave me a way of actually being able to fight back since my actual strength was really kind of pathetic. Since my body wasn't used to all of this physical action, it was causing my energy to deplete rather quickly—and I had never used the _Tornado Fist _for this long a duration before.

Panting fiercely, I managed to miraculously knock a guy out even with my depleted strength. Searching for Miaka, I could see that there were still some men chasing her and throwing heavy objects. _I can't just focus on guys over here, I have to go over there and help her! _Running as fast as I could, I managed to past a few of the warriors who were tiring from their rage. Unfortunately, Miaka managed to run under a huge, stone-material, gazebo-like structure. And from all of the objects being thrown, the columns started to crack and give way.

_Oh, crap! Miaka! "_Miaka, watch out!" She looked above her, but there was no way she could escape in time. As I got closer, I tried using a spell. "_Seosh—" _ Tamahome came in out of nowhere and threw me out of the way—disrupting my spell casting—for my safety from the falling rubble. Before the whole structure fell completely to the ground, all I could see was Tamahome shielding her.

Sitting on the ground, stunned, I gawked at the pile of ruins. In disbelief, I quietly said, "No…" Then louder, "No!" I ran over just as Hotohori was doing so as well. "Miaka! Tamahome!"

"Miaka!" Hotohori cried. "Please Suzaku, don't take her away from us!"

I couldn't use a spell. Not only was my energy almost trained from earlier, but if I did use a spell, I couldn't guarantee that any kind of explosion wouldn't end up killing them if they weren't already dead. Even if I used Earth, I wouldn't be certain that one false move of a piece of wreckage wouldn't cave in and crush them to death.

_This is all my fault…If I hadn't been playing around and hiding my powers, I could have protected her. She and Tamahome wouldn't be seriously hurt—or worse. All my fault. _

With tears starting to flow, I tried grabbing at the huge pieces of debris in an attempt to free the two with my bare hands. My body shook as it struggled to pick up the heavy pieces.

"Akimoto…" I heard Hotohori say.

"They can't be dead. They can't! We have to get them out of here!"

"Akimoto!" Hotohori grabbed my hand from behind to hold me in a tight embrace. He had a solemn tone in his voice. "I'm sorry, but if you continue, you'll harm yourself further."

"Let me go! Let me go! I have to save them! It's all my fault…" I struggled to escape his arms—my mind was clouded and stomach queasy from the extreme guilt. All because I was so used to not revealing my powers. The transition was just so awkward for me. This whole time Taiitsukun had been telling me to hide my powers—I had been conditioned to do just that. And then she suddenly springs on me that I could use them? It wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be. Part of me was still afraid that something bad would happen if I exposed myself. How stupid I was! I should have just used my powers! Even if I was given the order not to, I should have used them to help Miaka out. And now...

"There's nothing you can do right now." He faced the bunch of guilt-stricken warriors. "Well, what are you all standing around for? Get over here and help removing this rubble! Be as careful as you can while getting them out!"

It seems like they were also weak from the days' events and proved useless in trying to save our friends. All of the others were knocked unconscious. _No…_

"Somebody…HELP!" I cried out.

Then, out of nowhere, the pretty, purple-haired crazed fan-girl-woman from earlier walked up calmly to the ruins.

"What're you—" Before I could ask what she was doing, she shot me a sharp look that could kill—making me instantly shut my mouth. Crouching down she took a piece of the rubble, and effortlessly threw it about fifty feet away. Breaking away from Hotohori, we all stared in astonishment. One piece after the other she threw away from the pile, watching it get smaller. She eventually got deep enough to locate the still very-much living—but understandably beaten up—Miaka and Tamahome.

Without hesitating, I ran up to hug them. "I'm so glad that you two are okay!"

Tamahome winced when I came into contact with him. "Hey, we are hurt, you know. Go a little easier with the hugs!"

I backed off. "Sorry!" Noticing blood coming from Miaka's leg, I fussed over her. "Miaka you're bleeding!"

"It's fine Onee-chan. I'm fine!" She looked at Tamahome. "I'm just both extremely happy and furious at Tamahome for risking his life like that to save me."

Smiling warmly, he spoke to her with an assured tone. "I will always protect you Miaka—even if it means risking my own life. I am your warrior after all!" I noticed that she blushed when she heard his words.

The purple-haired woman hunched over to get a better look at them. "Huh, you know, I wasn't completely sure that you two would still be alive. Lucky break, huh?"

I turned to face her with a heart full of relief. "Thank you so much for saving my friends."

Miaka agreed. "Yeah! We wouldn't have survived if it wasn't for you, Miss."

For a second, it seemed like the woman briefly glared at the two of us before scoffing. "I didn't do it for you two." She faced Tamahome. "I did it for _him_." Walking up to him, she leaned down and put her hands on the sides of his face. Bringing her face down to his, she brought their lips together without any hesitation. Tamahome's eyes went wide as Miaka and I stood there in shock.

"Tamahome…WHAT THE HELL?"


	20. Issues

**Sorry this chapter came out pretty...long. I actually expected it to be shorter...haha**

**Anyways, CHAPTER 20! Yay! Enjoy~ ^_^**

* * *

><p>Tamahome continued to sit there in complete confusion even after the woman broke apart from their kiss. Fully content, she turned to face Miaka—who was in total shock and frozen as a statue—and I with a mocking smile on her face.<p>

With shaky hands, I pointed at her. "Wha-what the hell was that?" Seeing Tamahome shift, my eyes shot daggers at him.

Snapping out of the trance, he answered, "I don't even know! I've never met this woman before!" Sweat dripping, stiffness—it seemed like he was telling the truth considering how freaked out he seemed. Looking back up at the woman, I noticed how smug she seemed. Avoiding my hateful gaze, she looked back at Tamahome and winked.

"Now, now, Tama-kins, you know you liked it. Ready for round two?" She outstretched her arms and puckered her lips. Tamahome shivered in an unpleasant fashion and quickly dashed to hide in back of me.

"That woman is crazy!" He accused as he held onto my shoulders as if I were a shield.

"Tama-kins…Don't be so mean! Come back out here—I won't bite." She stepped closer. "Unless you like that sort of thing—"

"Can't you see that he's not interested?" I blurted out. _What is with this woman? A few days ago she said that she was in love with Hotohori. Was that whole performance a lie? _"Back off!"

Seeing how I blocked her way from Tamahome, she scowled just before returning back to that smug attitude. "Not interested? Impossible. Besides, you two girls are just jealous that you didn't make a move on him first."

I looked back Tamahome—who wouldn't let go of my shoulders—and he looked at me with baffled faces. "What do you mean?"

"Well, aren't you two in love with him?"

My face instantly reddened at the very idea of me having those kinds of feelings for him. I mean, I just met the guy! Not only that, I had the strong intuition that Miaka had a crush on him—which would definitely explain why she was still inaudible and as stiff as a board. Yeah, the guy was pretty good looking, but he was definitely not on my "candidates for true love" list.

"That's ridiculous!" I yelled causing her to chuckle at my reaction. "Anyway, don't turn this around on us. Who gave you the right to stick your nasty little tongue down Tamahome's throat? That was completely uncalled for." She walked over to me causing Tamahome to duck behind my back. Without any warning, she flicked me on the forehead, obviously holding back on her monstrous strength. Bringing my hand to my head, I winced from the stinging pain. "What was that for?"

"You, little girl, shouldn't stick your nose into grown-ups business."

_Little…girl? _"Who do you think you're calling a 'little girl' you slut? I'm probably the same age as you!"

"Maturity is in the mind, my dear, and you still act like a child. You are making such a big deal out of nothing. At least _I'm_ not calling others a 'slut'. Honestly, how rude can you be?" Feeling my rage act up, a faint wind started to blow. It took a whole bunch of self-control to not go on a spell-frenzy and toast this chick. Because what it's worth, she deserved whatever I could do to her. Looking into her blazing pink eyes, I could tell that I was getting to her as well—she was just a bit better at concealing her emotions than I was. Unfortunately, like myself, her outlet for those emotions was probably just as destructive as mine were. With the combination of her strength and my magic, this palace could end up in ashes within a matter of hours. Even though I hadn't known her for too long, I could tell that she was a snobby little bitch and needed to be put in her place before she completely believed that she could get away with whatever she wanted.

Sensing the tension between us, Hotohori came between us. "Now, now ladies—you shouldn't be fighting like this. We should be looking at the big picture." _Which is what? Deciding whether I should torch her or drown her? Or perhaps both… _He faced the woman with a calm demeanor. "Miss, since you are here, I must ask, are you one of the royal consorts?"

Switching from ticked off and homicidal to calm and pleasant, she spoke with respect to the emperor. "Yes, Your Highness, I am. My name is Korin, but you all can call me," Lifting her hand, she moved part of her fancy robes to reveal a small part of her upper right (her left) chest—that happened to have a glowing Kanji character. _Oh God, please don't tell me… _"Nuriko." _Crap! That's one of the names of the constellations! _

Upon discovering that the woman—Nuriko—was the third warrior that we were looking for, Miaka finally unfroze.

"Nuriko? So the third warrior is a woman?" She asked. Now that she was finally speaking and moving around, I was a bit surprised that she wasn't grilling Nuriko for kissing Tamahome. Either didn't care anymore, or she was distracted by the fact that we were one warrior closer to obtaining the powers of Suzaku as well as her ticket home. Attempting to stand up, she instantly fell back down due to the injury on her leg.

Hotohori and Tamahome—who came out from hiding behind me—rushed to her side. "Are you okay, Miaka?"

"I will get you the best medical attention possible—"

"Guys! I already told you that I'm fine." Looking up at Nuriko, she smiled. "I'm glad to finally meet you." Supporting herself on Tamahome's shoulders, she stood up and offered her hand. "I'm Miaka and this is my big sister, Aki. I hope that you and I can be really great friends!" I scoffed. _Not likely._

For a few seconds, Nuriko just stood there staring at Miaka's hand. Her expression was unreadable, as if she were contemplating what to do. When she had finally decided, she unexpectedly slapped away her hand—creating shocked expressions on the four of us.

I stepped in front of her. "Okay, you may have an issue with _me_, but you have absolutely no right to do that to Miaka. She's just trying to be nice."

"I have no interest in her kindness. I may acknowledge the fact that she's the Priestess of Suzaku, but that doesn't mean that I want to—nor have to—be her friend—not _yours_ either," she hissed.

"Nuriko," Hotohori stood up to face her, "it is your honored duty as a Celestial Warrior to aid your priestess."

"With all due respect, Your Highness, I cannot befriend the girl for I do not like her. However," She dashed towards Tamahome and hugged his arm, "I will happily be a part of your group as long as my Tama-kins is around!" Miaka was instantly taken aback at the notion.

"Nur-i-ko!" Tamahome struggled to get away, but the woman's incredible strength made it prove difficult to even cause her to flinch. "Let go of me!

Gritting my teeth, I clenched my fist in her face. This caused her to taunt me by wagging her finger in _my_ face. "Ah, ah, ah! Behave yourself little Aki. You wouldn't want to be mean to an _actual _member of the Suzaku Seven, now would you?" _What is she implying by that?_

* * *

><p>"Can you believe the nerve of that woman?" I growled. After all of the <em>pleasant<em> introductions in the courtyard, I attempted to get my mind off of wanting to strangle Nuriko by going away to tend to Miaka's leg. Nuriko obliged my leaving by giving chase to Tamahome immediately after our talk. I honestly felt sorry for the guy, but at that point, I was willing to let _anything_ happen to widen the distance between her and I. _I admire your sacrifice, valiant Tamahome. _

Miaka and I were in one of the rooms in the palace as she stripped down to her underwear to clean her uniform—wanting to get the blood out.

As she scrubbed, she spoke. "My gosh, blood is difficult to get out…" She then stopped to face the pissed of me who was sitting next to her. "Aki-nee-chan, you shouldn't be mad at Nuriko. I mean, maybe she's just a bit rough on the outside. Who knows, for all we know, she could be one of the sweetest people you ever come to know."

My eyebrow rose. "Yeah…I doubt that. First impressions say a lot Miaka. And hers made me want to impale her face with my fist."

"Sure, she's a bit…aggressive, but she _is_ one of the Suzaku Seven. So, it would probably be best if you two put your egos aside so that we could all be friends." _Our…egos? _"After all, wouldn't it be great to have another girl as a friend around here? Especially during those situations where you need a girls' advice and a girl to talk to."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Girl? No. I think the proper term for Nuriko is _She-Devil_. Besides, we don't need her to do those things. If you need advice and need someone to talk to about girl stuff, you have me." _Okay, maybe I'm not the best one to talk to, but I'm a hell of a lot better than that She-Devil Nuriko. _Hearing what I had said made Miaka smile causing me to blush a little and look away. "She's not worth the trouble Miaka."

Continuing to smile, Miaka got up and walked towards me. Leaning down, she embraced me in a soft hug. "Thanks for looking out for me Onee-chan. But I really disagree with you. I think that Nuriko can be our good friend if we just try and put out the effort. Some things are worth fighting for, right?" Continuing to blush and feel quite awkward, I sighed. _Ain't that the truth… _

"If it will really make you happy, then go ahead and try to be friends with her." Her smile widened as I added more to my statement. "Just don't try too hard. Like I said, some people just aren't worth it."

She hugged tighter. "Okay…but I really want to make this work." Miaka had always been like that—always wanting to see the best in people. Out of all the people I ever knew, she was probably the most likeable and the friendliest. She didn't have any bitterness in her heart and her world consisted of mostly happiness. Of course there were those few bullying incidents when we were younger, but those quickly died down once Yui and I came along. Other than those tiny things, she was a cheerful kid who wanted nothing more than to make everything okay—no matter what the dilemma was.

Suddenly, the door opened to a frantic Tamahome who immediately closed it behind him. Panting vigorously, he tried to calm down his breathing. On the outside of the room, you could hear a familiar voice.

"Tama-kins? Where did you go?" It was Nuriko—apparently Tamahome was hiding from her. Smart man. "You know, I will find you no matter where you are hiding!" She sang.

Hearing her footsteps decrescendo, she let out a deep sigh. "Thank Suzaku. I finally got away from her." That was when he opened his eyes to discover his clever hiding spot. There Miaka and I were, hugging with Miaka almost completely naked—only wearing her bra and underwear.

That wasn't so smart.

His face instantly reddened at the sight. He tried to speak, but all that came out was, "I—I—uh—sorry—" But before he even had the chance to get out a proper sentence, Miaka screamed and ran to punch him in the face.

"Get out!" She shouted.

"Miaka, I didn't mean to—" She punched him again as he attempted to look at her.

"I'm barely wearing anything, you pervert! Get out!"

He looked up to me with a desperate face. Containing my laughter, I comically looked away. _Sorry dude, but I'm stayin' outta this one. _

Yeah, Miaka was a sweet girl. But she also knew when her innocence—or anything else—was on the verge of being violated, so she would react using unexpected violence that most people wouldn't expect her to have. It didn't happen all the time, but when it did…I was quite surprised and entertained.

* * *

><p>Miaka had decided to find Nuriko and do all she could to become friends with her. Of course, I told her that I didn't feel like provoking another world war—or in the case of being in this different dimension, start a<em> first<em> world war—by crossing paths with that woman. So, as she went to go do her thing, I decided to do a bit of exploring.

The last time I actually went around this gigantic place was when Miaka, Tamahome, and I were on the run from the guards. Now that I had time to stop and smell the flowers, I truly realized how magnificent this palace was—it was really a work of art, with its complex Chinese structure and fine detail of even the smaller things. There was also very impressive and beautiful landscapes such as ponds and extensive and diverse gardens which added extra color to the place.

But what was really evident was the dedication they put in to having the palace symbolize Suzaku—with the gold and crimson colors, statues, and banners, you could tell that Suzaku was a real big deal here. Speaking of Suzaku, I couldn't help but be a bit curious about the god. Were his powers really all that? If he was the one that had brought Miaka here, then why did he choose her? Had this been her destiny all along? And why would Yui be involved in this at all? There was always the chance that she was just an innocent bystander who happened to be around when Miaka was being summoned to this world. That scenario would definitely make sense considering that she was almost immediately sent back to our world. Then if that were true, then why did I continue to have a bit of an unsettling feeling deep inside of me?

I also began to ask myself how dangerous this journey would be to find the other four Warriors of Suzaku. Already, Miaka had managed to almost get her and Tamahome killed—it kind of scared me wondering worse things that could happen. Sure, it made me feel better that we were technically looking for extra protection for her, but getting the protection required protection—which was a pain the ass, but since I resolved to using my powers again, things shouldn't be too bad. In fact, I was pretty confident that I could handle almost anything that could and would attack us. Yeah, it wasn't the best idea to be in the mindset of us being in an eventual fight—you know, with messages being sent out to the universe and all—but it was best to be more realistic than delusional.

As my various thoughts circled around me, I eventually came across the open double-doors to a very large, well-furnished room. In the middle sat Nuriko, lying on a couch, looking as content as can be. What I didn't expect to see was Miaka scrambling around tidying up the space. _What the hell? _

"Miaka, when you're done, make sure to fluff my pillow—it's getting a bit flat."

"Yes Nuriko." Without further question, Miaka came up to Nuriko and fluffed her pillow for her.

Without even a thank you, which continued to tick me off, the non-thankful, purple haired She-Devil commanded, "Now, go back to cleaning up this room. It is still an absolute mess. You don't wish for me to be surrounded by such disorganization, do you?"

"No, of course not!" With a smile on her face, Miaka went back to her previous chore.

Noticing me staring scornfully inside, Nuriko gave me an inciting look. "Ah, Aki! Do you wish to become my servant in high hopes of becoming my friend as well? You know what they say: You can _never_ have too much help."

"Not even if Hell freezes over," I told her with a glare.

"Pity," She closed her eyes and sank further into her cushion, "and I was so much looking forward to more _friends_."

As I sat there contemplating how to bring her pain, Tamahome came walking down the hallway, completely unaware of who I was staring at in the room.

He waved over, "Hey Aki! What're you—" He automatically cut himself off when I gave him a look to shut up. But it was too late.

"Is that my Tama I hear?" Nuriko shot herself up from the couch and ran towards the door and Tamahome who was already making his way out of there. Pushing me out of the way, she took out a long robe that she had been hiding somewhere on her body and used it as a lasso. Apparently, he determination gave her excellent accuracy because she was able to catch Tamahome without any problems. Pulling him towards her, he grumbled quietly to himself. When the two were finally together, she used the rest of the rope to tie the rest of his body up to make sure that he wouldn't get away. "See Tama-kins, I knew I'd find you."

"Nuriko, the rope wasn't necessary. Let me go!" He demanded.

"Now if I did that, you'd just run away like last time." She brought her face close to his making him avoid her advances as much as he could. "We wouldn't want that now would we?"

"Yes, we would."

"C'mon Tama-kins, you and I don't spend enough time together. We really should spend more time getting to know one another. What do ya say?" She asked with a seductive smile playing on her ruby-red lips. Looking inside, I noticed how Miaka had been listening to everything that had been happening between Tamahome and Nuriko. The peppy energy she seemed to have before, somehow dimmed considerably. She tried to continue cleaning, but her face failed to hide its sadness. _Miaka shouldn't be putting herself through all of this just to be Nuriko's friend. _

Tamahome voice started to turn panicky. "Now, Nuriko, I don't think that—"

"Tamahome, you don't have to explain yourself to this _piece of trash_," I blurted out. Nuriko immediately loosened her grip on Tamahome's rope and narrowed her eyes at me. "Don't you think it's a little pathetic that you have to tie your men up in order to get them, Nuriko? You'd think that a woman of your merit would be above subjecting herself to such things."

Nuriko growled. "Why you little…"

"Umm…" Miaka came up to us. "Onee-chan? Nuriko?"

"Miaka! I am thirsty. Fetch me a drink!" She demanded. Miaka hesitated as she looked from me to Nuriko. "Now Miaka. I only grow thirstier the longer you wait."

She reluctantly agreed. "Yes Nuriko." Walking off, she turned back for only a second. "I'll be back Onee-chan." Miaka knew that Nuriko and I didn't like each other and was probably aware that something bad was about to go down between the two of us.

When Miaka was out of sight, I turned back my head to face Nuriko. "Who the hell do you think you are? You're supposed to be an honorable Celestial Warrior who protects her priestess—not some bitch who goes around shamelessly flirting with one of her fellow warriors and playing with her priestesses feelings by making her your maid!"

"What gives you the right to speak to me like that?" Nuriko dropped the rope completely allowing Tamahome's freedom. But instead of running away, he just stood there listening in to the conversation. "Don't you know what I am capable of?"

"Yeah, I know what you're capable of, and I don't give a damn." Catching Tamahome's concerned eyes, I continued. "And another thing: Why the hell are you after Tamahome? I thought you were in love with Hotohori."

Tamahome looked both shocked and confused. "Wait, what? What do you mean?"

"Just as I said. She's in love with the emperor." Her lack of denial proved everything that I was saying.

He started to get angry himself. "Why put me through all of that then? Nuriko! I'm speaking to you!" Putting his hands on her shoulders, she immediately threw his hand off. Grabbing the top of my tube top, she brought me closer to her taller height—right in her face.

"You know what? You should just mind your own business," She spat.

"But I am—"

"No, you're not! You think that you're involved in all of this, but you're not! And you know what? I am sick and tired of you butting into everything. Let me give you a small bit of information that you seemed to have missed along the way." By this time, she was completely lifting me off of the ground. I hadn't realized until that moment how much taller than Miaka and I that Nuriko really was. There was absolutely no sign of joking in her eyes—she was dead serious about everything she was saying. "I belong here. Miaka belongs here. Tamahome belongs here. His Highness belongs here. And there are four others who belong here. But you? You don't even matter. What are you? Older sibling of the Priestess of Suzaku? Please. You aren't even related. Even if you were, you still wouldn't be all that important. You're just a powerless, useless, pointless, and selfish little pest who is only taking advantage of the emperor's kindness and thinks you're all that just because you're from a different world."

"Nuriko! You're going too far!" Tamahome yelled out at her. She didn't seem to care.

"You have no special abilities and would only end up getting in the way with whatever you do. So why don't you do us all a favor and beat it!" Throwing me back onto the ground, I just sat there, boiling in my own fury. My face was completely flushed as my body shook in anger.

All of a sudden, a mysterious female voice entered into my head.

_She doesn't know all the things that you have been through. She doesn't know the hurt you have endured. Who is she to tell you what you are worth? _

I blinked. _Huh?_

The voice spoke again. _She tells you that you're useless when you've done so much. She says that you're pointless when you are an obvious favorite of the universe. She says that you're powerless when you've gone through emotional and physical Hell to become a Master Sorceress. She says that you're selfish when you're just trying to do the right thing. _

Processing her words, everything she was saying had made a bunch of sense.

_You don't have a choice in which world you are sent to, yet you are willing to go through so much just to find your place. Who is she to tell you that you don't matter? _

My mind came to the realization that she was absolutely right.

_This woman just met you and is already making false assumptions—just like those awful kids from back in your world. What will you do if her way of thinking affects the others? Then you will be all alone in this world—in a dangerous, foreign world full of mystery. They will all shun you and think that you do not matter. Will you allow her to speak to you like this? Will you allow her to influence the people around you? Or will you give into your guiltless desires and make her suffer?_

I was convinced. "You're right…"

Nuriko cocked an eyebrow as Tamahome looked at me in confusion. "What did you say?"

Feeling a sudden wave of despair and rage, an odd sensation consumed my body—it was both chilling and frightening, but it felt so _right_. Standing up slowly, the ring of darkness around me came into view, and I was the only one who could see it. Its power had been enhanced—as opposed to how it had been for a while: dim and barely noticeable. But now, after what had just happened, the ring's power multiplied, bringing it back to its negative influence it had when I was younger.

Tamahome and Nuriko seemed to have noticed a sudden change in atmosphere as their bodies shivered unpleasantly. "What's happening?"

"What's this horrible feeling that I'm getting?" Nuriko wrapped her arms around her body.

As my anger persisted, the dark ring pulsated, shooting an invisible wave of negative energy out throughout the area. Both of the people standing in front of me fell to the ground, shaking vigorously now.

Nuriko seemed to be the most affected—she was completely on the ground with tears in her eyes mumbling things like "Please don't leave me" and "I didn't do anything wrong." Insisting that she suffered more, I walked up to her, feeling some invisible hand grab my hand and reach out for her.

_She needs to suffer. _

Suddenly, the familiar, unfamiliar male voice rang out in opposition to the female's .

_Akimoto! _

My body stopped its advances on Nuriko.

_You must stop this. Do not let the darkness cloud your sense of judgment—don't let it take over your mind. _

Closing my eyes, I relaxed and allowed my head clear itself.

_You're better than this Akimoto. Don't go back to your past. Allow your heart to heal and have your future be filled with light. _

Inhaling deeply, I released all of the tension once it was let out in a huge exhale. Bringing my hand back, the invisible hand seemed to have eventually backed off allowing me full complete control over myself again.

Looking down at the two, I suddenly became swept in guilt. _I…can't believe that I did this to them. I'm so sorry! _After their moments of extreme grief, both Nuriko and Tamahome seemed to have passed out. I took the opportunity to gather my energy and levitate out of there.

* * *

><p>Sitting on the roof of one of the buildings of the palace, I had a chance to think some things over.<p>

_I can't believe that I did that. Nuriko is mean in all, but she didn't deserve that. No one does. What's worse, I got Tamahome caught in it as well. _Gazing up towards the sky, I marveled at the many sparkling stars that lit up the night. It had been a few hours since I decided to isolate myself from everyone else. If I knew anything about that mysterious ring of energy around me, it was that its effects on others weren't pleasant. Back there, it had been my own intention to hurt Nuriko, but even if I weren't trying, she, as well as others, would have been affected quite easily. That's what had happened when I was younger—back when I had absolutely no control over it. People where automatically repelled so that they could avoid the awful feelings that were brought upon being around me. Sure, I had accepted my lonely fate, but that didn't make living through it any easier. There were those very few people who I didn't seem to affect as much as they others, but regardless, I still felt lonely.

Things had changed, though. Ever since starting this journey, the ring seemed to have…dimmed in intensity—and I could never figure out why. But I didn't complain. Due to the weakening of the ring, I finally managed to have the life that I always wished for, full of friends and happiness. Even after I was forced to leave worlds, the negative energy would only flare up every now and then—not enough times to affect the people around me. Was this whole thing psychological? Getting mad at Nuriko was definitely a catalyst for the dark energy welling up again, but that couldn't have been the reason as to why its power came back. This wasn't the first time that someone had really pissed me off, yet it caused this unfortunate thing to happen once again.

Maybe it was that voice—that woman's voice that spoke to me. Like the male voice, I didn't know who or what it was, but it sort of sounded familiar—only I couldn't pinpoint the face. What I wanted to know was why I was hearing voices in my head. One of them encouraged more positive things out of me while the other pretty much encouraged negative things—which apparently led me to go back into such a bad emotional state that the ring would regain its strength. Was it possible that I was schizophrenic? Hearing two separate voices wasn't normal and I was almost certain that no one else could hear them. Being psychologically impaired was the very last thing that I needed. I mean, I knew that it was always possible that I would either go insane from all of the world switching (and the insanities that went with it) or from being lonely. Never did I think that voices would do it.

_Should I talk to someone about this? _I shook my head. _Nah, they'll just think that I'm crazy. But…_I sighed. _I can't deny it any more. I need help. I can't do this alone. But I really don't want to put people in danger just because I can't figure out my problems. Even if I did say something, they wouldn't be able to relate or understand. Sure, I'd probably get their sympathy, but that won't help me at all. _

_**You're better than this Akimoto. Don't go back to your past. Allow your heart to heal and have your future be filled with light. **_

"_Have your future be filled with light". What does that mean? How do I find this light? _Whacking my brain some more helped me recall something. _Light…Is it the same light that I was able to produce a few times? I only experienced that power for a few seconds—but when I did it felt so warm and comforting. How do I access that power more voluntarily? What will it take? If I accept this certain light into my heart, will all of the darkness go away? _It was then that I realized a new objective to my quest: finding the light. Deep down, I knew that this light was connected to my wish in some way. All I needed to do was find it.

Concentrating on more present issues, I had to deal with this whole "potentially almost killing Nuriko" thing. I really didn't mean to do it—she just made me so angry. _Even so, perhaps I should take Miaka's advice and look for the good in Nuriko. It would definitely do me and her some good. Frankly…it gets a bit tiring fighting like that…_

The topic of Nuriko also brought to my attention about the topic of Miaka and Tamahome. I wasn't quite sure how obvious it was to others, but those two _liked_ each other. Yeah, they hadn't known each other long, but I read in fairytales that these things do happen. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have believed the whole idea—mostly because it seemed unfair that the universe would tease people who actually had to work at love before obtaining it. But considering we were technically in a book (which I wasn't totally convinced that we were in a book, more like the book was a portal into this dimension), I supposed that anything was possible. Plus, I'm sure there are times where you just know when a person is "The One". I wasn't sure how far their feelings have gone for each other, but I knew that something was definitely there, even if they didn't. It was all a part of that intuition thing I mentioned before about being able to tell people's feelings about one another by using body language and such. Regardless of their feelings, Nuriko's little jealous act wasn't helping at all. If she wasn't going to tell Hotohori her feelings, then I would before this whole "wannabe relationship" thing spirals out of control.

As my thoughts continued to circle on, a voice called out to me. "Akimoto!" I blinked. "Akimoto? Is that you?" It was Hotohori. He was on the ground below, looking up towards me in front of one of his many large, decorated ponds with a puzzled face.

"Uhh…yeah, it's me."

"How ever did you get yourself up there?"

I thought about an answer. "I used my…_special abilities_," Which wasn't a lie. "What are you doing out here?" _How'd you know to look up to see me here?_

"I'm just out here taking a breather from my advisers. They've been insisting that I find my empress soon and the pressure is unbearable." He sighed then smiled at me. "Oh, I apologize for talking about my troubles with you, my dear, honored guest. After all, I did come out here with the intuition that someone was feeling troubled. I assume that that person would be you?"

Shrugging, I said, "You could say that."

"Well is it something I could help with? Do you wish to talk?" When he waited for an answer and realized that he wouldn't easily get one, he spoke up again. "You know you can trust me, Akimoto."

_While I'm not saying that I doubt that, I am saying that I have way too many troubles to bother you with. _"Thanks Hotohori. But I'm just thinking about some stuff right now…"

"Oh…" He seemed a bit disappointed which didn't do anything good for my guilt at all. I had to tell him and the others _something_. Turning back inside, I had to think fast. "Well, if you ever want to talk—"

"Wait!" I shouted out. Stopping, he looked at me. "Would it be okay…if the five of us could just…talk about something?"

With hope in his eyes, he gave a dazzling smile—realizing that I finally wanted to open up. "As you wish—I think that would be an excellent idea. When?"

"Soon…preferably sometime tonight." _I have to explain myself to Nuriko and Tamahome. They probably think that I'm some sort of freak or something. _

He nodded. "Very well. I shall gather them all—"

"Oh! Hotohori!" Miaka's voice came from the building under me before she came into view. I was pretty sure that she had no idea that I was even there. "I didn't expect to see you out here."

"Hello Miaka." He showed her a charming smile as well. "Did you need something?"

Shaking her head, she gave one of the brightest smiles I had seen on her all day. "No. I just came out here to do something for Nuriko." I groaned. _Of course she is._

"Nuriko? Like what?"

"Well, I'm really trying hard to become her friend. She's been having me do things for her all day—and I've barely had any time to rest," she giggled nervously as she rubbed the back of her neck.

Hotohori seemed to take offense to this. "She's been what? I'll go have a talk with her—"

"No!" Miaka exclaimed. "It's okay, really! I'm happy to be doing these things for her. It just means that I'm closer to becoming friends with her. I can tell that she's slowly beginning to trust me and if that means doing little chores for her, then I don't mind at all." She calmed down a bit. "Nuriko said that she lost her favorite earring in that pond, and I intend on finding it for her."

"But Miaka…" Hotohori looked like he really wanted to help her out—the expression on his face said it all.

"I will become friends with Nuriko, and after that happens, I'll do all I can to get Aki-nee-chan and her to become the best friends ever. I mean, if we're all going to be together, then we shouldn't fight, right?" She was right—this team would never survive if Nuriko and I kept going at each other's throats. If something bad ever did happen in the future, we'd have to have enough trust in each other—and have each other's backs—if we were going to survive.

Thinking about her meaningful words, Hotohori gave a small grin. "Do you need any help?"

She waved her hands in front of her. "Oh, no! That isn't necessary. I'll handle everything."

Making sure that Miaka didn't notice, he looked up at me but spoke to her. "Very well—I have something that I must take care of at the moment. Come and see me later, okay?"

She nodded. "Okay!" Passing her, he proceeded into the building after giving me a wink, acknowledging that I didn't wish to be discovered at that moment. Seeing that he was gone, Miaka faced the dark pond. By this time, the sun had already been set for a while. Going swimming for any reason in the dark was dangerous—especially when your name was Miaka Yuki. It may have been true that I came out here to do some thinking, but perhaps the universe led me to this certain spot specifically for the reason of looking after Miaka. I certainly didn't doubt it. With determination in her eyes, she stepped even closer to the small lake. Walking a few strides in, the water was already at her knees. But once she put another step forward, she managed to trip on something, sending her whole body plummeting face-first into the dark, liquid abyss.

Alarmed, I calmed myself down by remembering how she was actually a good swimmer. But when she didn't come up, I noticed the water rippling violently as a multitude to bubbles floated up. Knowing that that was my cue, I jumped off the roof and levitated over the water. Ordinarily, I'd say that it was a bad thing to panic—and it was especially when you're in danger of drowning—but it made it extremely obvious as to her location. Reaching down, I took hold of her arm and attempted to bring her up. The thing was…she was stuck somehow, perhaps on some weeds or something—that was why she couldn't escape. Inhaling deeply, I submerged my upper body underwater. It was hard to see anything under the dark water, so I had to use a lighting spell.

_Light of life, brighter than flame, let thy power gather in my hand. _A sphere of bright white energy began to form in my palm. _Lighting! _Bigger than the size of a softball, the light floated—allowing me to see underwater clearly. Miaka was indeed being held down by some weeds that she had caught her leg on—she was struggling so much that she didn't even seem to notice that I was there with a bright ball of energy. With one spell activated in one hand, I used the other to do another one. _Saisu! _Holding back my energy a tremendous amount, a small, crescent-shaped blast of wind shot through the water from my hand which cut the plants on impact, allowing her to go free. She floated to the top, as I brought my upper body up and out of the water. Taking hold of her arm again, I brought her to the edge of the pond.

Landing back on the ground, I crouched to get a better look at her as she coughed vigorously. "Are you crazy Miaka? Why the hell would go into a large pond, at night, looking for some stupid earring?"

In between coughs, she said, "I had to. Nuriko…her earring…_really_ important to her…" _It doesn't seem like she noticed my powers at all._

"Miaka!" Seeing her look at me with an apologetic face, I softened up. "Look, I know that becoming friends with Nuriko is important to you...but…There is such a thing as _too_ nice. You know that, right?"

She giggled. "Well then, it's a good thing that I have you there to look out for me, right?" Relaxing, I gave a small smile back. "And don't you think that if you have the opportunity to make a good friend, wouldn't you take it?" _I don't know…I've been so resilient and passed up so many opportunities. _"C'mon Onee-chan. Let me do this, please?"

I sighed.

* * *

><p>"Well, it's about time you—" Nuriko stood in that cushiony room from earlier awaiting Miaka's return. When she finally made her way back, Nuriko didn't expect to see me trailing in after her. Taking her attention off of me, she continued speaking to Miaka who, like me, was completely soaked. "Took you long enough—did you find my earring?"<p>

While shivering, Miaka shook her head. "N-no. B-but I did f-find this for you." Extending her arm, she revealed a small, pretty colorful rock that seemed to shimmer whenever light hit it. Nuriko's eyes widened. "I'm really sorry. I looked all around that pond for your earring, but I just couldn't find it. But when Aki-nee-chan found this pretty rock, it reminded me of you: a bit tough, but also beautiful—inside and out—so I wanted to give it to you instead."

That was when something happened that I never would have expected: Nuriko blushed! She must have realized how hard Miaka had worked in trying to find that earring of hers, and that she didn't want to give up.

Reaching out slowly and taking the rock, Nuriko stood there staring at the little treasure in her hand. Realizing that we were staring at her, she coughed, failing to hide her flushed face. "W-well, I suppose this will do. I'll have the servants search for my earring in the morning."

"I think that a 'Thank You' would be a more appropriate response," I told her.

She gave me a sharp look. "I _did_ say that I would accept it."

"That's not the point. We went out into that cold, dark pond looking for your stupid earring for almost an hour. Now, I don't need nor do I want a 'Thank You' from you—but the _least_ you could do is be appreciative to that fact that Miaka wanted to do this for you. She actually wanted to keep on looking for it all night. She wouldn't 've even left if I didn't pull her out. Doesn't that mean _anything_ to you? Or are you really that _cold_?" Seeing how she wouldn't respond, I realized that this was the first time that I had ever left Nuriko speechless.

Miaka spoke up for her. "Onee-chan, it's okay."

"No, it's not." I faced Nuriko once again. "You've been taking advantage of Miaka and I won't allow your selfishness bring any kind of harm to her."

"Will you just shut up!" Nuriko exploded. "You think you know everything don't you? You're not even a legitimate part of this world, yet you act like you're so much better than the rest of us with your all-powerful _knowledge_. Stay out of people's lives and when I ask for your opinion, that will be the only time that I actually want to hear you talk. But you know what? Dying would be a step better." Hearing her words, I automatically growled. But…I couldn't be mad at her. At this point, I knew for a fact that she was being influenced by the negative ring. That's what happens when people are exposed, their more dark feelings get brought out whether they're aware of it or not. Earlier, she was just annoyed with me, but now, it seemed almost like hatred. Miaka, like Kajou, Saru, and Kyoko, had never really been affected—for reasons that I was yet to understand. Nonetheless, I had to endure Nuriko's harsh words since I knew that I was the one causing them.

The last thing I expected was Miaka stepping between us, slapping Nuriko right across her cheek. While Nuriko stood there, shocked, holding her hand to her cheek, Miaka's eyes blazed with anger.

"Don't speak to Aki-nee-chan like that. She doesn't deserve it!"

Nuriko regained her composure. "How dare you slap me—"

"At least Onee-chan was trying harder than you were to make friends. She didn't have to help me look for your earring—she didn't even have to come back here with me to give you the rock. But she did, you know why? Because she wanted to put in the effort of making peace with you." She started to cry. "I don't know why you two don't like each other so much…I don't know why you hate the both of us. But please…give us a chance…"

Taken aback, Nuriko looked for the right words to say. "Why…why do you care so much about becoming my friend? Is it just to summon Suzaku?"

Miaka shook her head. "At first it was. But then I remembered how everyone needs a friend somewhere along the way, and I think that you especially need one. I don't mean for that to sound bad in any way…it's just that you seem a bit…socially…impaired."

Nuriko scoffed. "Me? Socially impaired? I have all the people in the world to talk to. I don't go a day without consulting with people."

"It's not the same." She faced me as I finally decided to talk. "Miaka's right you know. I'm still getting used to the idea, but everyone can always use some more friends. It's sort of something that you can never get enough of."

She sighed. "Seriously, I don't have a problem with other people." I gave her a skeptical look and she took it offensively. "What? Don't believe me? Go ask anyone in the palace. I actually have quite a few friends."

Showing a puzzled face, I asked, "Well if that's true, then what's the problem?" She gave Miaka and me peculiar looks. Then something hit me. "Wait…are Miaka and I really your only problems? Why is it that you dislike us so much anyway?"

Crossing her arms, he face slowly started to turn red. "Well…it's not just you two…It's really anyone who gets close to the…emperor…"

"Are you freakin' serious?" I exploded. "You made us go through all of that just because of some f-ing jealousy? I can't believe you!" This whole time…I knew that she had a thing for Hotohori, but I honestly couldn't believe that she made Miaka her servant, made her almost drown in a cold, dark lake, chase down the terrified Tamahome, kiss him, and make me angry enough to regain my dark ring's powers just so that she could get with Hotohori. The whole idea was completely ridiculous, but apparently, that had been what was going on the whole entire time.

She turned around with her usual smug face, arms still crossed. "Well…people usually do crazy things for the sake of love."

Miaka wiped her tears. "Wait…so you're _not_ in love with Tamahome?" I half expected her to get mad, but she beamed and regained her perkiness. "Nuriko! If you were in love with Hotohori this whole time, then why didn't you just say something? I'm sure that he would be very flattered—he may even return your feelings!"

She turned back around, comically puffing up her cheeks. "How the hell would I even get the opportunity when you two come flying out of the sky and into our lives? The moment you two arrive, you're all that His Highness talks about. I don't even stand a chance with _that_ kind of competition!"

This was when I felt the obligation to chop her hard on the top of her head. As she fell to the ground on her knees while holding her head, she looked up at me with eyes that could kill. Holding in my laughter to the scene, I asked, "Where is that confident woman I meant that one day—the one who said that her and the emperor's wedding would be a magnificent one? You seem so much better than someone who would resort to bulling just to get your way. If you really want Hotohori, go for it. None of us are stopping you and none of us are interested in him like that. I know that they say 'all's fair in love and war', but this has just been so freakin' ridiculous!" I had actually wanted to completely curse her out, but my better judgment turned me against the notion.

"I can't believe that you stroke me like that!" She proclaimed while continuing to rub her head.

I pulled up my jacket sleeve and stepped toward her. "Oh, that chop is about to be the _least_ of your worries—"

Miaka pushed me out of the way to avoid a potential battle. She smiled down at the infatuated, purple-haired woman and extended her hand. "Nuriko, thank you for telling us how you really feel. I'm happy to know that you felt comfortable enough to do that." Nuriko looked up at her. "If you want, I can talk to Hotohori for you—I'd be happy to help out a friend!"

"Friend?"

Miaka blinked. "Umm…we are friends now, right?"

Thinking it over, Nuriko's face flushed slightly as she put her hand in Miaka's. "Yeah, I guess." As she stood up, she started to get excited. "Are you really gonna talk to His Highness for me? I'd love you for that! And at our wedding, you could be my Maid of Honor!"

Miaka chuckled nervously. "Yes, that sounds wonderful, but…" She looked over at me. "I'll only help you out if you and Aki-nee-chan can put your differences aside and be friends."

After some hesitation, Nuriko smiled at me. "I'm all for it if you are!" She held out her hand for me to shake.

"After all that drama, you expect _me_ to be friends with _you_?"

Nodding, she said, "Yup!"

I sighed and reluctantly shook her hand. "As long as absolutely _no_ form of this day _ever_ repeats itself _ever_ again, then I guess we could—" Pulling my hand, Nuriko brought me into a tight, unbearable hug.

"Oh, we are gonna be the _best_ of friends Aki!" She squealed. In the back of her, I could see Miaka smiling triumphantly.

_What did I just get myself into?_

* * *

><p>"Okay everyone, Akimoto wanted to have a meeting between the five of us." Tamahome, Hotohori, Nuriko, Miaka, and I had met up about half an hour after our friendship with Nuriko had been established. Of course, Miaka—whose hair was taking a break from the buns and flowed down her back—and I had to get out of our wet clothes and into smooth, white silk robes until they were dry. Luckily for me, Hotohori had kept his promise for all of us to come together—in a large dining hall with a long table no less. I really needed to talk to these guys about me before anything else could happen.<p>

They all looked at me, wondering what I was going to say. "Yeah, I have something that I need to tell you guys. But before that, there something _else_ that I have to tell you."

"Well, what is it?" Tamahome asked.

"Let's see…well the first thing that I'd like to get out in the open is that I'm not as powerless as I may or may not have seemed. I actually have powers—I'm a sorceress." Their eyes went wide from my confession.

Hotohori pondered what I had just said. "Powers? You mean this whole time—"

"Yes, yes, I know, I could have prevented a lot of bad things from happening, but I had to make sure that I could really trust you guys." I looked down in guilt. "Technically, I had used a fraction of my magic when I was in hand-to-hand combat, but that was nothing. The one time I actually intended to use my full powers, I had exhausted my energy and couldn't do it—thus putting Miaka and Tamahome in further danger. And for that, I'm really sorry. I'm sorry that I didn't trust you guys enough." There was no way in hell I would reveal that I was hiding my powers for sport the majority of the time. The whole "trust" thing wasn't _exactly_ a lie—I mean it _could_ have been a reason for my hiding my abilities. On a separate note, I didn't think that I was ready to tell them that this wasn't the first foreign world that I had been in. That could wait.

"Oh…so _that's_ the reason why Onee-chan could do all of those things. That is so cool!" Miaka praised. You'd think that she would ask where I got my powers in the first place. I wasn't complaining, though, the fewer questions they ask, the less I will be forced to reveal.

Tamahome gave me a skeptical look. "So, the wall that appeared out of nowhere the day we met?"

"Magic."

"You getting the keys from the guard in the cell?"

"Magic."

"You being able to send people flying when you clearly weren't making effective contact with them?"

Feeling insulted, I answered bitterly. "Magic." _Excuse me for not being a physical fighter. _

Nuriko added on. "You being able to escape from me out of sight on the day we met?"

"I levitated onto the nearby roof. So, yeah, magic."

Miaka felt that she needed to say something too. "So, out there at the lake—"

"Yes, yes, it was all magic, okay?" I smiled deviously. "And that stuff wasn't even a fraction of what I can really do."

Nuriko crossed her arms. "I don't believe it." Feeling that I should prove myself, I used my energy to call forth Wind into the large room. They looked around for some sort of logical origin for the wind, but to no avail. Blowing their hair all around, as well as the clothes on their bodies, they began to see that I was the one causing it. Knowing that I got my point across, I ceased the wind and sat there feeling quite content with myself.

"Amazing," Hotohori said in awe. "You keep on surprising us, don't you Akimoto?"

"Oh just wait. The surprises keep coming." They all looked at me in confusion once more. "Okay, here comes the weird part. Let me think…" _How am I going to explain this? _"There is a mysterious ring of dark energy around me."

With blank faces, Tamahome spoke up. "A…what?"

"It's literally a ring of dark energy that is constantly surrounding me. You guys can't see it, but it's there—it's always been there…as long as I can remember anyway." I faced the two people that it happened to affect. "Both Nuriko and Tamahome have suffered from the power of the ring. Remember earlier when you guys suddenly felt cold and miserable? Well, that's what it does to people—it brings out the dark, horrible emotions that everyone has buried deep inside of them…and amplifies them." As they recalled the feeling, I noticed how Nuriko and Tamahome both had pained expressions on their faces, making me feel absolutely horrible that I had ever done that to them. What they didn't need to know was what would have happened if I had allowed it to go further than it had. "I am _really_ sorry that I did that to you guys. I never intended for that to happen."

Putting a hand on my shoulder, Miaka looked at me sympathetically. "Onee-chan, how come I've never noticed it before?"

"For some reason, you, Saru, Kyoko, and Kajou aren't easily affected—well, Kajou _wasn't_ affected. But I did use it on those bullies that were bothering you nine years ago. That was how I got them to leave you alone."

"Well, if you had it under control, then why would it flare up again?" Nuriko asked.

"I don't even know. I usually have that thing under control. I mean, the negative energy had diminished in strength for the longest time now. It wasn't until today when—" Then I something came up in my mind as I faced Nuriko. _I can't tell her that she technically caused it happen. _Resolving to not saying anything, I looked down.

"When what, Akimoto?" Hotohori gave a look of concern.

I shook my head. "It doesn't matter how it happened. The point is that right now, being around me may be a bit unbearable—you may have random bits of rage or depression and I won't be able to control it. So…if you don't want me to be around for a while, I completely understand. The last thing you guys need is someone who has the ability to really mess your emotions up."

Without even a second of thinking, Tamahome spoke first. "I'm pretty sure we could take whatever you have. Okay, yeah, that whole thing from earlier was bad, but it's not enough to make me want to distance myself from you."

Nuriko agreed. "You may be a bit impulsive, but you're not getting rid of us that easily." _Wait…she's calling _me_ impulsive? At least I don't go around using my strength whenever it's convenient. _

Miaka hugged my arm. "You already know how _I_ feel Onee-chan."

"Are you guys sure? I mean, I—"

Hotohori held up a hand to silence me. "I will not hear another word about this. You are staying here with us. If we must endure this dark energy, then we will fight through it along with you." Hearing them all say that they would stay with me truly made me feel warm and pleasant on the inside. I knew that I had only known three of these guys for a short time, but a part of me knew that I could really trust them—these people didn't seem bad (okay, I was still a bit iffy about Nuriko, but other than her seemingly drastic moods, she didn't _completely_ strike me as someone who was untrustworthy).

My face flushed a little as I looked down to avoid their gazes. Hiding my smile, I quietly told them, "Thank you."

Standing up from the table, Hotohori walked over to Miaka. "Now that that is all cleared up, Miaka, may I please have a word with you in my room?"

Confused at first, she nodded. "Sure!" Getting up as well, Miaka winked at Nuriko, reminding her that she would talk to the emperor about her infatuation—she was probably thinking that this would be the best opportunity to do so.

* * *

><p>Walking around the palace, I felt pretty good about myself—sure, I still had dark energy surrounding me, but I was able to reveal my powers—which were never a secret in the first place—and they found out about my unwanted and unfortunate ability. And they accepted me as well as everything I said. Things may have started out a bit bumpy for me, but they were definitely getting better.<p>

Soon, I came across Tamahome and Nuriko putting up their ears to well decorated double doors. I sighed. _Well this has trouble written all over it. And I was finally starting to get a moment of peace. _

"What are you guys doin—" Almost immediately Nuriko ran up and covered my mouth with her hand.

"Keep it quiet," she whispered, "you don't want us to be found out do you?"

I grabbed her hand away from my face. "Found out? Found out by whom?" Realizing what they were doing, I asked quietly, "Okay, who are you eavesdropping on?"

She shamelessly looked away. "Miaka and His Highness."

"Are you serio—"

"SHHH!"

Quieting down, I asked again, "Are you serious? How long have you two been here?"

"Several minutes."

Part of me was screaming how I should get out now before something bad happened…but I was curious. "So…what's been happening?"

"Well, we came slightly late, but we could sort of tell that Miaka had already told His Majesty about Nuriko's fixation on him," This caused Nuriko to glare at Tamahome for his adjective usage. "But then…" His face fell. "Other things were said as well…"

"Other things? Like what?"

Tamahome didn't seem like he wanted to answer, so he resumed with listening inside. Nuriko spoke up through gritted teeth as she herself went back to her place near the door. "His Highness was telling her how he had been lonely since he was a kid, and ever since he had heard the story about the Priestess of Suzaku he—he," She took out a random handkerchief and bit on it in anger. "He said that he had been in love with the idea of her for years! Which means that he's…he's…"

I gasped. "In love with Miaka?"

"SHHH!"

Knowing how wrong it was to join in on their sneaky deed, I couldn't help but be a bit compelled by it. _Have to go but…temptation…burning! _Without another thought, I glued my ear to the door to listen in as well. After all, I had to hear for myself if what they had told me was true.

The voices were faint, but audible and identifiable.

"Miaka, for years I have waited for the woman to come from another world and bless me with her presence. I knew that this woman would treat me more like a friend, a man, rather than just an emperor."

"Hotohori, I—"

"Please hear me out. You, my Priestess of Suzaku, have been the one I have been longing for. I wish for you to be my empress." _What?_

"You—your empress? I..I don't know…"

"Miaka…I want to know everything about you—your family, where you come from, your hopes, your desires…" His voice trailed off. _My gosh…I wonder what Miaka's thinking. I can only imagine what the rest of this conversation was like. _My eyes widened as I took a peek at Tamahome and Nuriko. _How are _they_ feeling? Nuriko must be either really sad or mad as hell. And Tamahome…if my intuitions about his blossoming feelings for Miaka were true, then this can't be any easier on him. The big question is…how does Miaka feel about all this?_

_Wait a second…it suddenly went quiet. _Stepping away from the door, I let my intuitions take over and got the hell away from there and around a nearby corner—I figured that watching at a distance would have been safer. Tamahome and Nuriko didn't seem to budge. Suddenly, the doors opened to reveal a somewhat annoyed Hotohori.

Realizing that they were discovered, they started dancing around like idiots.

"We didn't hear anything! Oh my, when did that door get there?"

"I had absolutely no clue that it was you two in there."

Hotohori sighed and apparently refused to acknowledge those two. He turned to face the room with Miaka inside. "You shall have my room for the night. I'll sleep somewhere else. I hope that your slumber will bring you to an answer to my proposal. Good night, my priestess. Pleasant dreams." As he walked away, Nuriko and Tamahome calmed down causing the atmosphere to become uneasy. Deciding that hiding was no longer necessary, I went to where they were—wondering why no one was saying anything. Looking inside the room, I saw the huge, Chinese decorated, hotel-like room containing the big canopy bed that Miaka was sitting on her knees, in shock, in. Her and Tamahome seemed to be staring at one another.

Her voice shook. "Tamahome…I—nothing happened…"

Turning to walk away, he spoke in a cold voice, "Why should I care if anything happened? You and His Highness can live happily ever after for all I care."

"Tamahome…" Before she even completed saying his name, he was already on his way away. Soon, with a scowl, Nuriko stomped off as well. "Nuriko…"

Seeing how I was left, I didn't waste any time in going inside to see how she was doing. Even as I went in, Miaka continued staring outside the door.

I sat on the bed beside her. "Miaka…you umm…wanna talk about it?"

"He…Hotohori…he proposed to me…"

"Yeah…I kind of caught that part…" This whole thing was completely awkward for me to talk about. Not only that, I though that Hotohori was hitting on _me_. It wasn't that _I_ liked _him_ that way, it was just that...well...a part of my ego sort of...died. It just comes to show that I shouldn't assume things like that, or think that highly of myself. I should have known better.

"Onee-chan?" Her voice was quiet.

"Yeah?"

"Tamahome and Nuriko…do they hate me?" Tears were flowing down her cheeks. "Please tell me that they don't hate me!"

I put my arm around her shoulder and brought her close. "No, they don't hate you. They just caught the misleading part of the whole situation. I'm sure everything will be fine…Just…try and get some sleep…"

She started to panic and flail around. "How am I going to sleep? So much has just happened!"

Seeing how she was losing it, I had to keep my cool. "You'll have to try. You won't be able to fix all of this if you're exhausted, right?" Grabbing her robe, I made her sit back down. "You want me to sleep in here with you? Will that make you feel better?" She nodded, causing me to sigh again. _Tomorrow ought to be a…fun day. _Groaning, I fell back onto the bed hoping that I'd dream of a time when issues like this were just a figment of my imagination.

If only I had that luxury.


	21. Concealed in the Heart

Waking up the next day, some part of my brain told me that everything that happened the day before was just some long,_ irritating_ hallucination that the universe decided to put into my brain. But waking up in the emperor's bed alongside Miaka—who, with bags under her eyes, looked like she had the _longest_ night ever—made me realize that the headache from the previous day would just keep on going.

Sitting up, I caught sight of her blood-shot eyes. "Umm…Miaka? How did you sleep?" _As if I didn't know. _

"I…I couldn't sleep at all. I still can't believe that Hotohori proposed to me. I'm just fifteen!" Her body began to sway in exhaustion. "Not only that, what if I lost Tamahome and Nuriko? We were all just starting to become friends!"

It was hard finding the right thing to say considering I had never been in any kind of situation like this. Well…actually, the more I thought about it, I remembered how extremely jealous I was with the relationship between Haruhi and Hikaru. Even though Haruhi was too oblivious to things like that at the time, it didn't take away from the fact that the twins seemed to favor her over me. Of course, I learned a bit later that that wasn't the case. Regardless of the fact that Hikaru and I eventually did become a couple, I was still very much hurt while thinking that his heart belonged to Haruhi. So, I knew exactly how Tamahome was feeling—assuming that he did actually like Miaka in that way. Feelings of anger, sadness, and jealousy tend to cloud your sense of judgment and lead you to do or say stupid things. Of course, all of this probably meant that Tamahome wouldn't easily patch things up with Miaka until he did or say something stupid. Was there the possibility that we could avoid all this? Yup. Was there more of a possibility of the universe having some sick amusement by toying with all of us before it's satisfied? You bet your ass on it.

"Miaka, you have to get a hold of yourself," I said while swinging my legs over the side of the bed. "I will not lie to you—things don't seem all that great, but they're not bad—they're…fixable. All we have to do is talk to the three of them and get some things straight." That was when a significant detail came to me. "I'm sorry, but I'm sort of required to ask this: Do you _want_ to marry Hotohori?"

The question got her thinking as her face finally gained back color from the blood rushing through. "I—uh…Well…" She sighed. "Hotohori is really nice, and he's good-looking, rich…I'd probably be set for life if I did. But…something tells me that it's just not for me. At least I'm pretty sure it's not. I just think that I need to sort some things out before I go making decisions like that."

I nodded and smiled at her. "That would be a wise idea."

"Besides, I'm still trying to get home. I can't just go making such a huge decision like that without saying anything to Yui, or my family. And I still want to get into Jonan Academy!"

Putting my hand on her shoulder, I told her, "It's okay to have doubts and stuff—it all eventually helps you come to your decision, which is the most important. Don't stress" God knows that I've had my doubts—I still had them. With how screwed-up my life had been, I'd be a bit concerned if I didn't have any doubts and regrets. But I was still working—slightly struggling—through my issues and really hoped that Miaka wouldn't have to go through even a portion of what I had.

Trying to stand up, she sank to the ground and started feverishly waving her hands around. "What am I supposed to do? I'm so confused! Everything is happening so fast!"

Knowing that she would probably continue to panic no matter what I had to say, all I could do was sigh and formulate some kind of solution. She wouldn't be satisfied until everyone was happy and everything was nice and dandy. _For the sake of all things that are still innocent and pure in the world (Miaka) I have to fix this!_

* * *

><p>After getting dressed, Miaka and I decided to go on a mission to find Nuriko and Tamahome to investigate the status of their standing since the night before. Luckily, the layout of the palace was beginning to become more familiar to me, making navigation prove not to be so much of an issue anymore (On a completely different side note: If the palace had a directory of some kind in the first place, none of us would of even had a problem with the layout of it. But no, they make you keep guessing until you get it right. Damn architects). We eventually came across one of our awkward acquaintances, otherwise known as Miaka's main source of hurt—the teal-haired wonder himself, Tamahome. <em>And oh look! He looks as enthusiastic as ever! <em>When he caught sight of us, his face seemed rather blank and devoid of all emotion. To be honest, seeing him trying to hide his feelings like that sort of stung a bit more that if he had lashed out in a rage. He looked at Miaka and me in indifference—as if we were just some random people on the street that he didn't give a damn about. That was how it looked anyway, although I was pretty sure that his negative feelings were more aimed at Miaka. Negative feelings…_Oh crap! If I stand around him, he could be affected by the ring! That wouldn't help the situation at all. _

Taking a few steps back, he seemed to have caught notice. "What's wrong Aki?" _Huh, so he is talking to me. I guess it really is just Miaka that he's upset with. _

Looking at Miaka who I knew felt left out, I shook my head. "Nothing. Umm…wasn't there something you wanted to say to Miaka?"

His unemotional violet eyes shifted towards the girl who had a slight spark of hope in her eye. With a nonchalant tone, he answered, "Nope, I have nothing that I want to say. After all," His voice went cold, "I think that everyone had said what they wanted to say last night. No point in opening old wounds, right?" _Ouch. _Miaka's body started to shake as tears started to form. I had never seen this kind of pained expression on her face before…

"Tamahome…I—I," She tried to say. Choosing not to acknowledge that she was there, he walked past us, practically sending a chilling wind our way and making us shiver from its coldness.

Contemplating whether or not I should force him back, I decided that comforting Miaka was more of a priority. "C'mon Miaka don't give up. You have to—"

"Give up? Give up? No, I can't give up. There just has to be something that I can do!" Her determination at that time sort of astounded me. I kind of figured that she would break down right there and keep at it until all her tears dried up. At least she was willing to fight for this thing rather than whine about it—which made me that much happier ('cause honestly, it took a certain kind of stamina that I didn't particularly have a plethora of in order to withstand all of those tears she was able to dish-out. Yup, it can get _that_ bad). It did make me a bit curious though…

"What do you plan on doing?"

"Okay, so I talked to Tamahome and apparently, he's going to the marketplace right now to try and earn some money—no surprise there. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say that he was his same, money-loving self. But aside from that," I handed her a simple, dirt-brown cloak with a hood, "here. Why did you want this anyway?"

Taking the cloak, she immediately put it on and concealed her head using the large, baggy hood. "I'm gonna follow Tamahome and somehow get him to talk to me." _Oh, I see. _Leave it to Miaka to resort to using her signature move of "Clinging onto somebody until they do what she wants" trick—which oddly works if she stays at it and doesn't stop. So, it's effective…just really irritating—causing me to be skeptical to whether this method was really the right one for getting Tamahome to get over his jealousy and talk to her again. Usually annoying someone wasn't the right way to go when you wanted to get them to speak with you sincerely. But…teach his own I suppose. _She'll never learn if I keep pointing out the answers to her. _As I thought to myself, she gave me a puzzled look.

"What?"

"Well, aren't you gonna tell me that this is dangerous and a bad idea and tell me not to do it?"

I rolled my eyes in a sarcastic fashion. "Why would I ever do that?"

She shrugged. "Just seems sort of like an 'Aki' thing, Onee-chan." It was true, I really wanted to either tell her not to go through with her plan or offer to go with her. But I figured that a.) Since she would be following him around anyway, Tamahome would more or less be around to protect her should something bad actually happen, and b.) Those two needed to fix whatever it was that was broken between them on their own. They didn't need me for this one—it wouldn't be good if they became reliant on others to make _their_ relationship work.

"Well, Aki's changing her own rules this time. Do what you have to do." Putting my hand on her back, I pushed her in the direction that Tamahome had gone in. "Just one thing: if you're gonna do your clinging thing, then cling. Stay close to him so that he can keep you safe."

She looked back at me with sad eyes. "But what if he doesn't want to protect me?"

"Oh, you have nothing to worry about there. Tama may be upset, but as a Suzaku warrior, he still has an obligation to protect his priestess." _Not only that, but if he really does like you, then he wouldn't allow you to even get scratched._

Looking down, she said, "I don't want him to get hurt just because of some dumb obligation."

"Hey, it's that 'dumb obligation' that will keep you alive. Also consider," I winked at her, "he may be protecting you because he wants to—not just because he has to." _Your life is precious Miaka, don't sell yourself short. _"Now go! Before you end up losing him and searching around the whole city. I don't want to end up sending out a search party just because you spazzed put."I laughed nervously to myself._ Hotohori would definitely be stern with Tama and I if that ended up happening—I definitely think that revealing that I have powers automatically puts me on Miaka alert twenty-four seven. _

She hesitated a bit just before she bolted off.

Seeing how she was gone, I sighed to myself. "While she's gone, I'll work on the other two _problems._" Knowing Nuriko, she was probably real pissed off—I was actually a bit shocked that she hadn't either destroyed half the palace, or snuck into our room when we were asleep and strangled Miaka. There was always the chance that she was one of those people who got mad for only a short time, but was usually mellow and quick to forgive—but I _really_ doubted it. It may have been a good thing that she hadn't made her appearance yet all day. Of course the other problem would be Hotohori who may or may not have been aware of Tama and Miaka's thing, but was still bold enough to go out there and ask her hand in marriage. Speaking of which, she's only fifteen! Why would he even ask her? Perhaps, this world was part of a past where women got married in their late teen years…Nonetheless, she wasn't ready for marriage of _any kind_—whether it was to Hotohori or Tamahome.

_Damn…why did Hotohori have to go and make things complicated? Now that I think about it, things were complicated the moment Miaka stepped foot into this world._

A few more moments of cursing the universe and my eyes caught sight of a few locks of flowing purple hair round a corner ahead of me. Since I was pretty positive that there was only one person with purple hair like that walking around, the pursuit began.

Deciding that I didn't want to run—and that I was exposed anyway—I used my energy to lift my body from the ground, floating towards Nuriko. The moment I went around the corner, I was stopped by an extended arm with a hand palm faced out—causing me to run into it and fall flat onto the ground.

Holding my nose, I complained. "Why is it that the one time I fly around freely, I run into someone?"

"You know, sneaking around isn't very nice," Nuriko's voice said. Looking up, she stood there with a rather annoyed look on her face.

As I stood up, I replied, "I wasn't sneaking—I was coming over to talk to you. You know, usually when people want to surprise others like that, they usually wait to see who it is before resorting to physical means."

She snorted. "You're the one who ran into _my_ hand—I'd say that _I_ was the one who was wronged."

_You held out your hand you little bitch. _"Whatever. How did you know I was in back of you anyway?"

Pretending to be sneaky, her eyes shifted to the side. "Oh, you know…I was just innocently walking around and saw you and that little tramp Miaka talking. Then she ran off wearing some ugly cloak."

My face fell. "Do you have some sort of spying problem?" _Wait a minute… _"Did you just call Miaka a 'tramp'? Not cool Nuriko."

Turning back to me and into the direction she was originally headed, she crossed her arms. "Well, it's not my fault. She went in there with the 'intention' of making His Highness mine, and comes out practically engaged to him!"

"You and I both know that she didn't say yes. Besides, you know that she did tell Hotohori about your feelings. What had happened after that was pretty much on him." Hearing that made her growl. "Plus, when you think about it—hey! Wait!" She started walking away quickly before I could even finish my sentence properly. Determined, I went after her. "C'mon Nuriko, just hear me out!" She walked even faster. "Where are you even going?"

"I'm going to fix this _my_ way." Power walking down the hallways, some servants stepped out of some rooms just going about their day. When Nuriko charged through, she didn't stop to allow any of them to get out of her way—she just bumped into—and pushed—whoever was in her way and just kept on going.

Stopping briefly, I hunched over to check if they were okay. "I am so sorry—she's just upset. Don't mind her." Making sure that I didn't lose sight of her, I left them with one more "I'm sorry" and continued on.

Finally catching up to her, I breathed hard from the race. "What do you mean _your_ way?"

"The emperor will be mine even if I have to force myself onto him. I'll show him that I am more of a woman than Miaka will ever be!" You know, thinking of Nuriko's personality and how she was when she pretended to like Tamahome, you'd think that she would be the aggressive type when it came to relationships. But considering Hotohori didn't even know that she had a thing for him, I began to believe that she could have actually been the type to be bashful around the men she likes—similarly to how I used to be around guys I found extremely hot. If my guess was true, then even if she charged up to Hotohori, she probably wouldn't do anything. _Well, if we're going to go see him, I suppose I can get both of these issues out of the way at once while Miaka is working on Tamahome. _

As we made our way to the throne room, I sensed something…off. Stopping and looking back over my shoulder, I tried to see if there was anything there.

Nothing.

_Huh? _I knew that I felt something. Part of me thought that I knew what it was, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Something there was making my senses go on alert and that wasn't normal unless there was an evident trace of trouble. _But I don't see anything…Maybe my senses are screwed up…_

Realizing that Nuriko didn't wait up, she was completely out of sight—most likely already at or near the throne room. Ignoring my uneasiness, I went on with my mission—making sure to glance backwards every now and then for any devious entities.

Upon entering the royal space, I came across Nuriko—playing with her fingers and looking down with a slightly flushed face—talking to Hotohori, who was wearing slightly more casual royal attire which allowed his long hair to flow in that loose ponytail I was familiar to. I couldn't quite make out their conversation, but I knew that it probably consisted of Nuriko attempting to find the right words to say. When Hotohori saw me, he gave a warm smile.

"Good morning Akimoto. I trust that you slept well?"

Catching Nuriko's glare at me, I replied, "Yeah, I slept just fine." _Miaka on the other hand…_

"Well, I'm happy to hear that. By the way," Here came the predictable question, "have you seen Miaka?"

Thinking of an answer that he wouldn't react negatively to, I came up with, "She went out on an outing with Tamahome."

"An outing? Hmm…" He pondered about something. "I suppose that I'll talk to her later." Before I could respond something else, a peculiar sensation overcame my body, causing me to instinctively stiffen up and scan the surroundings. The emperor seemed to notice and asked, "Are you feeling well Akimoto?"

Hesitantly, I nodded. "Yeah, I'm…okay…" _I just can't shake the feeling that something bad is gonna happen._

Nuriko suddenly got a burst of energy and stepped in front of me in order to become the object of Hotohori's view. "She's just fine! Now going back to _our_ conversation…" Suddenly, all of the lighting in the room was extinguished, making the room rather dark, with only a few windows keeping the place from becoming completely pitched black. The sounds of doors closing and locking echoed around the room. Alarmed, the three of us killed the conversation and immediately looked around to see what had gone wrong.

"What happened?" Nuriko asked.

"I am not sure," Hotohori told her. "Guards! What is the meaning of this?" No answer. "Guards!" He tried again.

"Something's not right." We all went quiet to see if we could hear or notice anything—but there was nothing to listen for…everything was silent. With the intention of checking where everyone was, an ominous black cloud surrounded the three of us, causing the edges of the room to be obstructed from our view. Getting close together, we made sure that one of us was facing in each direction—ready for whatever was coming at us. The uneasiness was definitely on high alert by this point—so much so that I was sure that both Nuriko and Hotohori were feeling it as well. _It's so weird…this feeling is familiar, but it's different somehow. _

"We need to find a way out of this," Hotohori exclaimed.

"That's for sure, but we don't even know what 'this' is!" Nuriko told him.

From the darkness emerged a young woman wearing similar royal clothes to Nuriko's with her head hanging down—her body seemingly having had a dark tint to it.

When it seemed like she wouldn't say anything, I asked, "Umm…who are you? Do you know what's going on?" She didn't even react to my question—she just stood there. It was quite creepy actually.

Nuriko talked to me in my ear. "I recognize that girl. She's part of His Highnesses harem like I am." As she said that, five other girls emerged all around us—each of them with their heads down and having a dark tint. "S-so are they."

Hotohori, taking charge as an emperor should, spoke out with a strong voice. "Ladies, explain yourselves this instant!"

The first one that came out finally spoke in a soft and hissing tone. "Everyday…I'm here trying to please His Highness…"

Another one, "and he doesn't seem to see me."

"Every day, I hope that someday we'll be married."

"Live forever happy."

"But he doesn't see me."

"My family is counting on me to become empress…"

"I've dreamed and dreamed only to find that I'm in a nightmare."

"He'll never see me—it's all a sick game."

"No one will ever love me…"

"I'm worthless…"

"Why won't he love me?"

The voices of the depressed girls filled the room as they all began meshing their stories all at once. None of them moved from their spots, but they all brought up their heads to reveal eyes that were completely black and devoid of any hope. The sight of them and the sounds of their hums of doubt made the three of us cringe.

Nuriko wrapped her arms around herself. "Man, this is _really_ creepy. What's with these girls?"

"I'm—I'm not completely sure…" _These things they're saying…they're so full of despair. _These feelings…that was how I used to feel all the time. No…I still feel that way—like there's no point in living if you aren't cared for—if you don't matter—_wait! _I shook my head. _What am I thinking? Get a hold of yourself Aki, don't fall prey to the darkness! These girls seem to be…suffering from it. But it's so concentrated…almost like—_"Shadow Maidens!"

"Shadow what?" Nuriko asked while looking at me out of the corner of her eye.

Shaking my head, I focused my thoughts some more. "No, that's not what they are—they feel similarly, but they're different. These girls aren't shadows at all—they still have legitimate forms. Not only that, but they're alive and…and…" _None of these girls have even went on the journey, so they don't—or shouldn't—have elemental powers of any kind to unlock. So…what's going on?_

"Akimoto, do you know what happened to these women?"

As the girls steady got closer, I nodded. "Yes…and no. Look, it's a bunch of complicated stuff that I don't have the time to explain right now—" I cut myself off the moment all of the girls grabbed knives that fell from their long sleeves and into their hands. _Damn…they're hostile. _

"If I can't be with His Highness…"

"Then no woman can…"

"And if His Highness refuses me…"

"Then he must die as well."

Without warning, they all rushed at us, knives pointed out. The way they were moving seemed like they were each being held up by strings—like puppets. But that didn't stop their hits from being precise and almost getting us. Nuriko, Hotohori, and I were forced to dodge their attacks if we had any chance of getting out of this alive. Luckily, it seemed like the two of them were good fighters, so they were able from being vitally wounded. Nuriko seemed to be having a little bit of trouble, though, due to her heavy and not extremely flexible clothing. If the girls did manage to land a blow, it would only be on parts of her outfit…which seemed to really tick Nuriko off.

"You know what? I don't care if these chicks are crazy or possessed—_no one_ ruins my clothes! You know how valuable these robes are?" At that, she made a few punches, but missed when the ladies effortlessly avoided the blows. _Their agility is almost as impressive as the Shadow Maidens'. But if Nuriko hits one of them just once, they're done for._

Hotohori, too, seemed to be having some trouble. That was when he lifted his hand into the air while having a concentrated look on his face. Out of nowhere, an impressive sword with a gold and crimson handle flew to him as he successfully caught it in his hand. With that, the various sharp attacks from the knives were all blocked by the sturdiness of the weapon of the emperors. Seeing how he and Nuriko were able to fend for themselves, something occurred to me…

"Wait! You two can't hurt them!" I yelled out. Without getting distracted by my voice, they kept on blocking, dodging, and attacking.

"Why not?"

"Because—" A knife came rushing at my face, causing me to duck right before someone came at me from the back. Jumping to the side, sliding on the ground, I made sure to get back up fast to make sure that I wasn't an open target. "Because they are still regular girls—they're just being…possessed…or something like that…I suppose. It's not their fault!"

"Well then—argh!" Nuriko tried punching one of them again, but lost her balance. Before someone could stab her, Hotohori came along and blocked their advances with his sword. "How are we supposed to defeat them?"

"I don't know—"

"It's either us or them Aki!"

I actually preferred no one to get hurt. Somehow, I needed to summon that light that I was able to produce sometimes. The problem was that things were so hectic that I couldn't concentrate properly. Launching myself into the air, I utilized the power of ice. _"Mercury," _Streams of extremely chilled water gathered in my hand and manifested into a small harp._ "Aqua Rhapsody!" _Plucking the strings, multiple thin streams of water flowed out and covered the room around Nuriko and Hotohori in ice that seemed to have formed a beautiful barrier made of swirled ice vines. While the two looked around in awe, the possessed women stood on the outside of the ice, attempting to climb through the spaces in between the vines. Allowing the harp to disappear, I landed back onto the ground.

"How magnificent!" Hotohori said in awe.

"Amazing!" Nuriko came up to me and slapped me in the back in a congratulatory fashion. "I knew we kept you around for something!" I scowled at her. _Oh yeah…_that's _why. _

"It's not gonna hold them for very long…"

"Well then, we have to think of something." Hotohori made sure that he scanned the area around him just in case one of the girls managed to get through. "If worse comes to worse, then we'll have no choice but to fight back."

"Hopefully we won't have to resort to that." Gathering up my energy, I focused on a more positive feeling. If I had any chance of defeating these women, then I had to fight them with the same thing that I used against the Shadow Maidens: Light. Digging deep into my most cherished memories, I tried to feel around for the familiar sensation that would get us out of this mess. Something was wrong though. The more I tried to feel happiness, the overwhelming feelings of misery and despair clouded my mind—resulting from the residual dark energy emitting from the girls. It didn't help that the ring of negative energy around me seemed to be growing stronger from absorbing their negative energy—I just couldn't focus. The darkness began to smother me completely and there didn't seem to be any sign of light.

Light-headed, and shivering from the chillness of the darkness, I brought my hands to my head in an attempt to block out everything that was going on around me. Apparently searching for Light left my senses wide open for anything to enter—the darkness was taking over my moment of mental vulnerably. Feeling that everything was too unbearable, I dropped to my knees still keeping my hands to my head.

Everywhere around me, I could hear their sad voices.

"No one has ever cared about me…"

"My life has no purpose…"

"The waiting…the pain…it's not worth it!"

"Was I born to be alone?"

"Must I experience this Hell on Earth?"

Hunching over some more, I tried to get the voices to stop. A hand reached out for my shoulder and shook me.

"A…to…"

"…ki…"

A pair of voices tried to penetrate the sounds of despair.

"Akimoto!"

"Aki, what's wrong?"

Blinking, I was finally pushed out of the pool of negative energy. It was Hotohori's hand on me as he and Nuriko looked at me in concern. "Are you alright?"

Regaining my composure, I stood back up. "Yeah, I'm better." A good part of me could still feel the uneasy atmosphere, but at least this time, I was more in control. "This is going to be a lot harder than I initially thought."

"What were you trying to do?" Nuriko asked with curiosity.

"It doesn't matter. If I can't do it, then we're in trouble." If any of the actual Shadow Maidens decided to come along at that moment, I would have been screwed—no 'if', 'ands', or 'but's' about it. _Damn it all! If this ring hadn't gained in power, I may have had more of a chance of getting through this. I don't really want to be angry at Nuriko…but this sudden sense of vulnerability thing is kind of her fault._

Mid-thinking, I began to hear some cracks coming from all around me. The ice was about to break. Seizing the opportunity, the women used their knives to fiercely cut through the ice, causing all of it to shatter and fall to the ground. Without any hesitation, they quickly charged at us—moving as if killing us was their one and only objective.

We were once again being forced to play the defense game—fully aware that we couldn't attack unless we planned to kill. The situation almost seemed bad enough to where we would have absolutely no choice but to end their lives. What if the girls preferred death? What if whatever was wrong with them couldn't be cured unless death was their one and only means of escape? Maybe I'd be doing them a favor…

No—I just couldn't bring myself to kill innocent girls. They didn't ask to have this happen to them. They were just innocent, insecure girls that the darkness decided to make its playthings.

Then something happened that I didn't expect: a flash of bright red light shone in my eyes—showing me some place outside of there. I could see Miaka standing in front of Tamahome and they were talking about something. She was worked up and Tamahome seemed so as well. The more I focused, the more I was able to catch onto the conversation.

"_Tamahome, you shouldn't have done that! And what's worse, you may not be able to earn any more money. I—I don't want to be responsible for your life becoming miserable!" _

"_Don't be stupid—you know I have to protect you, so why can't you just accept that?" _

"_I don't want to…I don't want to lose you just because I'm the Priestess of Suzaku. Being the priestess isn't worth it if it means losing you." _She was beginning to cry.

"_Miaka, you don't have to worry about me—I can handle myself. You're the one who needs to be protected. Many people are counting on you to deliver this country—"_

"_Will you please just stop talking about those things? It hurts knowing that you say you're with me just because I'm the priestess. Am I not anything more to you?" _He didn't reply. _"Yes, the country is important, but…I believe that you're important…important to me. I—I'm in love with you!"_

This made him soften up while looking at her in disbelief. Before too long, his face fell as he looked away—avoiding her gaze. _"I'm sorry…but I can't return your feelings. Right now, the only thing that's important to me is making money." _

"_Tama—" _Her voice falters as her knees give out, making her fall completely to the floor—unconscious.

"_M-Miaka?" _He ran up to her and dropped to his knees, holding her. _"Miaka!" _

As the vision ended, the bright light flashed again, sending me back into the dark throne room. _Miaka! She's—_A sharp pain suddenly formed on my left side waist, just under where my tube-top ended. Feeling for what happened, I brought my hand to my vision to find that it was completely covered in blood. One of the girls had slashed me with her knives which was confirmed when one of them stood a few feet in front of me holding the dagger that dripped my newly exposed blood onto the floor. Feeling the pain overwhelm me, I felt my body become weak and fall to my knees, still holding my side to attempt to stop the blood from flowing.

"Akimoto!" Hotohori tried to make his way over, but found that he was constantly stopped by the slashing women. "Please, stand up!" I honestly wanted to, but the pain made moving difficult. _Dammit! That vision distracted me from the fight. I'm lucky that I got away with just a slash on my side. _Seeing how two of the women were running at me, I had no choice but to use some protection.

"_Seoshi!" _A small dome of light covered me, temporarily protecting me from danger. It would have been impossible to put up a barrier around Nuriko and Hotohori considering they were moving around so much. But honestly…I didn't know how long I could keep up the spell—my energy was draining fast from the wound. As my vision began to give out, I closed my eyes, hoping that I could stay focused. That was when I noticed something: my brain was so focused on the pain that it wasn't even concentrating on the darkness. _Perhaps…this is my only chance! _Struggling to get back up, I continued holding my side, ignoring the blood trickling down my side and leg.

Focusing, I thought about the good things in my life. The laughs I had with the twins—the kiss with Hikaru. I remembered that time when Inuyasha, Kyo, and Hikaru all came to my side to help me. I felt so safe and confident that I could do almost anything. I could feel the warmth of Light overcoming any and all shards of darkness, even if it were for only a few seconds. In the middle of reminiscing, the bracelet that Hikaru gave me began to glow an almost blinding, golden light which spread to the rest of the hand attached to it. Feeling that this was my opportunity, I called off the _Seoshi_ and let my instincts take over on what to do.

Adrenaline rushing through my veins, the pain from the wound was temporarily nonexistent, allowing me to get this job done. Running towards the two girls who were blocked off before, dodged their swings and extended my glowing arm out and put my palm onto the chest of one of them—right where her heart was. When the contact was made, the woman's body started to glow a duller golden light, causing her to lose her dark tint and regain her original eye color—right before she collapsed to the ground, unclenching the knife. Knowing that the other one was close by, I shifted to the side, reached out my arm and repeated the process.

_Finally! _"Hotohori, Nuriko! Leave the ones you are fighting and come over to me—quickly!" Immediately after hearing the order, the two jumped away from their assassins and to both of my sides. Not allowing my magic high to disperse, I called on the power of ice once more as the remaining four girls charged at us. _"Holy Wind, Wind which flows gently across the land, let all things be filled with your pure breath!" _The temperature in the room dropped as the spell persisted._ "Van Rehl!" _In the middle of the room, ice began to form into a giant spider web consisting of extremely thin strands of ice. The girls didn't have enough time to avoid it, so they all ran straight into the web—each getting stuck once their bodies froze from hitting it. While they struggled to get out, I walked up to them and used my still-lit arm to cure them all of their darkness. One by one, the awful feeling of hopelessness was extinguished. Once they were all out-cold, I called off the spell as Hotohori and Nuriko helped them gently onto the ground. The black cloud surrounding us immediately dispersed and the lights came back on—as if they were never out in the first place.

Right as the doors opened, a bunch of royal guards and advisers came pouring in, circling around us and asking what had happened. Apparently, they had been attempting to get the doors open the whole time, but some odd force was preventing them from doing so. As if they could have done anything useful anyway.

"Guards, take these women back to their rooms," Hotohori instructed, "Make sure that they get checked out and that nothing like this ever happens again."

I chuckled weakly. "Medical attention won't do anything for them. It's their hearts that need to heal." They looked at me in a peculiar way. "No, their hearts don't need physical healing, more like emotional. A huge weight has just been lifted from their hearts, so they should be—" Now that everything was calming down, my adrenaline was leaving me, causing the full wave of pain to come rushing back—with a vengeance. As my body swayed, I began to fall back—only to have Nuriko catch me in her arms. Bringing me gently to the floor, I was forced to rest.

"You got hurt pretty bad there, Aki. And you're losing a lot of blood," She informed me. "How long is that gash? Around...five inches perhaps? The wound may not be fatal, but you could die just from the loss of blood."

"Gee, thanks for the positive words oh great Nuriko," I told her in a weak sarcastic tone. "What are you going to tell me next? That my blood is getting all over your robes and you demand me to clean it before it sets in—" I winced from the pain, causing Nuriko to look even more worried.

"Akimoto!" Hotohori ran over and fell to the ground to inspect me.

"It's fine! It's not fatal—as long as _someone_ doesn't bum me out." I gave Nuriko a look right as a dizzy spell kicked in.

Taking me out of Nuriko's arms and into his, Hotohori shouted out, "What are you all standing around for? Get her medical attention immediately!"

"Wait!" I called out. "There's something you need to know…"

"It can wait—"

"No, it can't! It's Miaka, she's in trouble!"

* * *

><p>"Tamahome, how did this happen?" Hotohori asked. As the medics were cleaning and stitching me up (which wasn't fun in <em>any<em> kind of way), the emperor and Nuriko went out to the marketplace to find Miaka, only to find that Tamahome was already on his way back while carrying her on his back. Apparently she had caught some sort of illness—what I had seen in my vision was her toppling over due to her high fever. The peculiar thing was how she fell straight after she was rejected. Coincidence? That's really for you to decide. Anyway, when they got back, she was immediately put to bed with people around her trying to cool her down.

When all of the bandages were wrapped around me (sigh), I rushed over as quickly as I could without falling over I pain (I could do that on my own time. I wasn't about to be weak around people who just witnessed me doing a bunch of badass magic stuff—it just wasn't going to happen).

So there we were, in Miaka's room, while Hotohori tried to get answers out of Tamahome. "I asked you a question!"

He seemed to have looked away in guilt, averting the entire answer. "It just happened. I don't know why." He gave Hotohori a cold look. "Why don't you ask a doctor?" It was understandable why he was acting like this: he really did feel guilty—as well as the fact that he didn't want to talk about his love—or lack of love—life. Neither Miaka nor Tama knew that I knew what had happened, so I had to pretend that I didn't.

Sensing the tension in the room, Nuriko tried to intervene. "Look, it doesn't matter how she got this way—sometimes these things just happen. What we have to focus on now is trying to get Miaka to feel better. Am I right?" We all nodded.

As I went over to sit on the side of her bed, something occurred to me. "You know, if Miaka was back in our world, the medicine and stuff we have there could easily make her feel better. There's no doubt that she would definitely have time to recuperate there."

"Yes…" Hotohori stroke his chin in thought. "Perhaps it would be best if Miaka could return to her world temporarily so that she could get well again. We won't be able to go on with anything if she's unable to perform her priestess duties." Walking over, he took hold of her hand as she slept. "Besides, I don't like seeing her in this weakened state. She needs to be up and smiling…"

I looked over at Tamahome who still wouldn't say anything. _You know, if you continue to stay back like this, you're gonna lose to Hotohori. Oh, and speaking of which…_Taking a glance at Nuriko, I discovered how she was angrily biting on that poor handkerchief again. She really couldn't stand that boy fondling over Miaka, could she?

I gave her a look. "You know Nuriko…If we help Miaka get back home, then she'll probably be gone for a little while." She stared at me. "Leaving a certain _someone_ to be here without her around." Still stared. "All alone…In need for another certain _someone_ to come around and give them _company_." When the light finally clicked on in her head, she ditched the handkerchief and ran over to Miaka's side.

"Oh, the poor dear! We must get her back home. I just don't know what I'd do if anything happened to my sweet, little Miaka. And I think she should stay away for a long, _long_ time." Seeing how everyone looked at her, she continued, "So that she could heal properly! Then she can come back!" Under her breath she said, "By that time, His Highness and I should already be married!" I seemed to be the only one who caught that.

Ignoring the urge to lash out at her, I decided against it.

Hotohori thought about something. "How would we go about this plan, though? Getting from one world to another seems like it's beyond us."

_Beyond us, huh? _Switching worlds didn't seem so much like an impossibility anymore—especially not to me who had already done it five times. So, if it wasn't impossible for me, then it shouldn't be as much trouble for Miaka as well. Sure, she got here differently than I did, but the fact that she was able to even get into a foreign world must have meant that…perhaps Taiitsukun could help her. It was a stretch—and the old woman _may_ end up beating me down for it—but I had to at least try.

"There is a way…" They all faced me. "A woman named…" I let out a deep breath. "Taiitsukun can get Miaka back to our world. She's the one who brought me into the Universe of the Four Gods. She has that kind of power—and then some—so she can get the job done."

"Taiitsukun…" Hotohori pondered. "Yes, I've heard of her—otherwise known as the Ultimate Ruler of the Universe." A blank look wiped across my face. _Ultimate Ruler of the…Universe? Holy crap! I didn't think that she was that big a deal! No wonder she was able to do all those things—no wonder that when I made the wish to the universe, _she_ was the one who answered. Even if all that's true, then how the heck does Hotohori know about her? _I was damned sure that he didn't go on the journey, so that only left the possibility: that this specific dimension was where she's initially from. _So…she rules the universe, huh? Does that mean that I've been cursing her all the time or the thing she rules over? Probably the latter. Wait…why am I thinking about all of this now? _

Storing the questions to the back of my mind, I asked, "Do you have any idea how we can find her? I mean, she never gave me a legit way of doing that." It was always coming at the wrong time with that woman—every time when I didn't want her too. The ironic thing is that now that I _need_ed her, I had to put in the effort to look for her. Damn.

"We need to travel to a legendary place called Mount Taikyoku. It is there that Taiitsukun is said to be residing in."

I cocked an eyebrow. _You serious? There is actually a legitimate place where she lives? _"Do you know how to get to said mountain?"

He nodded slowly. "Yes, I have heard of how—the research isn't difficult. But I have heard that those who go looking for it never succeed." That either meant that the place didn't exist or their navigational skills completely sucked.

"Just because those guys failed doesn't mean that we will. We have to try for Miaka's sake."

He agreed. "Then it's decided." As that was said, Miaka stirred in her bed before finally opening her eyes.

"H-hi everyone…"

"Miaka!" I pushed Nuriko out of the way. "How're you feeling?"

"Onee-chan…" She looked at my bandaged side and gasped. "Onee-chan! You're hurt!"

"Don't worry about it! I'm fine!" _Oh the pain…why did I move so quickly? _"I'm just glad that you're feeling better."

"Akimoto, mind if I explain to Miaka about our plans?" Hotohori asked.

"Not at all." At that, Nuriko quickly grabbed Tamahome and I as she bolted out of the room, closing the door behind her.

She had the three of us crouch to the ground so that we could talk in private (as private as you can get by just crouching anyway…)

Rolling my eyes, I commented, "What's this? Nuriko is _actually_ leaving Hotohori and Miaka _alone_? This _must_ be important."

She shot a distasteful look in my direction before saying what she wanted to say. "Look you two, we are about to go on some little quest. Our main objective we must focus on is getting me with His Highness."

Tamahome scowled. "How the hell did this go from 'make Miaka feel better' to 'hook up Nuriko and the emperor'?"

She wagged her finger. "You must read in between the lines, my dear Tama-kins. This whole thing is an opportunity in disguise and we must go for it!"

"What's this 'we' stuff?" Tama and I asked at the same time.

"Well…" She pointed to me. "You promised to help me get with him and we saw just how well _that_ plan went. So you owe me!"

"Actually…that was Miaka who—"

"And you!" She pointed towards Tamahome. "You're jealous of His Highness and are doing a poor job at relaying your true feelings to Miaka. You should use this opportunity to apologize for acting like a jackass and patch things up with her." She gave a devious grin. "Once all that is said and done, His Highness will be all mine and there will be no one to get in the way of our love!"

Hearing her words caused me to look at her in sarcastic disbelief. "Oh yeah…because Miaka's health and well-being doesn't _even compare_ to your oh-so-important love life."

Feeling that I stroke a nerve, she reached over to my face and stretched out my cheeks—doing all of this with a scary, fake grin. "There goes that mouth of yours again. Better watch out, it may end up getting you hurt one of these days…"

"You know…she's exactly right Nuriko." Hearing Tamahome say that caused her to retreat off my face and lean back. She made herself look innocent by doing the Puppy Dog Eyes, and hid her lower face with her sleeve.

"You know, it really hurts when you guys think that I'd be so low. Miaka's well being is at the top of my priority list—"

"Cut the load of crap!" Tama and I exclaimed.

She wiped the tears that she was able to purposely form. "Okay, I'm not saying that I don't want the girl to get better. I do want her to—honestly she's grown on me. But come on! This is the perfect opportunity to make two couples that are meant to be together happen!" Noticing how I felt left out, she nervously giggled. "And I promise to find a man for you Aki. Cross my heart!"

Tamahome and I sighed heavily.

* * *

><p>The next day, the five of us set out on our journey to find Mt. Taikyoku…and inevitably Taiitsukun (which wasn't all that far away from the capital city—it was apparently located in some deep woods nearby). During our time, the quest was a bit awkward. Miaka would constantly cling to me—making it our childhood all over again—while Tamahome went out of his way to walk on the opposite side to where the two of us were walking. It was quite evident that the two haven't talked to each other at all since the incident. Because of their awkwardness, the rest of us couldn't quite find the right words to say. Hotohori would attempt talking to Miaka—who was still feeling a bit off about the whole 'proposal' thing—while Nuriko tried talking to Tamahome—who didn't know what the hell to do with his feelings. I wanted to fly a good thousand feet above them, but with Miaka never letting go of my arm, that plan was completely down the drain. What do you say when you're in the middle of all of this? I just didn't understand why the two just couldn't talk to one another. Believe me, I was this close to using a spell to force them to look each other in the eye and kiss and make up already.<p>

Night eventually fell, allowing us to make camp for the rest of the evening. _Thank goodness! _I needed to stop anyway since my wound was still really painful, making it hard to walk around with for long periods of time. It did hurt a lot less than it had, and there wasn't any blood, so I knew I'd be fine real soon.

A campfire was made using the combination of random sticks and my Fire magic. During our little camp-out, Tama and Miaka wouldn't even look each other in the eye let alone talk. For the longest time, the only thing that could be heard was the cracking of the flames. It was really difficult to enjoy the majestic outdoors when this uneasy atmosphere was suffocating all of us. If I was the only one feeling it, then I was perfectly ready to denounce myself as insane.

Feeling that I was about to snap, I realized that Nuriko was getting impatient as well when she grabbed Miaka and pulled her aside for a talk.

With the three of us sitting there, Hotohori asked, "Where do you suppose those two have run off to?"

"I can honestly say that I don't know." _Nuriko must have thought of a plan already. It better not be too crazy._

"Well…I guess while we're waiting," He faced me. "Do you mind telling us about you and Miaka's world?"

"Huh?" The question threw me off a bit. No one had actually asked where I had come from before. "Well…it's actually not all that great. There's global warming which isn't doing our planet any favors, a world full of people who can't stop going into war if their lives depended on it, violence and crime go on all the time, people can't be trusted, people's expectations of themselves and other's leads to many people getting into unnecessary trouble, etc."

He gave me a sympathetic smile. "You know, Akimoto, I think that a lot of those things go on in any world. Human nature does tend to be pretty unstable." _Ain't that the truth. _"Are there any unique aspects to your world?"

"Umm…well…We have really tall buildings that seem to go all the way into the sky, with thousands of reflecting windows that show the blueness of the sky as well as the fluffy clouds. There are vehicles that run on gasoline and electricity used to get people to places way faster than any carriage could. We also have these tiny devices used to listen to music wherever we want to go—no instruments required! We've been able to send men to space—on the moon!—and allow people to travel through the skies in order to get to their far destinations in only a few hours! These are only a few things…"

"Remarkable! Your world seems like some fantasy I've only heard of as a child, only better!"

"It's really not all that great."

He tipped his head to the side in bewilderment. "Why is it that you do not favor your world? Isn't it your home?"

I scoffed. "Define 'home'. That place hasn't been my home for years." Hotohori noticed my solemn tone as I continued. "It's probably just me. I mean, there are a lot of people in my world who love it there and have a lot of fun and great memories. It's just my experiences that make me frown upon that life I left behind."

"You seem like the type of person who would change her way of life if it wasn't suiting her." _Yeah…now I seem that way. _It took many years for me to be able to gain this much confidence. Even then, I was too afraid that things would only get worse. The possibility of things getting better didn't seem…well, all that possible. But luckily I've learned that some things that seem impossible…are indeed possible._ And once I finally take my own advice on that, I'll be good!_

"Yeah, well…I'm still searching for which life suits me best…"

"What?"

"Oh, never mind." With the darkness surrounding me all the time, I still had doubts and worries that were etched into my being. _But it's fine…'cause I'm on a journey to get rid of those things—and find my true love. _

As I looked up, I noticed that he was giving me one of his charming, genuine smiles. I couldn't help but blush a little from it—after all, Hotohori was pretty hot. "You know, I admire you Akimoto. You're so strong and confident. You'd definitely make the perfect Priestess of Suzaku—or even Empress."

Feeling my heart do a mini leap, I asked, "D-didn't you already propose to Miaka?" Not realizing what I had said before I said it, I glanced over at Tamahome who seemed to be scowling. Great.

"Oh, did Miaka tell you?" The emperor asked.

"Umm…yeah, that's how I know."

He chuckled. "Don't worry I wasn't proposing to you—I wasn't lying when I told Miaka that I loved her. It has always been my dream to marry my true love—the Priestess of Suzaku. I was just simply expressing my opinion. The point I was trying to get at was that you'd be a great leader—one that I would follow in a heartbeat."

"No…you're just saying that. I can't lead anything." _I don't particularly want to. _

Chuckling again, he said, "You may not think so now, but you'll see in time. I believe in you. And I know you're strong enough to find the life that your truly desire." His soft eyes looked into mine. "Your happiness will be in my thoughts."

Right as he finished, Nuriko came back—without Miaka—and grabbed Tamahome. _What the hell is she doing? _The emperor and I looked into the forest with confusion.

Sighing, I told Hotohori, "I'm sorry, but I gotta see what's going on."

He nodded in understanding. "I'll be right here looking over the maps and awaiting your return." I couldn't help but smile to myself. He really wasn't a bad guy at all. Part of me thought that he was a huge player that believed he could get any girl he wanted because of his looks and status. He was actually a nice and considerate person who seemed like he really wanted to find his princess—whether or not it was Miaka. This kind of made me wonder if he knew that his proposal had affected Miaka and Tamahome. Did he even know that those two had feelings for each other?

In the middle of my thoughts, I heard a loud splash coming from one of the directions. Heading towards it, I discovered a small lake…in which Tamahome and Miaka were in. Miaka wasn't wearing any clothes…_What the hell?_

"Mia—" A pair of hands covered my mouth and brought me down into some bushed. Of course it was Nuriko.

"SHHH! You'll ruin everything!"

"What the heck do you think you're doing? Are you completely mental? How can you send Miaka out there with that guy without any clothes on?"

She shushed me again. "Calm down. Tama is still completely clothed. Besides," she moved away a few branches from the bush so that we had a good view of the two, "they aren't even facing each other." It was true—the whole situation must have been so embarrassing that they instinctively turned their backs to protect their innocence. It was actually kind of cute. And as a bonus, I could faintly hear that they were talking to each other. Progress!

"You better be sure that nothing…X-rated happens," I threatened.

"X-rated? What does that mean?"

I sighed. "Just make sure that Miaka gets out of that lake with every shred of innocence she had when she got in."

"I would never allow those two to do that! You dirty, dirty girl!" She slapped my back causing me to wince. "Oh, sorry!" She backed off. "If they _did_ end up doing those things, then it's all the better for me and His Highness." Almost instantly, a ball of fire ignited in my hands showing Nuriko that I wasn't joking. She laughed nervously. "I was just joking! Sheesh, let loose will ya? And put that fire out! We're hiding in a bush that just happens to be _flammable_." _Don't get smart with me you little—_"Oh, look! It looks like they're done talking!" Summoning the fire away, I observed as Tamahome swam to the edge of the lake and lifted himself out.

When Nuriko and I decided that he was gone long enough, we came out of the bushes and revealed ourselves to Miaka—who was just getting out herself. She reached over for a large, thin white towel to cover herself with as she got out. There was something different about her—a rather peaceful feeling.

She was happy again.

Just as I was about to ask how things went, she launched herself into Nuriko's arms. "Thank you so much Nuriko! Thanks to you, Tamahome and I are talking to each other again! I was able to explain everything and he listened to me—he even apologized for some stuff. I am so happy! Thank you!"

"Miaka, calm down," Nuriko told her. Miaka's unexpected added weight caused Nuriko to fall back onto the ground, causing Miaka to accidentally pull down Nuriko's robe down her arms. Then…there was silence. Miaka sat there, staring, as she lost all of her pep. Instead, her face was replaced with a look that combined both shock and horror.

"Miaka? What's wrong?" I asked her. Her body began to shake as she feverishly scrambled to get away from Nuriko, using her towel to try her best to cover herself up. "Miaka?"

She pointed to Nuriko with a shaky hand. "N-N-Nuriko…she's…she's…"

Deciding that Miaka was just playing crazy, I walked over with the intention of helping Nuriko up from her fall. But my mind completely went blank as I saw what Miaka was looking at. Observing Nuriko's chest, I saw how there _was_ no chest—as in…no cleavage…at all…In fact… it was almost like…

_Oh my God._

Jumping back, with shaky hands myself, I pointed to Nuriko in a similar fashion to Miaka. "Nuriko…is a _**MAN**_!"

As we awaited the purple-haired 'girls' answer, 'she' just looked uneasy and shrugged. "I guess there's no point in hiding it now. Yup, I am a man!"

Remember how I said earlier how it would take _a lot_ to surprise me? Well, consider my mind blown.

* * *

><p><strong>Hey everyone! Thanx for all of you who have been keeping up with the story so far =) It really means a lot to me! <strong>

**Starting next week, I have to get ready for college which starts on the Monday after that. So, that means that I won't be able to work through all the wee hours of the night (and early morning) working on this story. BUT DON'T FRET! The story will keep going! I will do my best to get at least one chapter every week—the days may not be consistent, but I am determined! Also, the chapters may probably be shorter as well because I won't be able to supply long chapters as plentifully as I have been. So, please keep reading and I promise that this story will have an ending to it! I can't stand not finishing a story…it's just wrong and such a tease!**

**I'm sad that I won't be able to be on here as often, but I'm also excited for my freshmen year of college (as well as getting my book published…and turning 18! (but that's 2 months away…)).**

**Srry about getting off on a tangent there…Anyway, I would like to thank you all again for staying faithful and I enjoy reading ur reviews! It's because of you all I have the motivation to keep going!**

**Love ya! =^_^=**

**C ya next chapter!**

**~Aki**


	22. Hearts of Purity, Because I Care

"_Every day is a transformation—every day is a new sensation, alteration, modification, an incarnation, celebration! Every day is a new equation! Every day is a revelation, information, anticipation, onto another destination!" –Hilary Duff_

**The quote on top is me telling you that the poll for which song would be best for this "anime" is CLOSED! The quote is from the winning song by Hilary Duff called "Metamorphosis"! **

**Hey everyone! This is the 22 chapter of "Love Hurts 5 Ways"! Guess what? The story has reached over 200 reviews! Thanx so much for all your reviews, support, alerts, favorites, and love! I'd like to make a shout out to those reviewers who have kept up with the story so far~**

**Kitty13492**

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**XXTakaraXX**

**Blackmoon OniOokami**

**Vatala Darkmist**

**Winter Star Light**

**Kimmiko T.**

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**Yanza **

**Wolfsrainrules**

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**As you can see, the list has GROWN since last time, and that makes me soooooooooooo happy! I'm also thankful for all you who have taken a risk on this story even if you didn't know what some of the anime/manga are!**

**Much thanx also for all you who aren't watching Fushigi Yuugi right now due to my (selfish…I'm so sorry!) request—but feel free to go to Google or whatever to see what the characters look like. You deserve at least that ;)**

**Oh! One more thing! Fun fact: I had Aki be hurt on her left side last chapter because I have a scar there myself from being born with 3 kidneys and the doctors took the 3rd one out.**

**ANYWAY! Without further ado…here's Chapter 22! ^_^**

* * *

><p>"How the hell can you be a—a <em>guy<em>?" My mind was spinning in so many different directions and speeds that I couldn't even process everything that was going on.

Nuriko sat there with a rather smug smile on her—his—face, looking at us as if we were his sources for entertainment. "Do, I really need to teach you _genetics_? Come on, Aki. We all know that you're smarter than that."

I shook my head in disbelief. "No, I don't believe it. You have to be a woman."

"You're right." Miaka and I just stared at him as he explained himself. "I should be a woman, but unfortunately, I was cursed with the wrong body."

Miaka, who was desperately trying to cover up her body with the towel, gave Nuriko a look that showed how suspicious she was to the whole thing. "How the heck is this even possible? This whole time, you've been acting, talking, and dressing like a woman—you even said that you were in love with Hotohori!"

Giggling, Nuriko told us, "You silly girl, I still love His Highness—whether I'm a man or a woman. You see, sex doesn't matter when it comes to people who love each other."

While rubbing my temples, I processed his words. "I think it matters when the significant other is expecting completely different body parts…" Giving me a look that could kill, he put his arm around my neck and brought my head under his arm, uncomfortably and quickly rubbing his other fist on my head. "Hey! Stop it!" My body struggled to get out of his grip. Damn super-human strength.

"Listen here, Little Girl," _Dammit, did we _really_ go back to _that _nickname? _"I have the heart of a woman and I believe that His Highness will love me for that—as well as my other fantastic personality traits."

Rolling my eyes, I said, "When you start showing them, give me a call." Nuriko's reaction was to tighten his grip on my head.

"Anyway…Until our wedding night, I don't really think that it's all that necessary to tell him!"

Miaka remained in her place, still clenching onto her towel, as she chimed in with a still rather cynical look. "You can't keep that kind of secret Nuriko—especially towards the one you love."

"Well—I," He fished for words to try and explain himself further. Thinking of an idea, he immediately stopped rubbing my head and pointed to me instead. "Aki kept her powers a secret from us—wasn't that wrong of her?"

Seizing the opportunity, I squeezed my head from his grasp and sat back up with a rather flushed face due to all the blood rushing to my head. "Sorry to disappoint you, but keeping ones abilities a secret isn't nearly as significant as keeping your _gender_ a secret. Face it Nuriko, you're in hot water right now."

Part of me really didn't want to trust Nuriko after all this. I mean, he had never been one of my favorite people—but he didn't come off as the type to keep something like that. This reasoning of mine wasn't all that far-fetched. You got to admit, the whole idea of a guy cross-dressing as a woman seemed wrong. For all I knew, he could have been lying about the whole "being in love with Hotohori" thing and was actually a huge pervert who just wanted to get close to all of the girls in the emperor's harem. But the more I thought about it, my slight dislike of him didn't take away from the fact that he actually seemed like a rather decent-ish person. After all, back at Ouran, one of my best friends was a cross-dresser and she had to do it because of a debt. So who knows? Maybe Nuriko had to do this for some personal reason that we didn't know about. And although eccentric, his feelings for Hotohori seemed sincere. I wasn't planning on settling on just one idea for the moment—at least not until I investigated him a bit more. _He could be a weirdo, or a sex-crazed pervert! Either way, I'm keeping my eye on him. _

Plus I had to admit it—I _did_ keep my powers a secret and I had to be thankful that no one accused _me_ of being untrustworthy. Guess I had to keep tabs on myself before I go doing it to other people.

Shuffling so that he would face the both of us, Nuriko's eyes went beg and pouty right as they seemed to sparkle. "Please you guys," He clapped his hands together and pleaded, "keep my secret. I really think that if His Highness gets to know the real me, he won't be able to tell the difference between a real woman and myself. I truly do have the heart of a woman and believe that that counts for a lot. So…please?"

Miaka, being the nice person that she was, automatically broke down and smiled at him sympathetically. "If it really means that much to you…then I promise to keep your secret."

With a sigh of relief, Nuriko perked up and went over to hug Miaka—who seemed slightly uncomfortable hugging a guy while she was one towel away from being naked—though she may have been thinking that he was probably harmless since he was gay. _For his sake…he better be. _"Thank-you Miaka! I always knew that you were a sweet, considerate girl." He looked back at me in a glare. "Too bad I can't say the same for _that one_."

"'That one', huh?" Glaring, I gave a rueful grin. "That's an awfully mean thing to call someone who knows your big secret. I wonder what Hotohori will think…"

"I'm sorry!" He shouted at once. "I'm sorry. Just…please…don't tell anyone Aki."

Thinking about his request, I assessed the situation. _Let's see…I could have some fun with this. He'd have to do anything I say—no matter what it was! I'd have Nuriko practically tied around my finger. But… _

_**"We saw everything. How do you think we recorded this?..."**_

_**"You know, this has become our favorite movie."**_

_**"Yeah, we loved it so much, that we made about a hundred copies!"**_

"_**We were planning on uploading it to every video showing website on the net."**_

_**"What do you guys want? A magic show?"**_

_**"What we really want is some entertainment. Next to Haruhi, you're the next interesting thing to happen to us."**_

_**"If you do, we won't tell anyone your secret."**_

_**"Now we've got our own personal witch!"**_

"_**I'm not your personal anything!"**_

_**"You are now."**_

I grimaced. Honestly, I loved Kaoru and Hikaru, but their blackmail drove me absolutely _insane_—it made me feel used and that I wanted to murder them in the most _violent_ way possible. Those two are awesome and all, but I'd had to have fallen pretty damn low to resort to their antics.

Sighing, I frowned and looked away. "Okay, I'll keep your stupid secret…" Before he could leap with joy, I added, "But, you have to tell both Tamahome and Hotohori soon. I know that you think deceiving him would be better for your relationship, but have you ever considered that he would feel betrayed?" Losing his pep, he looked down as he thought about what I had said. "You can continue playing this game for a while, but you'll have to tell him—if you don't, I will." I liked Hotohori—I thought he was a really nice guy who didn't deserve to have one of his friends keep something so big from him—especially when it involved him. Besides that, I felt kind of bad that Nuriko was in such denial about who he was. It was okay to be gay, but he shouldn't have to hide himself and pretend.

Getting slightly annoyed, he stared at me with those big pink eyes of his. "Fine. I'll tell him eventually." Feeling slightly guilty that I may have killed his buzz, he immediately proved me wrong when his face beamed victoriously. "It shouldn't matter anyway! My character is sure to attract him no matter what gender I am! I just hope that he falls in love with my woman side."

Letting out a groan, I thought to myself, _that confidence of his astounds me._

* * *

><p>Getting back to camp seemed to go pretty smoothly. Miaka and I tried our best to keep up Nuriko's charade—avoided saying anything that would tip Tama and Hotohori off. I had an especially difficult time saying "she" instead of "he". It came so easy to me before—I was used to it. Yet, now that I knew his true gender, my mind was concentrated on the fact that he was indeed a guy—and I just didn't feel right calling him a girl.<p>

And that was another thing: HOW THE HELL COULD'NT I HAVE KNOWN THAT HE WAS A DUDE? Back at Ouran, I knew that Haruhi was a girl. She had curves—once again, faint, but still there, a girly face, and her voice was, for the most part, feminine. But Nuriko…he also had a feminine face _and_ he sounded like a woman. That was when something hit me: his clothes. Yeah, he dressed like a woman, but his royal gowns were all flashy and loose enough that no one would have been suspicious to the fact that he didn't have a woman's chest. Even Haruhi was flat, but she wasn't boy flat. It was also believable that he looked like a woman because of his physique. Let's just say that Nuriko wasn't the most muscular, or buff guy in the world.

Jeez, I just felt so stupid for not catching on faster. Then again…he has fooled a lot of people. Kind of made me wonder how he had gotten away with it all this time. He had been a part of Hotohori's harem for who knows how long—he must have been pretty sneaky and elusive to not cause any kind of suspicion.

I kind of had to give him credit for being so crafty.

So, the night went by—we all slept, talked, all the fun stuff.

The next day, we all got up with the high hopes of finding the supposed mythical Mt. Taikyoku. Compared to when we first began this little trip, the atmosphere was_ way_ more bearable. Of course, things were still a bit iffy when it came to comfortableness especially with the fact that Hotohori does love Miaka and Tamahome was indeed jealous—whether we wanted to admit it or not. Even if it wasn't awkwardness between Miaka and Tama—even though there was just a little—there was definitely some tension going on between the two guys—which would be more on Tama's part because it didn't really seem that Hotohori gave a damn about what the guy thought. While all this was happening, Miaka was still involved in a seemingly one-sided love with Tamahome, whom she just met, while Nuriko, who's situation is more complicated than it should be, is trying to make Hotohori his. Wow. I had _never_ been involved with this much relationship drama my whole life. The messed up part of it all was that I was still new to the world while this was all going on, _and_ I was supposed to be there for _my_ happily ever after, not watch from the sidelines as everyone else works for theirs. I didn't want to seem selfish, but was it so much to ask to at least have _my_ story move along?

As we gathered our things up before we continued on, Hotohori went up to Miaka with a concerned face.

"Miaka, are you feeling better today?" Nodding cheerfully, she told him that she was. Hearing her words, he smiled. "I'm glad. But just to be safe, and although it saddens me, we must still get you back to your world so that we can make sure that your health is at its best. If you were to fall sick again, I just don't know what I'd do." Taking a glance at Nuriko and Tamahome, I noticed how they were both listening in warily to their conversation.

"Thank you for worrying about me so much—knowing how much you guys care alone makes me so happy!"

"I would just like you to know," He took her hand in his causing her to blush a little while Tama glared, "that I will always be here to protect you…and to love you." Bringing her hand closer to his heart, he continued on. "I truly wish that I had the power it took to heal you of your home-sickness—I wish that soon you won't have those worries as you make Konan your home—as you live in the palace with me…" _A bit blatant and cheesy…but he says it in such a desirable way…_I shook my head feverishly as my face heated up. _What the heck am I getting all worked up for? Not only is he directing the words towards Miaka, but Nuriko would kill me if I even thought of such a thing. Damn hormones. _

Just as all Hell seemed like it would break lose because of Tama and Nuriko, a thick fog materialized out of nowhere and quickly covered the whole area. It actually seemed quite odd that a natural phenomenon like that could happen without any kind of warning. So instantly—and feel free to think that I was being paranoid—the red flag in my mind went up.

"Does anyone else get a bad feeling from this?" Nuriko asked as he verbally reflected my thoughts.

"This is quite peculiar," Hotohori stroked his chin. "The weather patterns aren't usually this odd." Seeing how Miaka could sense that something was wrong, he put his arm around her shoulders and brought her close.

Even though most of us knew that something bad was about to go down, Tamahome discarded all of that the moment he saw Hotohori seize a chance at Miaka. "Will you be serious at least once Miaka?"

"What do you mean?" She turned to him in concern. _He's jealous at Hotohori yet he's yelling at Miaka…boy he's a dumbass when it comes to these things. _

"Even when things seem bad, you let that guy put his hands all over you. Can't you at least learn to tell him when to back off?"

She started to become angry herself. "How the heck can you even say that? He's just being a good friend!"

Nuriko and I sighed. _Couldn't these two do this another time?_

"_Good friend_?" Tamahome gave a short, bitter laugh. "He's just using this opportunity to get close to you—he's been doing that this whole time! It's nothing less for a moron like you to fall for such an obvious pick-up."

"M-moron?" You could hear her voice crack a bit as tears started to form. "You, Tamahome…are a huge _jerk_!" At that, she released herself from the emperor and ran through the dense cloud, unable to be seen once she went even a short distance.

Slapping my forehead, I slid my hand all the way down my face in frustration. I just couldn't understand why it kept going around in circles with those two. Not only were they starting to become irritating with the whole back and forth crap, but they weren't being honest with each other. Having Hotohori and Nuriko splashed in didn't make any of this any easier as well.

Facing Tamahome, Hotohori went stern. "Tamahome, do you lack all sensitivity? You shouldn't dare ever speak to Miaka like that." When he saw that Tama wouldn't respond, he kept going. "If you have a problem, take it out with me, not her."

I cleared my throat to make the both of them hear. "I know you're drama is _real_ important at this moment, but if you two haven't noticed, MIAKA HAS RUN AWAY!" Choosing not to wait for their answers, I turned, levitated myself into the air and flew in her direction.

* * *

><p>After about ten minutes of flying around, I landed for a second to think. <em>Something's up here. If Miaka had just been running in this direction, then I should have caught up to her a long time ago. <em>Observing the surrounding area, I realized that absolutely none of the fog had lifted—in fact it may have even gotten worse. Coming up with an idea, I focused on the power of Wind. My plan was to blow the fog away since it didn't seem to cooperate in any other way. Feeling a significant spiral of Wind covering me, I released it into a burst of air that had shot out in all directions. To my incredible dislike and curiosity, nothing happened…at all. If this had been a normal cloud, it would have dispersed in no time. All of this proved my point further of how we were in danger—in a territory were our visual senses wouldn't be of much help. What was worse, Miaka stupidly went off to who knows where because she had a stupid fight with the idiot Tamahome. The universe must have been laughing at me at that moment.

Suddenly, my body felt an unpleasant, familiar chill. Eyes growing wide, I frantically looked around for the worse. I hadn't encountered legit Shadow Maidens in a while, but I knew that it was inevitable especially after Taiitsukun warning me. Things in this world were definitely more intense and getting ambushed by those girls who were Shadow Kissed (I decided to call them Shadow Kissed because they weren't actually Shadow Maidens, but real, solid girls who had been possessed by darkness) proved it. Those shadow creatures of every kind were really getting creative—but they didn't disappoint in showing up at the worst times.

Knowing that I couldn't easily avoid them, I decided to follow my senses and go towards them—hoping that with the small amount of light I could produce would defeat them.

When I reached the spot where the feeling was the strongest, I stood in anticipation waiting for them to attack. I was just hoping that Miaka and the others wouldn't get caught up in the cross-fire again—after all, this wasn't their fight.

Right when I thought that I would be attacked, the threatening feeling went away all together. Confused, I continued to keep myself ready for anything. _What happened? Are they gone? _In the middle of my thoughts, something reached around my waist and tightened itself.

"What the?" When I looked down, I realized that it was a vine from the huge tree I was under. Just as I prepared myself to break free, several more vines swooped down and wrapped themselves around my whole body, making sure that I couldn't easily physically escape. Feeling the vines moderately tug on me, my whole body lifted was lifted from the ground, straight up into the tree, out of sight from all those on the ground. Struggling, I shouted out, "Get me out! What the hell kind of tree is even capable of this? I demand that you let me go!" One of the vines decided to shut me up by covering my mouth. _Oh, so you're a wise guy, huh?_ As my temper rose, I felt that the stupid tree needed to be nuked…_to a crisp_. Summoning Fire to me, something interrupted my concentration. A huge red flower bud suddenly bloomed and beautiful, sparkling pollen came floating out. With the substance covering me, a faint voice went through my head.

_Close your eyes Akimoto Tsubaki. _I growled. It was Taiitsukun. _Feel the pollen at it consumes you…You will close your eyes and not awaken until my command…_

All of a sudden, my eyelids became heavy, forcing me to slowly shut them as my body went weak. _Damn that old woman! What is she up to? _Trying to muffle through the vine covering my mouth, my voice soon drifted off, right as my whole body shut down.

* * *

><p>"<em>What happened? Where am I?" <em>Looking around all I could see was darkness as my body floated in an endless space. _"Come on, Aki, you have to focus. What was I just doing?" _ As my memory clicked on, I shouted, _"Oh, crap!" _Frantically trying to find any sign of people, my head was spinning. _"Miaka…thick fog…tree….Taiitsukun! How the heck did I get here? Last thing I knew, I fell asleep in some tree." _A thought suddenly hit me. _"Is my journey in this world already over? No, it's impossible. I mean…Taiitsukun isn't even here. Speaking of her…why the hell did she hypnotize me anyway? Can she even here me in here?" _Attempting to move, I realized that I was somehow cursed to stay floating in this one spot. I groaned. _"Well, the whole 'trying to find my way out of here' plan is completely down the toilet…" _Sighing, I tried to think of something else. _"Okay, what else can I try?" _Focusing on my energy, I brought my hands in front of me. "Saisu!" Then there was nothing. No-thing. _"What the hell? My magic doesn't even work here?" _Throwing my hands up in defeat, I brought my legs up and crossed them in a somewhat comfortable mid-air sitting position. Resting my elbow on my knee with my head leaning on my palm, I blew a stream of air from my mouth in frustration causing my bangs to fly up for a second.

"_Okay, so I'm in trouble here. I'm not gonna try calling out for help 'cause they probably won't hear me anyway…"_

Suddenly, I could hear voices echoing from under me—and they all sounded familiar.

"Where's Miaka?" Shouted Hotohori.

A girl giggled. "Whatever do you mean, my love? I am Miaka" It did sound like her. "Isn't my returning your love what you always wanted?" That statement didn't sound like Miaka.

Some sounds of fighting could be heard as the void I was in violently shook around me for a second. _"What was that?"_

"Tamahome! Are you alright?" I heard Nuriko yell out.

"Y-yeah. I just can't bring myself to fight her—she looks so much like Miaka."

"Don't be fooled Tamahome, this woman, no matter how much she resembles her, will never be our Miaka. But she does know where she is."

The fake-Miaka laughed. "Face it you idiots, I am the new and improved Miaka. I'm all that you'll ever need. Forget the weak, spineless, disgraceful girl that you knew before, because I'm what you've got."

"_My Miaka would never say anything like that! Who the hell are you?" _I tried going toward the voice. _"Dammit! You got lucky bitch!" _

More violent sounds followed until there was another stand-still. "This is almost too easy! And you call yourself men! Even if my mirror didn't take your powers, you probably still couldn't defeat me. So just accept me already!"

Tamahome spoke. "Damn. Where's Aki? She would probably be a real big help right now."

"She went after Miaka. There's always a chance that she got caught by whatever took Miaka."

"_I'm right here!" _I shouted. _"You guys, I'm still here!" _Processing what they said, I continued, "_How can you guys even think that I would be defeated that easily?" _

"Oh, yes, my darling fake-big-sister. I do wonder where she's at. I'm sure she'll be happy to know that I've finally chosen my lover."

"_Well, yeah, in a sense that would satisfy me," _I groaned in disgust. _"But the way she says it just sounds wrong..."_

Suddenly, I heard fake-Miaka's voice stutter. "Wha—what—what's…g-going on?" She began to gasp a lot. "What has that girl done?"

After a few moments, the sound of either a mirror or glass being shattered could be heard. _"What could that have been?" _

"Miaka!" Tama and Hotohori yelled out in horror.

"_What happened?"_

"Oh, Suzaku, she's bleeding!"

"What's she holding in her hand?"

Nuriko answered. "It looks like a piece of glass. She must have stabbed herself in the heart to make that other Miaka go away!"

My blood seemed to go cold. _"…What? She stabbed herself in the…heart? She's…bleeding? _Feeling warm tears unexpectedly trail down my cheeks, my voice wouldn't work properly. _"No…no…she can't be…no…no…Miaka…no!"_

"She's not breathing. We have to stop the blood!"

A few sounds of ripping came before Tamahome spoke. "Nuriko, what are you doing?"

"Look, I'm a woman on the inside, so I don't get bothered by woman's anatomy. If you have a problem, then look away. But I have to tend to this wound."

"Come on Miaka, wake up—you can't leave us! Please!"

"_Miaka, no! You can't be dead! You better not die out on me, you idiot! You're too cheery to die—you still have your whole life ahead of you! Why would you do something so stupid?" _My crying persisted as my voice got quieter. _"I wasn't there to protect you…I'm so sorry…I'm sorry…" _ For so many years, that girl had relied on me for leadership and protection. For so many years, I'd been able to keep her out of harm's way. Stepping into this world had put her in so much danger…and I couldn't be there all the time for her. This…this was the reason why I didn't even want her there. She didn't belong, and she couldn't properly defend herself. She did this to protect us—thinking that killing herself was the only way. _"No…I'm not ready to lose someone else important to me!"_

What I didn't expect was to hear a loud _thump!_ as my body felt an extremely uncomfortable and painful sensation.

"Wait a second…is that Aki?"

"Why won't she wake up?"

"Is she crying?"

"Aki!" Feeling the world around me shake, the pieces of the puzzle were finally coming together. After falling into that trance in the tree, I just stayed there—I never left. The place I was presently in…must have been somewhere in my psyche as my body lay there unconscious. That was why I could still hear everything—the whole fight was going on under me and at the time, my friends didn't even know that I was there. Somehow, the vines had let go of me and I must have fallen out of the tree. That would definitely explain the pain I was feeling.

"C'mon Aki, wake up! We can't be losing you and Miaka!"

"She's not even budging…"

"_You idiots get away from me, go help Miaka!" _I shouted at them even though I was pretty sure that they couldn't hear. _"I said help Miaka dammit!" _

A faint coughing could be heard.

"Miaka?" Tamahome gasped. "Miaka!"

"Tama…home…" She said weakly.

"Thank Suzaku…we thought we lost you…" Hotohori sounded like he was about to cry.

"She still needs medical attention, and fast!"

"Where's…Aki-nee-chan?" She asked weakly.

"_Miaka you dummy…just worry about yourself…" _I couldn't help but laugh a bit in relief as the access tears ran down.

"She's next to you Miaka…but…"

"But what?"

"She won't wake up…"

She gasped. "Onee-chan!" Giving out a small cry of pain, Nuriko calmed her down.

"Don't move Miaka, you could make even more blood come out." He sighed. "We don't know what's wrong with Aki, but she's breathing quite normally."

"Besides that…she's a strong girl, so whatever has taken her, she can get out," Tamahome added.

"_Damn straight I can!"_

"Okay, I think that we're done here." Taiitsukun's voice emerged out of nowhere.

The others didn't speak for a few seconds. "Who're you?"

"I'm the one you've been searching for. I am Taiitsukun."

A few seconds later, all four of them gasped in surprise. "All the fog is gone!"

"It doesn't even seem like we're in the same woods anymore."

"That's because you're not." She coughed to clear her throat. "You have all just gone through a test of mine. I wanted to see how you would react to the situation and if you were all genuinely pure of heart. The outcome was a bit unexpected, but you passed." She paused. "This…is Mount Taikyoku."

"_You freakin' old bitch! How dare you put my friends and me through all this! If I had the power, I would have taken you down a loooong time ago!" _This was low. And I mean _really_ low. I just couldn't believe that Taiitsukun would risk Miaka's life just for some dumb test. Yeah, the woman was strict and her methods for things were definitely questionable, but _this_…this was too far! She could mess with me all she wanted, but just because she was The Supreme Ruler of the Universe or whatever didn't give her the right to do this to my friend!

About two minutes of talking went by before anything significant happened.

"Nyan-Nyan!" Taiitsukun ordered.

After an odd _poof!_ sound, the voice of what seemed like a little girl came up. "Yes, Milady?"

"Heal their wounds."

"As you wish!" Nyan-Nyan said cheerfully.

A few more minutes of me cursing out Taiitsukun in every way possible (God, I hate being unconscious), and someone finally spoke up.

"What about Aki-nee-chan? She still isn't awake!"

Taiitsukun groaned. "Oh yes…her. Well, I suppose I should…" In the snap of a finger, my eyes instantly opened as my upper body shot up. Finally, I could see everything: the huge, unfamiliar, brightly colored and lit room, Tamahome and Hotohori looked pretty beaten up, but otherwise okay, Nuriko didn't seem to have gotten hurt at all, and there was Miaka, who had on make-shift bandages around her chest where a huge spot of blood stained the cloth. Not thinking about anything else, I went immediately to her side.

"Miaka! Oh my God, are you okay?"

She smiled cheerfully at me. "I'm a little sore…but I'm glad that you're awake. I was worried about you—"

"You idiot! I heard everything that was going on. How could you do something so stupid!" She had a sad look on her face as I yelled at her. Softening up, I wrapped my arms around her. "For so long, you've been the only family I had—I never accepted it, but it's true. If I lost you," Thoughts of Kajou instantly flashed in my head causing my heart to squeeze. "…just take my advice for once and think about your actions before you do things…"

She probably knew that I was thinking of my big sister as I spoke to her because she gave me a sympathetic look while returning the hug. "Don't worry, Onee-chan, I'll always be your little sister and I don't plan on doing anything to ruin our family."

I chuckled. "Yeah, you say that now. After all…you're still a dummy…_and_ a spaz."

Puffing her cheeks, she said, "You're mean…"

Feeling that the others were looking at us, I couldn't help but blush.

But all feelings of embarrassment left me the moment the situation became clear again. Immediately standing up, I faced Taiitsukun and accusingly pointed at her. "Why the hell would you do something like this? Miaka almost died!"

"Lower that tone of yours, child. Even though I don't have to explain myself to you, I will say that I didn't expect Miaka here to be so risky as to be willing to take her own life to save her friends." She gave me a look. "It was her decision, so don't be mad at me."

"If you were over-looking the whole damn thing, then why didn't you stop her oh Ultimate Ruler of the Universe? And when did you plan on telling me about that—" All of a sudden, the old woman stoke me in the back of the head with a toy hammer like she had done before.

"I already told you before to not raise your voice at me. My methods are my own so don't question them." I looked up at her while hunched over, grabbing the back of my head which was in pain. She continued. "I managed to get you this far with my ways haven't I, Akimoto? I would never have allowed young Miaka to die. Look around you…" As I noticed my surroundings, I saw how each of the others were being completely healed (absolutely no wounds!) by a bunch of little girls—who looked no more than seven or eight years old—with sea-foam green hair in two buns, like Miaka, but with a braid streaming down from each one. They had big purple eyes and wore red and pink Chinese-style royal robes and pants with red flats. All of them looking identical to one another, they floated around my friends making sure that they were all taken care of. "I'm making sure that the damage from my experiment is being cleaned up. Speaking of which…" She faced the Nyan-Nyan that seemed to be finished healing Hotohori. "Nyan-Nyan, come and heal Akimoto's wound." _My wound? Oh yeah…those Shadow-Kissed girls slashed me…_

Sitting completely down, one of the girls floated over and then sat next to me as my bandages quickly fell off to reveal my still fresh wound. She smiled one of the cutest smiles ever! "Hi! I'm Nyan-Nyan! I hope we can be friends!"

Staring at her—'cause she was soooo cute!—I nodded. "Yeah, I hope so too." _It's just like with Momiji and Mitsukuni...Damn my weakness for all things cute and adorable! _

Putting both her hands about three inches from my wound, a warm light emitted from them as that part of my body started to tingle pleasantly.

As she worked on healing, I faced Taiitsukun again. "I still don't agree with what you did, but why did you put me to sleep?"

She grunted. "I knew you would interfere with the test—you were the only problem really—so I had no choice but to put you out of commission."

My eyebrow cocked up. "If you just wanted me out of the way for your little plan, then why didn't you immediately wake me back up when you revealed yourself?"

Turning around, she spoke without hesitation. "Because I realized how peaceful it was without your sassy mouth and complaints." _Umm…sassy? _Feeling offended, I was about to say something before she faced Miaka and said, "I know why you have come to me and I am able to get you back to your world." Miaka's face showed a sign of relief before Taiitsukun added, "But you're not strong enough from all the blood loss. If you're going to go through with this, then someone will have to give you some of their blood."

Hearing those words, I instantly spoke. "I'll volunteer if it's for the sake of Miaka getting back to our world safely—"

"No."

"Wait—what? Why?"

"You can't afford to be weakened and lose half your power even if it is temporarily." She gave me a sharp look. "You as well as I know that you need every ounce of your strength." Losing my hype, I thought, _damn…she's right…_

"I'll do it."

"Yes, me as well." Both Tamahome and Hotohori stepped up after hearing about my _unique_ ordeal. It was good to know that I could count on them, especially when it came to Miaka.

"You two are aware of the consequences I have mentioned—am I correct?" The old woman warned. The two men nodded.

Miaka called out in protest. "I don't want you guys to become weaker just because of me. It's not worth it!"

Hotohori assured her. "My dear priestess, it is only temporary. But more important than that, if it helps with your health and well-being, then I would be willing to give my life for you."

"Stop being worried about us all the time and care about yourself for once." Tamahome winked. "It's okay, trust me!"

Miaka blushed as Taiitsukun chimed in. "Well, we need to work quickly—time is of the essence." With the wave of her hand, the three of them were lifted up into separate floating orbs. Blood seemed to be transferring in tiny strands from Tama and Hotohori over to Miaka.

As the transfusion took place, I noticed Nuriko and decided to go sit over by him. _Him…_yup, still sounded weird.

When I sat down, he asked, "So, how are you doing?"

I shrugged. "Well, considering all the events that took place in less than twenty-four hours, I'd say that I'm actually pretty good. I mean, I haven't gone insane yet…so that must be something." I faced him. "How are you? I didn't even see Miaka when she was all messed up like that."

He cringed. "There was so much blood…I-I thought that she would die."

"But you were there to help. I still heard everything that was going on. You really helped with stopping her from losing blood. I really appreciate that." I smiled. "That girl…although she's clingy, a crybaby, and a ditz, she is still like a little sister to me. So thanks a lot for doing your best to save her."

Noticing him blush a little, he looked away. "Don't thank me. I only did it because Miaka would be even more annoying if she weren't around. Not only that," Returning to his devious smile, added, "I'd have even a less chance with His Highness if he were sitting around mourning all day for her. If she stays alive, then he's happy. And. All. Mine." Rolling my eyes, I thought, _well I see that nothing's changed. _Just as I was about to say something, he told me, "I'm sorry."

I gave him a puzzled look. "What?"

"I'm sorry…for that day I called you useless, hopeless, worthless, and powerless. You can do, and have done a lot—I may even go so far as to say that," He patted my head, "you may belong here after all."

_Nuriko…_Refusing to lower my guards, I said, "What's this? Nuriko is _actually_ apologizing to _me_? I wonder if this means that Hell has frozen over…"

"Oh will you shut up? I'm trying to be sincere. Sheesh! You and that damn mouth." He cleared his throat. "I know that I'm the one that made your dark ring or whatever stronger." My face fell. "It happened that same day I called you those things. It probably had something to do with that awful, awful feeling Tama and I had after I made you mad." He sighed. "I have significantly more class than to lose my cool like that, so I really do wish to apologize. You're going to suffer more because of me…"

Waving my hands in front of his face, I talked frantically. "Damn Nuriko, you're bumming me out with all of this. You're not usually so easy to break—it's kind of disappointing. And about my dark ring, it's no big, really! I've had this thing nearly my whole life and it used to be even stronger. I could take it then and I can take it now. If I have anything to blame, it's my temper." _And over-sensitivity. _I hit him on the back. "So, come on, perk up!"

After blinking a few times, he beamed. "You know…you're alright Aki! However…" He grinned deviously. "You'll never be quite the lady I am. I mean, I outrank you completely!"

Giving him a sly look, I asked, "Oh really?"

"Yup! You're a complete lost case when it comes to being lady-like. I mean, you're etiquette and poise isn't all that great and your looks are dull at the very best—"

Making that fireball appear in my hand again, I said, "You're pushing it Nuriko."

He laughed before putting arm down and extinguishing the fire. "You didn't let me finish! Since you're pretty much a lost cause, I've decided to keep my promise to you."

"What promise?"

"Don't you remember? I promised you last night that I would get you a man! I'll make it a special project of mine." As I gave him a skeptical look, he added, "Well, you can't exactly say that I have a bad taste in men, can you?" _Well, he's got me there…_He beamed. "So, it's decided! I, Nuriko, will get you, Akimoto, a man, to have and to hold for as long as you two shall live!" _I haven't even met this so called 'man of mine' and Nuriko's already planning our wedding! _

I sighed. "Who would've thought that a boy like you would be so eccentric?" _Wait…did I say "boy"? _ After realizing what I had just said out loud, I looked up to Tama and Hotohori who seemed unfazed. _Huh?_

Nuriko must have noticed my bewilderment because he told me, "They already know Aki—you don't have to keep it a secret anymore."

"What? When did this happen?"

"During that whole mirror-Miaka fiasco, the bitch spilled the beans right in His Highness and Tama's faces. There was no turning back after that. So now, I have to rethink my whole plan on getting married to High Highness!"

I sat there, aback, at the information. "That's not fair! I wanted to see that!" He gave me a nasty look. "Hey, don't judge—I have an odd sense of entertainment sometimes, okay? And I really wanted to be there!" I got quieter as I pouted. "I kind of wanted to be the one to tell them…"

Nuriko's look didn't change. "You're a twisted girl."

Returning the look, I countered, "And you're one twisted dude. And together, we pretty much make a Twizzler."

"A-a what?"

I sighed, "Never mind."

* * *

><p>When the whole blood transfer thing was done, the three Celestial Warriors sat in a circle around Miaka. Apparently, these were the positions they had to be in in order for Miaka to get back home. I had no choice but to stand off to the side since I wasn't a warrior or priestess of Suzaku.<p>

Miaka faced me. "Onee-chan, aren't you coming back with me?"

Taking a glance over at Taiitsukun, I replied with a sad smile. "No, I'm sorry Miaka, but I'm staying here. I have a few things that I need to…take care of." With her gone for a while, I could finally go out searching for any sign of the Shadow Maidens—and now Shadow-Kissed—making sure that they don't cause hurt and misery to innocent people. Hopefully, I would also get a chance on finding my prince. Who knows?

"Like what?"

I hesitated. "W-well…it's complicated. Maybe I'll tell you when you get back. Just make sure that you get better, okay?" Giving her a wink, I said, "Make sure to say hi to Yui and Keisuke for me, okay?" She nodded.

"We will all be awaiting for your return Miaka. So get back home and come back safely," Hotohori told her.

"Take all the time you need though!" Nuriko purred. _Him and his hidden agenda._

Miaka laughed uncomfortably. "Yeah…I'll do that…"

She looked over at Tamahome who was giving her a supportive, yet weak smile. "I hope you make it back soon. Things will be…quiet without you…"

I chuckled. "That's nice Tama, just forget that I'm standing _right_ here. You know, the _other_ girl from another world?" There was a chance, though, that I wouldn't be around due to my own agenda.

He shot me a distasteful look for ruining his moment with Miaka. "Oh yeah…how could I _possibly_ forget?"

As I stuck my tongue out at him, Taiitsukun seemed to have become impatient. "Okay, now that all the good-byes are out of the way, I will ask that you all concentrate to the best of your abilities. With only three Suzaku warriors, this is going to be rather difficult."

"Well…I could help," I offered.

"No."

"Come on!"

"You don't possess the powers of Suzaku so you are really of no use in this specific ritual. Just sit back and be patient." She focused back on them. "They will just have to focus an extra amount. Miaka, I will need you to think about your home and all the things you're returning to. Your determination will be a huge boost in power." Just as the four of them began to pray, Miaka seemed to be struggling—body shaking and tears forming in her eyes, it was almost like something was preventing her from doing her part. When I began to figure that she may need my help, a small hint of bright red light appeared.

The more I looked at the girl, the more I was noticing how she was whispering something. I couldn't quite read her lips or decipher what she was saying until her volume increased with just one word: "Yui!" In the blink of an eye, Miaka was gone in a flash of a bright scarlet light.

_See ya later…little sis._

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><p><strong>Okay everyone, that was chapter 22—I hoped you liked it. Please review!<strong>

**Here's something else folks: some of my reviewers are authors on this site as well with stories that I do recommend!**

_**Proving my Existence**_** by Blackmoon OniOokami. It's a crossover between naruto and Inuyasha. If you like the kagome/sasuke pairing, then that's an even bigger reason to go for it!**

_**Sleepytime Tea**_** by Escape to Ouran. It's an Ouran story and is really awesome! The main character is an extremely developed character with a dark past and I'm praying a happy future. I won't say more than that ;)**

_**A Fox at Ouran**_** by wolfsrainrules. It's a crossover between Ouran and Fruits Basket, so you know it's a fun time! It's definitely worth checking out!**

**There are other stories I read as well, but I really don't want to end up making a list ^^' **

**Thanx again for all the support from all of you—I REALLY appreciate it =)**

**Well…C ya next chap—**

Aki: What a second!

Miaka: Onee-chan, you can't just come in at the end of the chap—

Aki: This whole time, I've been waiting to see Hotohori and Tama's reaction to Nuriko being a man. But no, I was hypnotized at the time. I feel totally jacked!

Miaka: I'm sorry that you weren't there, but you can't just interrupt like this…

Aki: Yes I can! I have a right as the main protagonist!

*Miaka hides something behind her back*

Aki: Miaka…what do you have there?

Miaka: N-nothing…

*Aki points in a random direction to get Miaka to look there. Going around her back, Aki takes the object the girl was hiding*

Aki: Is this…an iPad?

Miaka: W-well…

*she sweat-drops*

Miaka: Can you give that back to me please?

*Aki ignores her and turns the device on, flipping through apps*

Miaka: You really shouldn't go searching through that—

Aki: *gasps* You have the missing clip from today's episode?

*Aki glares at Miaka*

Aki: You've had this the whole time and didn't show me?

Miaka: I couldn't show you! The director said not to, and not only that—

*Nuriko walks in*

Nuriko: Hey guys, what cha' doin'?

Miaka: N-nothing!

Aki: Miaka had the missing clip for when your true gender was revealed to the other two.

*Nuriko paled and laughed nervously*

Nuriko: That's not necessary for you to see. Really, it's not all that important…

Aki: Yes it is! Besides, the audience wants to see it too!

*Tamahome comes out of nowhere and puts his chin on Aki's shoulders, looking at the iPad*

Tamahome: *holding in a laugh* Oh yeah, that was quite the experience. It's too bad that you and the audience didn't get to see it Aki.

*Aki glares at him*

Aki: Well, I plan on changing that! All I need to do is press play!

*Miaka disappears for a second and comes back with Hotohori on her arm*

Miaka: Hotohori, tell her that the director will get mad if she shows it!

Hotohori: *thinking* Actually, I believe that it would be more generous to the people if we showed it. And I honestly don't think that the director would mind…

*getting nervous, Miaka bounces around the room*

Miaka: No, no, no, no, no, no, no!

Aki: _Giga La Seoshi! _

*a mostly transparent green _Seoshi _appeared around Miaka, trapping her inside*

Aki: Hey, Miaka, if you are opposed to me watching this, then just say something!

*Miaka bangs on the _Seoshi_ walls and yells, but no sounds come out*

Aki: *chuckles deviously* Well then, I guess she's okay with it!

Tamahome: Don't you think that people will be a bit confused if we start from there?

Aki: *pondering* Yeah, you're right…

*she faces the audience after pressing a few things on the iPad*

Aki: Okay, I'm going to show a slideshow of a few things that happened just a few minutes before the clip.

*shows picture of Miaka running away from Tamahome*

Aki: After she ran away, Miaka found something she just couldn't resist,

*shows picture of Miaka's eyes glowing hungrily and happily in front of a bunch of food*

Aki: A dinner table filled with all of her favorite foods—which would be everything that's edible that could be prepared using a blender, oven, toaster, or stove. She ran towards the food not realizing that she had run straight through some magic mirror.

*shows a picture of Miaka starting at herself*

Aki: Out of nowhere, a meaner mirror-double of Miaka comes out of nowhere and tells the real Miaka to stay and eat while she takes her place.

*shows a picture of mirror Miaka in the outside world as real Miaka bangs from the inside of the mirror*

Aki: Mirror Miaka gets out and traps real Miaka saying that she could live her life better than she can—which would include marrying Hotohori.

*she presses some more buttons on the iPad*

Aki: Well, I'd say that everyone is caught up.

Hotohori: Akimoto, don't you think that people will be asking how you know all that since you were sleeping at the time?

Aki: *shaking her head* I read the script, so I know what happened. I just wanna _see_ it. So, without further delay…

*Pressing the "Play" button, the missing clip from the episode is played*

* * *

><p>Miaka wrapped her arms around the emperor's neck in an uncharacteristic fashion causing everyone to just stare—in Nuriko's case, glare fiercely.<p>

"Miaka…what are you—" Hotohori didn't know what to make of the sight. The woman that he had been waiting for so long was finally in his arms, willing to be his. But he knew that something wasn't right—the Miaka he knew just wasn't this bold. Part of it seemed like a dream come true, but the other part seemed both wrong and suspicious.

"It's okay Hotohori." Miaka told him. "I'm all yours now…You won't get any more resistance or hesitation from me…" She looked out of the corner of her eye tauntingly towards Tamahome whose face seemed to show deep hurt. This Miaka knew that she had both stabbed him in the back, and straight through the heart…and she didn't care. What she wasn't aware of was that Tama was also suspicious of this new Miaka that emerged. If he knew anything of the girl, he knew that she was extremely considerate of people's feelings. So even if she did have these feelings for Hotohori, she wouldn't be so boldly expressing it in front of him and Nuriko—who was in love with the emperor.

The purple-haired warrior—who was too blinded by jealousy to even notice the change in the priestess—couldn't hold it in any longer. "Miaka! How dare you do this! You said that you would stand aside and let me be with him. You, lying skank!"

Miaka glared at her friend. "I'm a 'skank' huh? Well at least that nickname is appropriate to my gender. You wouldn't really know about that since you can't quite decide how to make up your mind on that subject, can you Nu-ri-ko?" She sang out the syllables.

Puzzled, Tamahome asked, "What do you mean 'she can't make up her mind'?" Nuriko's eyes were now blazing in anger as Miaka looked extremely smug.

"Oh yeah, that's right, you guys don't know about it yet. Well let me inform you about our good friend Nuriko—"

"Miaka! Don't!" Nuriko panicked.

She ignored the plea's. "Nuriko is actually a _**man**_." Hotohori and Tamahome gasped as random lighting came into Nuriko's background as if he were in a nightmare. "You can even check if you want."

He stood there, motionless, with wide eyes looking at everyone.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Tama spoke up first. "You know, now that I think about it, Nuriko never did have chest." He started to crack up as he pointed at Hotohori. "And he's been in love with you this whole time! Why the hell would you let a man into your harem? What kind of weirdo emperor are you?"

Hotohori, who looked like he was getting over minor shock as well, coughed. "I assure you that I didn't know."

"Don't you think that your people should have checked for something like that?"

Sighing, the emperor noted, "He may have been a part of my harem, but he _kissed_ you." While he grinned in triumph, Tamahome paled. Facing the inevitable, he faced the still-frozen Nuriko. "While I don't like that I have been deceived, you are—" Screaming in embarrassment, Nuriko bolted in one direction straight into the thickness of the fog before Hotohori could even finish his sentence. The two remaining men stared off in his direction while Miaka continued to hold on to the emperor with indifference to Nuriko's breakdown. "I was going to tell him that he's still part of the Suzaku Seven and that we need him. He's also a good friend to us all, so I don't really see any point in people getting upset."

Miaka grinned. "You're right: there is no point in being upset over such a stupid thing. Now that that cross-dresser is out of the picture, I have you all to myself…"

* * *

><p>*Mirror Miaka acts even more suspiciously ending up almost kissing Hotohori. The two guys had no choice but to accuse the woman of being a fake…* *end clip*<p>

Aki: Okay, now I'm caught up! *satisfied* Was that so bad Miaka?

*Aki looks at Miaka while she notices Nuriko crouched in what was Tamaki's emo corner*

Aki: What? Oh yeah!

*she snaps her fingers and the _Seoshi _disappears, causing Miaka to fall to the ground from leaning on it*

Miaka: Onee-chan! I can't believe you did that! I really need that iPad back now!

*she grabs the iPad out of Aki's hand*

Aki: Why you so beefed about it?

Miaka: Because I'm late!

Aki: Late for what—

Yui:*angry tone* Miaka!

*Miaka shudders as she turns around to see her best friend standing there with a pissed off face*

Miaka: Oh…Yui! I was just—

Yui: I've been waiting for my iPad for an hour now! There I was standing in the parking lot, in the hot sun, and you never came!

*Aki thinks: _Oops* _

Aki: Umm Yui? You haven't even made an appearance yet. I'm sure that the director wouldn't like any sneak-peaks.

Yui: I'm sorry Senpai, but I had to get in here and get this!

*she grabbed the iPad from Miaka*

Yui: I have important stuff on here that I really need! You got distracted, didn't you? Started looking at some food recipes?

Miaka: No! That's not—

Yui: You smelled food and went after it completely forgetting that I was even out there, didn't you? Jeez Miaka, you can be such a spaz!

*Miaka looks at Aki, who looks away, whistling. The three guys around her pretend to be doing their own things*

Miaka: Yui, I—

*Yui grabs Miaka by her ear, dragging her away*

Yui: Now, I'm late! You're gonna have to come with me to the library now.

*Miaka flailed around*

Miaka: No! Not the library! It's soooo boring there! Onee-chan! Tamahome! Nuriko! Hotohori! Help me! I don't like the library! We can't eat much in there!

*When they left, the three guys gave Aki a look. She shrugged*

Aki: I'll by her some cake and a few pastries. She'll forget this thing even happened.

*she looks at the audience and waves*

Aki: Hope you all enjoyed that! See you next chapter!


	23. Unexplainable Spark

**Darn! College is totally throwing off this story's updating schedule !**

**Well…at least I managed to get out 22 chapters b4 school started, right? **

**I'm sorry if future uploads take a while, but I'm always thinking of new things for the story, so this story will never be forsaken! I promise you!**

**Anyway…Thanx again for all those who are reading, reviewing, favorite-ing, and putting this story on alert, you have no idea how excited I get when I see that I have a new review/reviewers or if more people come along and see the chapters. Really, it makes my day to know that all of you are into this story.**

**Well, enough about all that, let's get on with the story!**

* * *

><p>After a few seconds of watching the spot where Miaka once stood, I knew that I had to move things along if I had any chance of getting things to progress. For instance, I was finally in the presence of the old woman who could answer the questions that had been irking me ever since I had arrived there. The thing that annoyed me was that Taiitsukun knew that I would be confused about a few things—she probably knew about what those things were going to be—and yet, she still sent me off into this new world. It doesn't surprise me at all that she would do that, but it doesn't take away from the fact that it was a bitch move. She says that I complain a lot? Well, what do you expect when you're leaving your fate to someone who won't tell you about stuff that she already knows, and I would eventually have to know?<p>

Yup, she's definitely in league with the universe.

Ignoring my bitterness, I faced the floating old woman. "I have a question."

Maintaining her intimidating face, she asked, "What is it?"

"Well," I had to make sure to keep my voice down from the others. "I was wondering how and why Miaka was here in the first place. I mean, you told me before that my world was frozen due to me going on this journey..."

She pondered on my words. "Yes well...that is usually the case when it comes to these things. Ordinarily, your world would have stayed frozen in time up until you either found your true love or gave up." I nodded in agreement. "However, with the extreme influence of negative forces on the universe, my grasp and focus on keeping your world frozen started to break down, so recently, I decided to call it off altogether."

"What? How could you do that? Who knows how much school I've missed!" _Wait, when did _school _become my main issue? _I groaned. _Maybe I caught whatever sickness Miaka had…_

"Calm down. Only a few days have gone by in your world from when I had unfroze it. And in that time, Miaka had discovered the portal to this world. Miaka had only been gone for a few hours." The new information shocked me. I just couldn't see how it was possible that only a few days had gone by since I had left. No…actually, it wasn't quite that that was bothering me. She had said that when she had unfrozen things, Miaka and Yui had gone inside the Universe of the Four Gods. The odd thing was that Miaka and I had been in that world for about two weeks already—how was it possible that only several hours had gone by? As if reading my thoughts, she explained further. "Because of the sudden distortion in the energies in the universe, time flows differently in your world than it does here—it goes by in more of an accelerated rate than it does in your world."

_Well, I suppose that makes sense. If I pry any further, she may go into some intense scientific detail that I don't have the patience to try and understand._"Okay, that pretty much answers one of my questions. But you didn't explain why Miaka is even here."

"I personally expected you to become the Priestess of Suzaku, but the god made me realize that you already have other priorities that shouldn't be restricted to the duties of a priestess."

That rang a bell in my head. "Wait, what does Suzaku have to do with—"

"For reasons that shouldn't concern you, young Miaka was chosen by Suzaku and brought into this world to help prevent this world's downfall."

"Have you not met Miaka? She's a clumsy cry-baby, yet overly-happy more times than none spaz. Don't get me wrong, she's a nice girl and I care about her and all, but what makes you think that she could do all this? Besides, I thought that it was my job to protect this world."

Her eyes narrowed at me as her voice progressively got louder. "No, your job is more connected with the universe as a whole—Miaka only has a small portion being a priestess. You should be grateful that someone else has taken over the job that you were going to perform!" When we both noticed that the three guys' eyes shifted over to us in confusion, she coughed to clear her throat and proceeded on with a quieter tone. "The girl has proven herself as worthy for the job. Sure, she's a bit immature and rough around the edges when it comes to these things, but I believe—or shall I say hope—that she will progressively grow up and learn."

I crossed my arms. "Maybe, but what if she gets hurt?"

She closed her eyes. "She probably will, but we'll hope for the best. After all, she'll have seven warriors looking after her."

"Seven plus me." The moment I had said that, she eyed me warily.

"It was valiant how you've been watching over her, but you know that you're here for a separate reason." Taiitsukun shook her head. "You shouldn't be babysitting her while you have problems of your own. Like I mentioned before, you aren't the Priestess of Suzaku simply because you need to get on with your personal journey. If you continue on with that girl's quest, you'll only be forsaking your own."

_In a way, she's right.__This was supposed to be my story and somehow, I ended up in the first chapter of Miaka's… However…_After a few seconds of thought, I came to my conclusion. "I don't quite believe that." Her eyes widened a bit from my response. "When you think about it, you never actually gave me a legit map of what I'm supposed to be doing. This whole time, you've only been giving me bits of information and help that I was supposed to go off of on my own. In every world I've been in so far, I somehow managed to get settled down somewhere and go on with my story from there—even when I was completely confused. Sure, every time the situation was different, but now I know that everything that came from those experiences wasn't a waste." Smirking confidently, I knew that my words had been making sense considering Taiitsukun hadn't interrupted me yet. "I know that it may be bad to get the others tangled into my own problems—in fact, it may even be real selfish and I hate thinking that they might get hurt because of me—but who's to say that going along with Miaka and the others won't be beneficial to me? I don't see why our stories can't intertwine with one another's. Besides, Miaka needs me to be around—I can't just leave her here. Also," I turned to face the three guys who were off to the side, respecting the private meeting between me and Taiitsukun while talking amongst themselves, "I've already met some interesting characters here. Them, plus the fact that I'm a little curious as to where this whole thing is going, is a good enough reason to want to stick around." Facing the old woman again, I told her, "Sure, it may be a bit of challenge juggling both storylines, but I think that I can handle it. After all, I've been able to take all of the other crap the universe has been dumping on me. This experience will only make me stronger."

_Or kill me. _

I knew I just sounded all confident and all, but the fact of the matter was that I was quite afraid. So far, something bad has always managed to happen in the worlds—whether it was separating myself from someone I cared about, or nearly being killed by the Shadow Maidens and their lackeys. Things were most definitely going to get more difficult and even with my powers, I wasn't one hundred percent sure that I could take it all. But like before, I wouldn't dare show my fear. I'd put on a brave face and fight through it—especially for Miaka's sake. Staying strong was also necessary for me getting my wish. My true love was out there somewhere and I still believed that suffering for it was worth it.

I sure hoped that that was true.

As I sat there waiting for her reaction, all she did was float there with her eyes closed, looking as if she were processing new information. When she opened them again, she gave me a rather stern look. "If you're going to do this, then fine. It's not really by business as to how you decide to go about attaining your wish—just don't neglect your duties of handling the Shadow Maidens and all other dark forces plaguing this world." I nodded, thankful that we didn't get into some big argument over this. She looked over at the three guys who immediately seemed to stiffen when her eyes lay upon them. It seemed like she had the same intimidating affect she once had on me when we first met—don't get me wrong, she was still a pretty creepy-looking old lady, but I've gotten used to her—more or less. "You three, come here. It's about time that you got going—staring at the ground all day will not bring the priestess back any faster."

"Taiitsukun, milady, do you have any idea when Miaka will return?" Hearing Hotohori ask that caused Nuriko to twitch a little.

"She will appear when she believes that she is ready. Until then, it would be best for you all to return to your lives."

Trying to prevent the emperor from asking even more about Miaka, Nuriko came in with his own question. "What if we were to find the other Suzaku warriors in the meantime?" I chuckled. _Of course he suggests something that would involve him traveling some more with Hotohori._

Taiitsukun shook her head. "It is the priestess' job to go out and look for her companions. You all are obligated to assist her, but not perform her duties. I'm afraid that you will all have to be patient." Thinking that Tamahome might want to ask something, I looked over at him. What I discovered was that he had a solemn look on his face as he repeatedly glanced back at the spot where Miaka had been transported back. Just when I thought that things would be fine between those two since their talk at the lake, the events that unfolded afterwards, including Miaka going home, seemed to keep those two's potential relationship from ever happening. I just hoped that when she came back, they would finally be honest—or should I say that he be honest—after all, she already confessed—about their feelings.

The three guys finally managed to close in the huge gap between themselves and Taiitsukun when she finally continued. "Now, before you all return, another issue just came to my attention." Before I could react properly, she whacked me in the back of the head once again with that blasted plastic hammer. Considering it hadn't been long since she had gotten me before, I silently cursed as my body made its way to the floor again, right back in the crouched-over position with my hands holding my head from the pain. The others looked to her in comical fear that she might do the same thing to them—even Tamahome managed to snap his focus back on the issue at hand.

While cringing in pain, I looked up at her once more. "Oh. My. Gosh. What the hell did I do this time?"

"That was for being an idiot and engaging yourself in hand-to-hand combat."

I failed to see the error in that. "So what?"

"You are a sorceress and added to that, you yourself know that your physical abilities aren't exactly something to brag about. You lack in physical skill, strength, and endurance, so even attempting to put yourself in the front of a battle like that could be dangerous. A spell caster such as yourself should be in the back or off to the side doing what you have spent so long mastering in—magic!" Without allowing me to refer my thoughts on the subject, she continued. "And don't tell me that you haven't noticed your energy depleting whenever you use that Tornado Fist of yours. Although it has some magical elements to it, it is still more physical which in most cases—and in the long run—will cause you more harm than your enemies. It may even eventually get you killed. Don't use that technique unless you absolutely have to. Otherwise, stick to spells. I imagine that you are clever enough to cast quickly or evade any problems for when you need to recite an incantation." With a threatening look, she grasped the incredible toy hammer that just seems to come out of nowhere most of the time. "I will not allow your boldness and recklessness get you killed in such a disgraceful way—especially when you can prevent it from happening." During this whole lecture, it had occurred to me that she wasn't mentioning how I was keeping my powers a secret for fun when I first entered this world. Either she wasn't aware that that was the reason as to why my magic was at a minimum, or she just didn't think it was necessary to spill out since it was sort of implied in the whole "I will not allow your boldness and recklessness get you killed" thing. But the fact that she was telling me how to fight was ticking me off a bit—even if it did make total and complete sense. I'd just never admit that.

Taiitsukun faced the guys. "You three are all skilled in close-combat fighting and therefore are combatable with Akimoto who is a Master Sorceress—meaning that she is a ranged fighter. I am counting on you all to fight alongside her and protect her while she's casting spells—"

"Hold up! I don't need those guys holding my hand. You even said it yourself, I am a Master Sorceress. That wouldn't mean anything if I couldn't use my own skills and abilities to protect myself." I turned to face the concerned look of my friends. "I'm already intruding in this world and in these guys' lives—bringing my own problems and monsters into the mix. I really don't want them to get hurt because they have to support me."

Almost instantly, the old woman flew up right in my face causing me to arch my back a little. "What did I just say about being reckless? You apparently don't remember your track record. Let's take a look back at them shall we?" She took a deep breath. "You went off by yourself to fight that outrageously strong demon, Naraku, when you were just barely starting out with magic. If you hadn't gotten lucky, you'd have been dead and absorbed by now. You lost focus in your first fight against the Shadow Maidens and forced those two young men with a family curse to come and save you. You put yourself up against a bunch of thugs without assessing the situation properly and ended up by almost getting yourself quickly murdered with one of those guns. And again, you put yourself up at risk against some more men who were bigger than you—somehow tempting you to not use your magic and went with hand-to-hand combat—resulting in you almost drowning if it wasn't for your_special_friend saving you." She stressed "special" when she meant Hikaru. "You stupidly went up against me even after realizing that you were and are out of your league. Oh, and let's not forget that one time when your powers weren't working and yet you decided to go off against almost a thousand Shadow Maidens. If those men didn't come to rescue you, you would not still be alive—"

"Okay! I get it! I've made some bad choices. Sue me why don't cha?" _Holy crap! I honestly didn't think that I did all that! _Not only did Taiitsukun's words remind me of how much I had been through, but she also reminded me about all the times my life was almost ended. _Huh. Maybe I am reckless._

"You are strong, there is no doubt about that, but there are extenuating and unpredictable circumstances that put you in dangerous situations where you yourself cannot defend yourself properly—whether it be you temporarily have energy fluctuations, or are ambushed, or overrun with Shadow Maidens, you need help. So stop acting like an idiot and accept the help!"

Taken aback, I couldn't quite form the right words to say. It had never really been my thing to ask others for help. All my life, I had to rely on myself to get through all my problems—especially after Kajou died. Since people didn't want to get close, I had to learn to rely on me, myself, and I to get through everything. At first, it was hard—really hard—but then I got used to the fact that I was completely alone. In fact, I started to count on the fact that others wouldn't stick around me. I didn't want anyone to get hurt because of me—and I didn't want to get hurt if someone got close and decided that they couldn't take it.

Now, I was being asked to ask for help which was a completely foreign thing to me. The danger was even higher—now more than ever. I still didn't know if I wanted other's involved with all this. Sure, I decided to stay and help out Miaka, but I was planning on keeping my stuff off to the side—handling on my own—and not letting her or the others battling my own demons. I couldn't ask them to do that. I wasn't willing to abuse their friendship and ask them to risk their lives for me. For almost a year, I had been training just so that I would make sure that I wouldn't die from whatever had it out for me. So, I knew that I wasn't weak. But was I fooling myself in thinking that I could handle everything on my own?

Unexpectedly, I felt two hands rested on both if my shoulders. Looking to my sides, I discovered that it was both Tamahome and Hotohori.

"You need not fret Akimoto. We would be more than happy to help you." The emperor smiled. "You seem to be sensitive whenever someone says that they want to protect you. So, how about we say that we'll fight alongside you as equals? There's no harm in that, right?"

"Honestly, Aki," I switched over to Tama, "That pride of yours seems to have gotten you into a lot of trouble." It wasn't really pride—well, it was to some extent, but it was mostly the other thing. "Just accept that we're going to be around. So why not let us be there for you?" My heart couldn't help but flutter a bit as my face started to heat up.

Bringing my head down, I asked quietly, "Why would you do all this? Why would you go so far as to help someone that you just met? I'm not even your priestess. I know that Nuriko didn't mean it when he had said it, but he was right when he said that I didn't belong here. At least not with the Suzaku people…"

"And I told _you_ that you do belong here." Nuriko spoke up with a playful arrogant tone. "Jeez! Why do you have to make such a big deal out of this? You're in this group whether you like it or not." He winked. "Okay?"

As I stood there staring at the three—each with a look of understanding on their faces—I tried to refrain myself from tearing up like a baby. Replying, I spoke quietly. "You guys…" _Thank you._

* * *

><p>"What do you mean by 'you're leaving'?"<p>

It had been about a week since the events that had unfolded at Mt. Taikyoku. Taiitsukun had told everyone to go back to their everyday lives until Miaka returned, and that was exactly what had happened. Hotohori went back to performing his royal duties as emperor, Nuriko went back to lounging around the palace—with the occasional drooling over Hotohori, Tamahome hadn't really been motivated to do stuff since he seemed pretty down about Miaka leaving, and I…have been doing absolutely nothing—and that annoyed me _so much_. Coming to a new world was supposed to mean me actually doing something—you know, either looking for Shadow Maidens and defeating them, or finding my true love. Lying around doing nothing while waiting for Miaka certainly wasn't going to move anything along. It also didn't help to know that time moved differently between these two worlds. If this world was really moving at an accelerated time rate than the other, then it could take weeks or even months until she returned. There was no way in hell that I was going to sit on my ass all day looking at the sky and wondering what could have been.

One day, I had decided to go and explore this still foreign world on my own. For all I knew, I had to go find the things I was sent there for, not waiting around hoping that they came to me. This is what led me into the throne room talking with Nuriko and Hotohori about my plans. They both seemed pretty surprised by my sudden decision.

"Well, until Miaka comes back, I don't really see a good reason for me staying here." Hoping that I wouldn't hurt their feelings, I added, "It's not that I don't want to stick around and hang with you guys, but like you guys, I have my own agenda. Truth is I feel like I came here for something, and I really want to take the opportunity of Miaka leaving for me to go out and get some of that something done." Still feeling as if I was saying something wrong, my talking gained speed. "Really, I'm not trying to get away from you guys—especially after you said that you wanted me around and that you'll help. I—"

Hotohori put up a hand to silence me. "Akimoto, I understand. I can imagine that this enormous palace wouldn't suit your fancy for so long without anything to do. We cannot go out looking for the other warriors without our priestess, so I can see why you'd feel cooped up here." He gave a warm smile. "I don't see why you should be forced to stay as we all wait idly by for Miaka."

I sighed with relief. "Thank you for saying that. Are you sure that you aren't offended or anything?"

"I don't see why I should be—"

"I'm offended!" Nuriko complained. Even after that whole adventure we just had, he still wore the royal women's clothing and still looked very much like a woman. I guess some thing's just take some time to get used to. "How can you just leave me here? You're supposed to be helping me with—" While blushing he glanced at Hotohori who was looking at us curiously. "_Some things_."

Giving him a playful smile, I told him, "And I can get mixed up in whatever whacky schemes you have when I get back. I'm sure you can wait a _little_ longer." It wasn't that I didn't want to help him out—it was just that I didn't want to delay my mission any further.

"Do you require anything for your journey? Would you wish for Tamahome, Nuriko, and I to assist you?" Hotohori asked.

I shook my head. "No, it's not necessary. Thanks for the offer, but once again, I'm not your priestess. So you shouldn't change around your schedules for me." Before he had the chance to oppose, I added, "Besides, we'll all have our chance at bonding when I tag along on your Suzaku journey as soon as Miaka returns."

When I stopped talking, I could feel as his eyes observed me while he pondered. "Well, I will miss you as well as all the commotion that's been around the palace since you two ladies have arrived, but I will not stop you from doing what you feel needs to be done. Are you certain that you do not wish to stay at least one more night? Or maybe perhaps I could have my servants prepare something for your journey—"

"Hotohori! I'll be fine!" It was really sweet how he was so concerned about me, but I really didn't want to be fussed over—mostly because I wasn't used to being fussed over. I couldn't help but blush from embarrassment. "You worry too much. Everything will be fine! And I'll make sure to try my best to avoid any and all hand-to-hand combat. Taiitsukun pretty much whacked it into my head that that is forbidden to me." Of course, I hoped that I wouldn't end up fighting at all, but we all knew how lucky I had been in the "hope" department.

Trying to avoid His Highnesses' concerned gaze, I switched my focus onto Nuriko. "Hey, do you know where Tamahome is? I wanted to say good-bye before I left."

He sighed as his eyes trailed towards the open doors behind him. "I think I saw him somewhere outside. Trust me, he won't be hard to find—just look for the guy slugging around in self-misery." Like I had mentioned earlier, Tama was really stuck in the blues since Miaka left. He totally wasn't acting like himself—walking into walls, staring off into space, absentmindedly chewing on plates, sitting around while birds perched on him…yeah the guy wasn't doing too well. This was only another obvious example of how much he cared about that girl—he had it _real_ bad.

"Well, I guess I'll try and get him to focus on something else for at least a minute. Then when I'm done, he can go back to sulking." I purposely bit my tongue with that last word—_sulking_. Gosh, I did _not_ like that word—especially after that day in the mall.

Just as I was about to turn and walk out, Hotohori spoke up. "Wait Akimoto." Facing him again, I he reached into his long sleeve and took out something that was wrapped in some cloth. Peaking my curiosity, I completely turned my whole body in his direction. When he unwrapped the mysterious object, it was revealed to be a knife of some sort. Well, to be more accurate, it looked more like one of those kunai that ninja's had in anime or movies—consisting of the diamond-ish shaped blade, and a short hilt that was decorated with the countries—or Suzaku's—colors of crimson and gold. At the very bottom of the hilt was a metallic gold crest of the outlining of Suzaku. The kunai—which I decided to call it since that was exactly what it looked like—was actually really impressive and seemed to be like new.

Extending his arm, kunai in hand, he presented it to me. "I was waiting for the right time to give you this, but since you're about to leave, I figured that now was more appropriate."

Eyes widening, I gave him a puzzled look. "What's this for?" I wasn't really a weapon person, so the fact that he was giving this to me threw me off a bit.

"Well, I realized that the chances of you always being around us either in battle or an a journey weren't completely absolute. So, I took the liberty of having this weapon made for you during those times when you were forced to fight without your magic, close combat, or hand-to-hand combat." Walking up to me, he took my hand and put the kunai in it. "If you take this with you, then I'll be more assured of your safety."

"Hoto…hori…" I honestly couldn't believe that he cared so much to go out of his way to have this weapon made for me—just so that I could be safe. Getting the heating sensation in my face, I asked him, "What about Miaka? She doesn't even have any powers." Shaking my head, I gave a believable performance of being mead. "You shouldn't do things like this especially when you have a priestess that requires your full attention. You know that I have powers and that I can defend myself just fine. You should be giving this to the person that you're devoted too!"

Staring at my response in astonishment, he suddenly got serious. "For Miaka, I would use my own body as a shield and wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice my life. If I had things my way, I wouldn't even allow her to see the dangers of battle. For her to even have a weapon…I wouldn't allow it. I shall be her weapon and her shield—the other Suzaku warriors as well." He looked me in the eye. "But you…I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but I worry about you as well. I know fully well how strong you are—you may even be able to defeat _me_—but you still have your weaknesses. Lady Taiitsukun made that very clear." I almost retorted with "well, you shouldn't always believe what you hear", but I knew that both Taiitsukun and Hotohori were right—and I hated that _so_ much. As I was about to speak, he went on. "The symbol of our god Suzaku at the bottom is the royal crest. With it, you can go anywhere and buy anything you need, or go anywhere you want. Show it to people, and they'll know that you're a friend of the emperor." Part of me wanted to decline such a thing, but since I wasn't really worth anything in this world, something like that was pretty darn handy!

Letting out a deep exhale, I grasp the kunai and made it my own. "I guess since you went through all that planning and trouble over me, then I suppose that I have no choice but to take it." Smiling, I told him, "Thanks a lot!" Sure, it was true that I had absolutely no idea how to even use this, but people on TV didn't seem to have a problem with it—so how hard could it possibly be? And it was for emergencies, so I probably wouldn't even end up using it much.

As he returned the smile and said, "I am happy that I was able to assist you", I could practically feel the raging heat of jealousy emitting from Nuriko as he witnessed the whole scene between Hotohori and I. Choosing to ignore his intense glare, I closed my eyes and silently chuckled nervously to myself. _Well it's not like I asked him to do that Nuriko. Don't be so pissed off of little things._

To my surprise, he immediately changed his face to a pleasant, happy one, and actually spoke up. "Your Highness, is there anything that you would like _me_ to have?"

Hotohori gave him a sincere look of bewilderment. "Like what?" He pondered. "No, I don't believe there was anything…Is there something in particular that you would like?"

Getting a sense that his anger was quickly returning, Nuriko spun around and stomped towards the exit, mumbling something to himself.

Just as I watched him make his way to the open double-doors, my head began to pulsate—a flash of red light overwhelming my vision. Finding myself looking into some area, I found that my eyesight was a bit blurry—which was odd considering my visions tend to be crystal clear. The one thing that I could make out was a girl around Miaka's age with short, dull-blonde hair—that seemed to be in a similar style to Momiji Sohma's hair—and seemingly confused midnight-blue eyes. She even had on the same brown middle-school uniform as Miaka. It didn't take long for me to realize that that girl was Yui Hongo, Miaka's best friend—the one we had spent the beginning of our time in this world trying to find. She was walking somewhere and looked scared. No matter how much I squinted, I just couldn't identify her whereabouts. Was she in our world? Or by some chance did she return to the Universe of the Four Gods? When I tried to focus harder, I felt as if my brain was being squeezed. And before the vision could even progress, my sight was soon starting to be filled with a black cloud, blocking me from even being able to go on with observing my vision. Eventually, I could feel my energy being drained from attempting to persist with seeing what someone was trying to tell me about Yui. Blinking hard, I fell to the ground with my head spinning in many different directions.

As I opened them back up, I could see that I was back in the throne room being surrounded by Hotohori and Nuriko. Holding my head, I asked, "What the hell was that?" It was more of a question to myself since I knew those two wouldn't have been able to answer.

Nuriko shook his head. "You tell us. The moment I turn my back, you end up on the floor for no reason."

"Tell us Akimoto, what happened?"

"I—I don't know. It was…weird…" Weird was the easy way of explaining it. Never before had I been blocked out of a vision. Why was it that when I saw Yui, everything just totally went wrong? Sighing, I thought to myself, _I hope everything's all right. She'll probably be fine once she finds Miaka. Perhaps she looked confused because she couldn't find her…_

"Aki?"

Trying to disperse their concern, I told them, "Don't worry about it. I'll try and figure this stuff out. It was probably nothing!" Boy did I hope it was nothing. Quickly getting myself up, I remembered that I had a weapon in my hand. Using my power, I made it disappear into a personal space—just as I had done in the past with my wand and spell book. Seeing their eyes widen, I explain. "It's for safe keeping. That way I know that I won't lose it." Allowing them to process everything that's happened, I nonchalantly walked outside to find Tamahome. Luckily he wasn't all that hard to find 'cause…well… You know that feeling you get sometimes when you know someone is there without even looking? Well, that was what happened to me when I walked outside. Following my gut, I looked onto the roof of the throne room and saw him sitting there, cross-legged, with a far off look on his face.

"Tamahome." He didn't budge. "Tamahome." My voice got progressively more irritant and loud. "Tamahome!" Still nothing. Taking a deep breath, I shouted. "YO! TAMAHOME!" At the same time as my outburst, a gust of wind shot out and knocked him back, snapping him out of the trance. `

"Hey! What was that for?" He yelled back.

Smiling victoriously, I told him, "For being a spaced-out spaz who wouldn't acknowledge me." While he gave me a nasty look, I said. "Come on, I only need you for two seconds. Then you can go back to moping your life away."

"I am not 'moping'."

I scoffed. "Yet another thing you're in denial about."

"What do you mean?"

"It doesn't matter." My face softened. "Miaka will come back, you just have to wait patiently. She knows now that she has an obligation here. She wouldn't leave you guys hanging. I know she seems all peppy, and spazzy and stuff, but she's actually a very loyal person—and I have a feeling that you know that already. Plus _we all_ know that she's a persistent one, so don't sweat!" Seeing how he was taking my words to heart, I added, "Besides all of those things, she has a legit reason for coming back. But I'll leave what that is up to you to decide." Hoping that I made him feel slightly better—since I suck at pep talks—I stood there waiting for some sort of response.

Finally, he showed me a rather charming and thankful smile that made my heart leap. "Thanks Aki."

Feeling embarrassed, I tried to hide my flushed face by turning my back to him. "D-don't be stupid! I'm sure that I wasn't the first one to tell you those things." Turning my head to face him slightly, I changed the subject back to the main subject. "I'm leaving."

Almost immediately, and with a shocked face, asked, "What?"

"Don't trip. I'm only gonna be gone until Miaka gets back—so it's not forever. I came here to tell you good-bye for now." Hearing me say that resulted in him jumping off of the roof and right next to me, right as Nuriko walked out—causing him to accidentally fall on him.

"Tama!" Just as Nuriko was about to yell at him from annoyance, his face turned into a sly one. "I didn't think you felt that strongly about me. But you do know that my heart belongs to His Highness, right?" Tamahome quickly got off and looked away in irritation. "What's wrong, Tama-kins? Cat go your tongue?"

"Cut it out Nuriko." He told him as the cross-dresser stood up as well to wipe off his women's gown.

"Next time though, can you 'ambush' me near furniture? My clothes don't like to be handled the wrong way—"

"Ahem!" I cleared my throat real loud so that they could focus. "I'm so sorry to interrupt your game, but I'm about to leave."

Tamahome looked up as his memory returned to him. "Oh yeah…Why are you going anyway?"

Nuriko answered for me. "She says it's 'cause she has things to do and this is her best opportunity to do it since Miaka's away."

Looking at me, Tamahome gave a look combining both confusion and concern. "Things like what?"

Answering quickly, I told them, "Aki stuff."

"What kind of 'Aki stuff'?"

Getting annoyed with the banter, I ended it by saying, "'Aki stuff' that only I need to worry about. You dig?"

They both looked at each other with baffled faces and asked me, "Do we dig what?" I sighed. _Uneducated, Ancient Chinese Bastards._

Not allowing myself to get mixed into teaching slang from my world, I turned my back to them with another sigh. "Never mind." Making sure that they wouldn't ask, I gave Nuriko an order. "Watch over Tamahome while I'm away."

"What? I don't need a babysitter." Tama pointed to himself.

Nuriko chuckled and rested his hands behind his head as he smiled sneakily. "Well, isn't that adorable? But," He faced me, "why do I have to do it? I'd much rather be looking over His Highness. Oh, the games we would play together…" His words trailed off as the daydreams began.

"Nuriko, focus!" I gave him a look. "I'm not telling you to hold his hand and feed him, I just want to make sure that he'll be fine for a while."

Tamahome gave me an uncomfortable look. "I'm fully capable of watching over myself. Don't treat me like I'm a kid or something—you and I are probably the same age. And I'll be fine—" All of a sudden, Nuriko grabbed him into a big hug from behind, using his monstrous strength to make sure that he doesn't escape. "Nuriko! What the hell?" Struggling, the Celestial warrior didn't even budge or break the embrace.

Ignoring him, the purple-haired guy showed a beaming smile. "Okay, since you asked so nicely. Big Sister Nuriko would be happy to watch over little Tama-kins—and His Highness! Just tell me when to put them to bed, and I am so there!"

Knowing fully well that he wouldn't try anything sinful—at least not for this situation, I gave a smile full of relief. "Great. Now I can go without any regrets." Soon, we all just stood there without anything to say (don't you just hate awkward silences?). When I felt as if all was said and done, I waved to them. "Well, I guess I'll be—"

"Hold on, Akimoto!" Hotohori came rushing out of the throne room. _Wow, if only I had a quarter for all the times he either said my name or stopped me from moving forward today—I'd probably be able to buy myself a candy bar and a bag of chips. _"Would you like a carriage for your travels? You may use my finest horses—"

Putting my hand up in his face in the similar "stop in the name of love" way I did the day we met, I told him. "Dude, you are smothering me. I appreciate all that you're doing and want to do, but—and listen carefully: I. Will. Be. _Fine_. I'll be back in no time, you won't even notice that I'm not there." That was when something occurred to me: maybe he wasn't used to having such close friends with him. I wasn't sure about how his childhood went, but judging by his reaction to all this, maybe he was really lonely like I was. But unlike me, when he makes a friend, he wants to hold onto them to make sure that they never leave—especially after knowing how wonderful it was to have known them. When I make a friend, I know that there's always a chance of them leaving me because of the dark ring's influence on them. Deep in my heart, I knew that I would eventually have to let go—I knew that even more when this journey began and when I was forced to leave my friends. So even after all I had been through, there was still a part of me that didn't have what it took to hold onto someone for dear life when I didn't want to see them gone. Even when I left Hikaru, could I have fought more to stay? Or did I unconsciously give up because there was no point?

I suppose I still lack that kind of strength…

"I know…just…be safe, okay?"

Nodding, I gave them all reassuring looks. "I don't know why you are all so shocked for. Plus you guys all act as if I'm some damsel in distress who always needs to be rescued. Well, I'd rather rescue myself—and you all know I can. Not only that," I gave Hotohori a comical sly look, "I can _fly_, remember?"

"Oh yes, that is true."

"So if anything bad were to happen where I couldn't handle something, I'll just get airborne. Really, it's no big." Trying to be funny, I did a fake gasp, "Or _maybe_ you all just want me here to protect _you_ guys! Don't fret! You are all big strong men—even you Nuriko." He gave me a look. "I'm sure you can hold down the fort until I come back, right?" I really didn't like them all focusing on me like they were. Had I known that all of this was going to happen, I would have just left a note on their doors in the middle of the night telling them that I would be away for a while. Really, I felt as if I could have avoided all of this.

Using my energy to lift myself into the air, I waved them off. "I'll be back soon, okay?"

This time, Tamahome spoke. "How will you even know when Miaka gets back?"

I shrugged. "Well, I suppose I'll just have to rely on the universe to tell me."

"The…universe?"

Giggling nervously, I told them, "Yeah…it's complicated and a bit difficult—not to mention weird—to explain. Just trust me, okay?" Levitating even higher, I shouted back down to them. "See you guys later!"

Faintly, I could hear Nuriko crying, "Good luck!"

Then I was off.

* * *

><p>"Oh my gosh, I am so bored!"<p>

It had been at least five hours since I left the palace. All I had been doing was flying around hoping that my senses would catch onto some negative activity somewhere on the ground below. But there was nothing—leaving me floating around like an idiot just waiting for something to happen.

Sure, I was getting the opportunity to explore more of the world—which was very clean, green, and so-not full of pollution and in danger of global warming like my "futuristic" world. It sort of reminded me of the Feudal Era Japan. Like there, this world was simplistic for the most part considering this world seemed to be slightly more advanced than in the times of the Feudal Era. Most people weren't concerned with how big and fancy things were or if they were keeping up with the latest trends. Now, I wouldn't doubt that there were people like that, 'cause like Hotohori said, something's don't change no matter what world you're in. Unfortunately, this world may have been similar to the Feudal Era in that there were demon's hiding in places just waiting to attack some unsuspecting person. From experience, I knew that all demons weren't bad, but I did know that there were enough bad ones out there to be concerned with one's safety. Other than the Shadow Kissed, I hadn't really seen anything demonic or evil in that sense. But you never know…

_What to do…what to do…_I sighed. _Well, I haven't done a letter to the universe in a while. That will definitely pass the time._

* * *

><p>Dear Universe,<p>

It's been a while, hasn't it? When was the last time we had a heart to heart like this? Ah, yes, now I remember, it was when I first met the Hitachiin twins. I did an awful lot of complaining—who could blame me? The two were blackmailing me and wanted me to wear that god-awful creamy-yellow dress which was some sorry excuse for a school uniform

But this isn't about that.

I guess I had been too depressed or whatever since leaving that world to really care about giving you updates about things you already know. Since you know what's been going on since then so there really isn't much of a point in doing a long, detailed recap. Just know that I finally gave a name to the shadow creatures—now called Shadow Maidens—as well as the people they apparently have the power to possess…or something along those lines—which I have called them to be Shadow Kissed.

I am also a Master Sorceress—yup, no more wand. Apparently I was so beast with magic that I skipped Mage and went right to Master. So, good for me—bad for all the losers that cross my path.

But back to more pressing issues.

My experiences in this world have definitely been interesting ones. For starters, that hyper, food happy, cry-baby, happy-go-lucky, clinger Miaka Yuki showed up here as well. Was I surprised? You bet your ass on it. It wasn't like I wasn't happy to see her, it was just that I didn't think she should have been here. But the "Ultimate Ruler of the Universe" Taiitsukun thought that she did and that I shouldn't stick my nose into Suzaku business.

Wrinkly old bitch.

As if that wasn't weird enough, just wait until you hear about the characters I've met—as well as the drama that comes with them (it's like a new Barbie doll. You get the box and a bunch of accessories come a long with it whether you really wanted them or not). Okay, first there is Tamahome—a money-obsessed cute guy who is great at martial arts and at being in denial, Hotohori—the Emperor of Konan who is overly protective but nothing less than super sexy, hot, yummy…any synonyms would work—who may have a bit of an ego but is really sweet but kind of a tease since he's so nice to me yet loves Miaka, and finally, the most interesting of them all by far: Nuriko—the "classy", seemingly spoiled, crazy strong, sneaky, conniving (I don't mind him as much as I used to. We're better friends now…) Celestial Warrior who we all thought was a woman until recently. Sounds fun, right? Well here comes the real fun part: the love rectangle. No, not triangle, _rectangle_—or at least some kind of shape—because after a while it becomes ridiculous. Okay…Miaka likes Tamahome, who also likes her but won't admit it, Hotohori likes Miaka, and Nuriko likes him but pretended to like Tama. If any more people get included in this, my head will—no doubt—blow up. And where does Aki fit into all of this? She's the tiny dot standing outside of the involved rectangle. I could complain a lot about how I was supposed to be finding _my_ love, but I feel like I've done that already.

On another note, Miaka has become some big-shot around here called the Priestess of Suzaku, who—according to the legend—is supposed to bring peace to the land. Do I think she can do it? Well…I have my doubts. I mean, I've known the girl for a while, and she doesn't come off to me like the "save the world" type. I'm not quite saying that I am…but at least I have my powers—I can protect myself. But since Miaka is serious about doing this, I have no choice but to support her and protect her as best as I can. I'm not going to allow this world to get her hurt or lose her innocence. She is really a sweet girl who shouldn't have been given such a huge role in things like this—with all of the responsibility. Not only that, it seems like she's been dealing with a bunch of relationship stuff without even being in a relationship—yet. Things like this can either hurt or help her emotionally—really hoping it's the latter.

Here's another thing, and it's something that's been bothering me for the longest time. Even I'm surprised as to why I haven't asked this yet: why am I the one who has to go through all this? Yes, I asked to go on this journey—maybe not in those exact words—but when I started, I thought that the only thing I would ever have to deal with was emotional stuff. Well, I definitely have that—and then some. Why did it end up being me who has to defeat these dark forces? I mean, I'm not complaining about the powers—in fact I think that they are the most kickass thing in the world—but I just want to know why it ended up being me who has to go up against the girls of the past? Obviously I'm connected, but for what reason? Is there something that I did to make you chose me for this?

Is it…because of the dark ring around me?

And that's another thing. I know I asked this a lot when I was younger and eventually gave up, but I feel as if it's really significant now: why is this ring around me? I can barely remember a time when I didn't have it. Sure, I eventually got used to it when I was little, but now that people want to be around me and are actually willing to suffer for me, I can stand the fact that I could be hurting them. I felt just awful when I accidentally caused it to hurt Nuriko and Tamahome. I just hate that I have this thing around me and that my life is so screwed up! If I had been a normal girl—well, more normal without my negative energy ring anyway—I would have been able to stay with Hikaru and the rest of the Host Club. This other agenda I'm expected to accomplish is really making this whole journey pretty damn bittersweet. I'm beginning to wonder if I can even fall in love at this rate. I mean, if I keep getting "assigned" to different worlds to fight Shadow Maidens, then I don't really see much of a point. Honestly, it's really feeling like you want me as a soldier more than you want me to have my wish granted.

So have you just been messing with me this whole time?

Maybe I should just keep strong feelings like that to a minimum…Inuyasha, Kyo, Hikaru, and Dark (sorta)…My whole life I had gone without holding those kinds of feeling for anyone—well, there was Yosuke back in my world, but he was more of a "I can't find anyone else so I might as well settle with this guy" sort of thing. I just can't allow myself to keep digging myself that deep—not when I could potentially leave at any time.

Okay…look universe, I'm going to tell you something, so you better be listening. If you are _really_ serious about having me here—if you really want me here for a legit reason and not just to toy with me, then I want to see positive results. I want to find my true love real soon. If you don't deliver, then I might just quit this whole thing. You wouldn't like that much, would you? I don't have to stick around you know, I can call it quits at any time. Yeah, I really hate giving up and throwing in the towel, but when you think about it, I don't see any reason as to why or how this could possibly be _my_ fight. Either you dish out answers and give me what I have wished for, or I walk—'cause I'm not completely sure if it is worth the suffering.

You think I'm kidding? Maybe I am. But if you were to look at my face right now…well, I'll leave it up to your sense of judgment to see whether I'm bluffing or not. I feel sorry for those girls who are now Shadow Maidens, I really do. But if you found me, you can find somebody else.

At least for now, all I'm asking for is a sign—a sign that you're listening and that there is a decent part of you that really wants me to get my wish. I truly want to find my soul mate…

Love Always, with a HUUUUGE amount of sarcasm,

Aki

* * *

><p>Sighing, I continued flying around shortly after I finished the letter. <em>Who am I kidding? Since when can you bargain with the universe? Like it cares whether or not I'm happy. For all I know, I'm probably the universe's play-thing. Who honestly gives a damn about their toy? Because in the long run, a toy is still a toy. <em>

Just as I realized how my thoughts were floating all over the place, I stopped in mid-air, looking all around. It had occurred to me that I had been so out of it from the start of the letter till that point that I didn't even know where I was. For all I knew, I could have been flying in zigzags—turning right and left, right, another right, then left again. I did not know where I was and was starting to regret not asking Hotohori for something that would have probably been useful—a map. But no, instead, I was back there shooting my mouth off at him for being too protective and stuff. And now, almost six hours in, I was lost and didn't have a map. What was worse? My sense of natural direction wasn't all that great. _Dammit! I was hoping that I would keep track of everything so I could at least know how to get back! How could I have been so stupid? _

While being in the middle of mentally beating myself up, working myself up so much was beginning to make me hungry—which was very evident by my stomach growling like a rabid grizzly bear. Face flushing, I was glad that no one was around to hear that sound. Levitating steadily along, I started to scan the ground down below me for any place where I could get something to eat.

The moment I spot a small inn/restaurant, I make sure to land somewhere far enough away so that people don't freak out when they see some chick flying around. Yeah, I appreciate the fact that I can use my powers freely, but I want to make sure to assure everyone that I do not mean to cause mass hysteria.

Right as I landed, I made no hesitation to make my way over. It was a cute little wooden place actually—two stories, thought-out red swirls used for design, windows with Chinese designs bordering them as well as colorful flowers at the sill. I didn't get the impression that it was a fancy, formal place, but just a humble little inn or restaurant made for travelers who got hungry or tired along the way. Bless their souls.

Upon walking in, I was welcomed by a sweet old lady. As I made myself more comfortable, I discovered that there was quite a few people already there resting and getting something to eat at the many tables that occupied the first floor. In the corner you could see an opening to a petite kitchen where you could find a couple of cooks as well as a few young waitresses coming in and out. Overall, it seemed to be a friendly environment—which was much needed and deeply appreciated.

Of course there was that whole "staring at me 'cause I'm wearing 'odd' clothes" thing. But I was already used to that.

When I sat down, a small girl who looked about Miaka's age, maybe a year or two younger, walked up to me with a shy smile and asked what I would like. Noticing that they had a lack of menus, I looked around at what other people were eating. Considering I was a _real_ picky eater, I was almost beginning to think that I wouldn't like anything they had to offer except green tea. Luckily, though, I saw what appeared to be some form of Chow Mien that this one lady was eating. Figuring that that would probably be my only and best bet at food, I ordered it, already anticipating its delectable taste. Besides that, you know what they say: hunger is _always_ the best seasoning.

When she told me how much it was going to be, I panicked a little because I knew that I didn't have any money on me. Fortunately, I remembered the kunai as well as the other thing it was good for other than defending myself. Putting one of my hands under the table as if looking for something, the kunai was forced out of the space that it was stored in and into my hand. Bringing it up, I showed her the royal crest.

She immediately freaked out. "Oh my! I wasn't aware that you were associated with His Highness! Please forgive me!" Her face flushed as she began to bow repeatedly.

Holding up my other hand to get her to calm down, I told her, "It's okay, really! I didn't expect you to know. It's not worth bowing about…" Upon hearing my words, she bowed one more time before saying that my food would be ready soon. Immediately after, she raced back towards the kitchen. This whole situation made me giggle to myself. _Her shyness is really cute! I'm sure if Renge were here, she probably would have called that girl "moe" or something. _Thinking about the Host Club kind of killed my happiness a bit. _Man I miss them…_

Right when I was beginning to think that I was going to go back into memory lane again, some trouble started to stir in the little place.

A table full of rough-looking guys began to harass some of the waitresses—including the one that was supposed to be getting me my food.

"Hey there girlies. Why don't you bring your goods over here?" One of the guys taunted.

"I-I'm sorry. B-but we've got work to do…" When she tried to walk away, a couple of guys blocked her way, trapping her and two other girls in with the rest of the jerky bunch.

"I can give you some work to do if you like." Another guy inched closer to them.

"Please—" They grabbed the girl's wrist so that she definitely wouldn't have any means of escaping. Struggling, she tried to use her other hand to break free. I also noticed how the other two girls were embracing each other in an attempt at protection—each shaking from fear.

I growled to myself. _Why the hell do they have to do this now? _All I wanted was to eat in peace—nothing more! If anything, I just wanted to eat here without any hostility or without any damsels being in distress. Did I get what I wanted? No. The old sorry routine of big tough guys messing with fragile women who, once again, couldn't protect themselves was happening—which not only annoyed me, but _really_ annoyed me since it was preventing me from even getting my food. _Not only that…_I scanned the room and found that everyone in there was pretending that nothing was happening and just continued going on with their daily business. _Why won't anyone else help those girls? Are all these people so weak and cold that they can't even say something?_

"Come on! All we want is a little fun!" With a sinister face and a deathly grip, he brought her closer. "Isn't it your job to _please_ your customers?"

Of course I had to do something—I was _always_ the one who had to do something. The only thing that was confusing to me was why I was always the one who had to deal with jerks like this? And whenever I have to deal with them, it was usually because they wanted to do unspeakable things to seemingly helpless women resulting in me kicking their asses. I just didn't understand why this routine kept on repeating itself. And since I was always the one around when it was happening, it made me feel like this was a separate and annoying curse all in itself. Sure, at first it wasn't so bad since it didn't happen often around me. But now, it was straight up pissing me off!

"Come on, baby. Aren't you gonna give me what I want?"

"No…Please!" She stared to cry. "Someone…help…please…"

The big thug laughed. "Who's gonna help you—"

"Look you big jerk, the lady said to leave her alone," I said out loud. Pausing what they were doing, all of them looked over at me. "Don't you think it's a bit sad that you have to come to a place where the girls have to stay? Obviously your experience with women leaves a lot to be desired." Closing my eyes, I sighed. "Well, I suppose that's to be expected with an ugly bunch like yourselves."

Feeling that I stroke a nerve with that last comment, I opened up one of my eyes to discover that the band of punks was coming to my table. _And so it begins. _

"You dare call us ugly, wench?" _Yup, and there's that uncreative name they all like to call me. _"We can really mess you up for that!" _There's the threat they think they can initiate. _They all circled my table. _There's that whole theory about how they surround me and think that will actually help them. Jeez, it's like these guys are a broken record—or a re-run of a bad sitcom._

Making sure that my face stayed stoic, I told them, "Okay, this is gonna go one of two ways. Either you do the moronic, unoriginal thing and attack me—or make me mad—ultimately ending up in your asses being thrown out the door, or you can be smart and leave."

"What? How dare you speak to us like that!" Cooling his anger a bit, the guy added, "Do you really believe that a girl like you could actually take us? You probably wouldn't even be able to take one us down."

"Yeah, what makes you think that you will get through this without punishment?" One of them reached out to grab a few strands of my hair—which I allowed him to do only to fuel my anger and rationale for beating him to a pulp even more. "But perhaps if you apologized to us in some way, we may turn our heads from this whole ugly scene."

I smirked. "What ugly scene? You mean your face?"

Seeing a stress vein appeared at his temple caused me to feel a sense of triumph as his face reddened from anger. "Why you little wench!" _Synonyms people! Sy-no-nyms! _"Now we will show no mercy—"

"Hey!" An unfamiliar voice yelled out. At the same time, my body felt an odd, warming sensation that only lasted for a second—but it was real noticeable. It was brief, but it was like a warm, pleasant wave coursed throughout my whole body. When the immediate feeling passed, I looked to the open door to find a figure standing there. When the person walked in, we discovered that it was a man who looked around my age. He had on a long black trench-coat—over a white shirt—with light blue bordering around the collar and shoulders and light grey pants that were tucked into long black books with dark-grey tips. Over his trench-coat was a brass (maybe) sash and a burgundy belt around his waist as well as two lightly-jeweled necklaces that hung around his neck. His hair was a flaming orange-ish red that was in a messy style that also organized (if that makes any sense), consisting of long, thick bangs, somewhat spikey hair that stood up—resembling raging flames—as well as a patch of longer hair went a bit past his neck in the back—all complimented with green jade earrings. He had mischievous, prominent amber eyes and a lightly tanned skin tone.

My eyes widened. _Oh my God…he looks like…like…Kajou! Only in a more muscular guy form! _Attempting to speak, the only thing that would come out was multiple, short gasps. _ How is it even possible? He could be her twin! Well fraternal anyway…but still! What the hell is this?_

Realizing that everyone had gone silent for him, he went on with his proclamation. "All I was tryin' to do was eat! I haven't eatin' a proper meal in weeks, so I'd appreciate it if the loud bastards would shut the hell up!" As I sat there, frozen in place and shaking, the thugs deserted me and made their way over to the irritated newcomer.

"Hey you punk! You dare call us out?" One of the thugs asked the guy.

The flame-headed man gave him a nasty look. "If yer out to disturb my feast, then yes, I am callin' you out. What're you gonna do about it?"

"What are we gonna do?" Their leader grabbed the young man by his collar and brought him in closer as her laughed—causing his gang members to laugh as well. "Well, we're gonna mess you up is what we're gonna do. A tough kid like you should learn not to stick your sorry ass into something you can't handle."

"Well, I was really hopin' that you all would get wise and leave," The mysterious guy smirked, "But I guess I'll have to beat it into you." In the blink of an eye, the guy swiftly brought his leg up and licked the thug in the jaw, making him let go of the guy's collar and fall back in pain. "Believe me, when I'm done, you'll me itchin' to get outta here. You know, if I allow ya to get out of here." That did it. Almost immediately, the group of brutes charged at the seemingly defenseless guy. But to everyone's surprise, the guy dished out a barrage of kicks, punches, and throws erupted from him, sending his enemies flying to all sides of the room, and even harshly onto the floor below.

All I could do was look at him as a stream of thoughts invaded my head. _It isn't possible! Why is the universe teasing me like this? It's been years since I saw Kajou…and seeing someone who has similar features as her…it still hurts… _Without warning, tears started to form and blur my vision. _Why am I crying? He is obviously not her—for so many reasons—him being a guy is one of them—but still…_My heart squeezed in my chest from the optical perception, and I knew I had to calm down since, to anyone else, this was nothing. I shouldn't have been worked up over something—especially something like this.

In the middle of my thoughts, I hadn't even realized that the fight was already over and the thugs had all run off, leaving the place in shambles.

Putting his hand on his shoulder and moving his neck around, the guy said to himself, "Well, at least that's over. Now I can eat peacefully—Wait." He started looking around. "Why do I have the weirdest feeling that someone is starin' at me?" When he turned around, we were finally face to face—red eyes to amber eyes.

Walking up closer to me, he leaned down so that we had a better talking distance. Giving me a bewildering look as he scanned me bottom to top, he asked, "Is there somethin' wrong with you er somethin'? Why're you starin' at me?" He smiled confidently. "I didn't mean to completely blow yer mind there, but people shouldn't get in the way of a hungry man." _He has fangs…_ Seeing as how my face's expression wouldn't change, his smile fell as he continued to observe me. "You know…you're staring is gettin' a bit creepy…"

Realizing that I was still in the inn and surrounded by people—not to mention some random, macho guy—I knew that I had to gather myself together and get the hell out of there. _Screw the food! I don't care about that anymore. I just have to leave! _Drying my shameful tears, I stood up from my seat without a word and made my way towards the door—completely ignoring the existence of the flaming-haired guy who was talking to me.

As I brushed by, I couldn't stop myself from uttering the words, "Your face bothers me…"

Not to my surprise, the, now offended, guy shouted out, "Hey!" And forcibly grabbed my shoulder to turn me around. The moment his hand made contact with me, something…odd happened. A similar pleasant and warm feeling circulated through every fiber of my being and I couldn't even remember any of my worries. I felt strong, empowered. The peculiar part of the whole thing was that everything in the world seemed to have disappeared in a sea of golden light—the only thing—or person—that was visible was the man holding onto me. Looking at him, it seemed like he was feeling a probably the exact same sensation. It was…amazing!—with a lack of better words.

When everything subsided, all previous feelings of dread returned, and the both of us seemed to have returned to the restaurant—people acting as if nothing had even happened a few seconds ago. Did anything happen? _What was that? _As we continued to stare at each other in awe, his touch sends a slight jolt through my body, which, evidently, wanted me to stay there, but due to my personality, made me pull away and out of his grasp.

Not knowing what the proper response to all that would be, I just stood there, wondering if he would say anything.

And boy did he.

"What the hell was all of that? What did'ja do ta me?" He jumped away pointed in useless fury. "Are you some type o' witch er somethin'?"

Hearing the familiar hated nickname in combination with whatever just happened between us allowed me to snap out of my previous thoughts about him looking similarly to my big sister. Without thinking rationally, I gathered my energy for a spell. Raising my arms, I shouted, "_Explosion Array!" _Immediately after, the ground below formed a circular ring of white light around the two if us, soon followed by it bursting in some sort of blast causing the guy to be sent flying upwards and away from the circle—along with any of the rubble that got caught as well.

Figuring that I probably knocked out the guy, I scanned around the room to see a bunch of people cooped up in the corner, eyes widened with expressions of shock and fear. Thinking that my staying any longer would ultimately put the place into ruin, I decided to make a quick getaway. Things were already weird enough with that guy showing up and causing my mind and emotions to go haywire—and he hadn't even been there ten minutes!

Walking quickly and embarrassed by my outburst, I made my way out of the place and back into the sunlight. Just as I was about to launch myself into the air, a firm hand grabbed at my wrist, sending yet another odd spark racing through my veins.

Hesitating to glance back, I saw that it was the flame-haired guy—grasping on with a ticked-off face and all. He had scratches and dirt over him from the attack, making me completely surprised that he was still standing straight—and that he was even conscious.

With a growl in his voice, he asked, "Why the hell did'ja do that?"

Completely understanding why he was angry, I took my arm away and gave a slight bow. "I'm sorry. I initially didn't mean for that to happen." _I'm not even completely sure why I did that. It must have been the way he snapped me out of my shock. Calling me a witch was not a good idea. But there was no way he could possibly know that—so I should probably give this guy some slack. _Bringing my upper body back up, I continued to avert my eyes due to his appearance still bothering me.

The guy didn't seem to take my sincerity too well, though. "Sorry? Sorry? You send me flyin' an' all you can say is 'sorry'? Ya did that on purpose you psycho witch!" Feeling that that name was extremely uncalled for, I shot him a threatening look that didn't seem to faze him. "This is one of the reasons why I hate women! You all have these freaky and unbearably irritatin' mood swings fer no good reason!" _What? _Figuring that this guy was a huge jerk, I tried to refrain myself from lashing out at him. Even I knew that I had to keep my emotions at bay—for the most part—to make sure that nothing…_extreme_ happens. Yeah, it was sure enough that I had a significantly better handle on my emotional magic casting than in the past, but this didn't mean that my mental walls wouldn't slip up every now and then. So fortunately for this chump, I calmed myself down. As I refused to let him get to me—or let me show that he had gotten to me—I just stood there, glaring at him, without a word. "And that's another thing: why the hell would'ja say that my face bothered you? I don't even know you!" Upon discovering that I wouldn't answer, he started to get even more annoyed. Forcibly putting his hand on my head, he pushed down, making it so that I couldn't look away. _You're really pushing your luck dude…_What I didn't understand was why I wasn't trying to get out of this. I could have easily ditched this guy… "Look woman, you better answer me. I just saved yer life so you owe me—"

"Okay, that's it!" I exploded, causing him to fall back a bit when his hand was pushed away. "First of all, you didn't 'save my life'. You have absolutely no idea what I am capable of—you just happened to show up at a certain time. Had you arrived a few seconds later, those punks would have already been dealt with by yours truly. And besides the fact that you're being a complete dink, I have no obligations to tell you anything. So just step off!"

Taking a moment to be surprised, he completely recovered. "Oh, now you decided to speak up? Before you were crying like some helpless girl—no surprise there. And now you're being a complete bitch." He narrowed his eyes at me. "Just like a woman."

Feeling a nerve of mine snap, the wind started to pick up as I gritted my teeth. "You…How dare you call _me_ 'helpless'! That's certainly not the reason why I was crying—and the reason is of no importance to you. So if I were you, I would watch myself before taking another step." Hearing him scoff at my threat boiled my anger even more. "Look, if you think that I'm so freakin' defenseless, then why don't you fight _me_?"

His eyebrow cocked up. "There's no point. Besides, I don't fight women—real men don't engage in things like that. It's either combat against an equal or stronger man, or nothin'." _Chauvinistic jerk!_ Not caring about what I had to say, he turned his back at me before attempting to walk away.

Taking in a deep breath, I shouted, "You think you're a real man? Ha! Real men wouldn't back down from a fight! Unless…you're scared to face off with a woman!" He stopped. "You can't just expect me to let you walk away from this after talking to me like that, do you?"

Turning his head, he looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "With that spunkiness and mouth of yours, perhaps I would teach you a lesson. But I'm in the middle of doin' somethin' and don't need any other kind of distraction." Going back to face the direction in which he was walking, he added, "You've already made me waste too much time."

Seeing how little of me he took seriously, I was determined to not allow him to get out of this so easily. Stomping on the ground, I used my power over Earth to create a hole under one of his feet, causing it to get trapped the moment I closed it. Struggling to get out, he yelled back at me. "What the hell did you do?"

"Listen to me you jerk. If I'm as weak as you say I am, then this shouldn't take too long, right?" It was so weird—the way I was feeling. Never had I felt such strong emotions like this. Sure, I had felt anger, sadness, jealousy, as well as others. But for some reason, this felt different—almost as if my emotions were given a temporary caffeine boost. In fact, I was certain that if I were happy instead of ticked off at this moment, my happiness levels would be shooting through the roof! _Why is my being around this guy doing this to me? Was it because of what happened between us? _

Growling, he bared his fangs. "Fine. I'll only fight you because you're an annoying obstacle that needs to be put in her place." He sighed. "I really can't have this last long…" That's when something peculiar happened. Some sort of message was sent to me...They weren't thoughts. They were...feelings? Yeah, there were feelings of anxiety and excitement...but these specific ones didn't belong to me. They were...coming from the guy? It was so weird. He was saying how this would be a waste of time and yet he's anticipating me. I could tell because his feelings were as clear as day! Why was I able to know what he was feeling? Could he do the same to me?

Tuning back to the task at hand, I put my confusion in the back of my mind for further investigation at a later time. Releasing his foot, I told him, "A piece of advice: when going up against me, I suggest that you get rid of that smug attitude—that's_ my_ thing!" When he turned to face me with an obviously irritated demeanor, I didn't waste any time in focusing my energy on my first attack.

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><p><strong>I'm happy that I actually get to work on this story at college! Luckily I have 4 hours to spare between two of my classes, giving me the perfect opportunity to work on this! =D<strong>

**I made this an extremely long chapter (mainly by accident) especially for you guys! **

**My longest chapter ever! haha!**

**PLEASE REVIEW****! and tell me what you think! BTW, if you tell your friends about this story, I'll give you a cyber churro. Sounds good, right? Now I want one =P**

**C ya next chapter!**


	24. Bandit Fever

**Okay, you know how a couple chapters ago I said that "Metamorphosis" by Hilary Duff won for the opening sequence of this "anime"? Well, that was for Season 1. The opening to Season 2 would be (my personal favorite) "Reach" by Caleigh Peters—which was in fact the runner up for the poll. Really, I encourage you all to go onto YouTube and listen to this epic song. It REALLY fits this story. **

**Anyway! I'd like to thank all of you once again for reading/reviewing this story. It really means a lot to me that you all have kept up with it so far. So…THANK YOU!**

**Well, no more stalling, it's time for Chapter 24!**

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><p>Using the moisture from the air, I managed to materialize a stream of water and use it as a whip against my flame-headed opponent. As he dodged, I could tell from his speculating eyes that he was trying to come up with some way to get through my offense. Not allowing him the chance to do so, I made sure that I stayed a safe enough distance away. After that violent display of his with those punks, I knew that this guy was good at martial artshand-to-hand combat—which was, unfortunately, my weakness.

Jumping from side to side, back to forth, I felt that he was somehow inching closer to me. "You think that this little water trick is gonna help you win?" He taunted. Before I knew it, he was running to the side of the whip, avoiding it completely. "Think again!"

Moving quickly backwards, in an attempt to keep the distance, I tried using a spell. _"Shine Aqua Illu—" _In the middle of my casting, the guy seemed to appear only inches in front of me using such speed that I didn't even realize that he had advanced so far. Before I even had the chance to gasp in surprise, he brought his leg around, and round-housed me in my ribs, sending me to the ground, sliding until I finally came to a complete stop.

He laughed. "Is that all you got? You may have some magic mumbo jumbo, but you won't be able to beat me!" Growling at him, I started coughing from all the dust that was blown up. _Dammit! Casting spells won't work on this guy. He's too fast! _

"_**You three are all skilled in close-combat fighting and therefore are combatable with Akimoto who is a Master Sorceress—meaning that she is a ranged fighter. I am counting on you all to fight alongside her and protect her while she's casting spells." **_

The beginning of this fight was immediately making Taiitsukun's words make sense to me. She told Nuriko, Tamahome, and Hotohori to protect me while I casted for reasons just like this. Spells—the better ones—required time to gather up the energy and cast, which would make it significantly harder to do so if someone was coming at me all the time not allowing me a second or a minute to do anything. If there was someone handling the close-combat stuff while I was casting, it would give me just enough time to do a spell. But in this case—

The guy came running at me with incredible speed as I continued lying there on the ground. Knowing if he got close again I'd be toast, I lifted both of my hands over my head then immediately smashed them into the ground, causing me to utilize the power of Earth to make the small circumference of ground under me to rise up at least three stories.

"What? Now yer runnin' away?" He shouted up.

"Of course not, you moron! I'm just taking advantage of my abilities just like you were doing. Am I wrong?" Knowing that I successfully managed to screw him up, I retreated far enough into the circle so that he wouldn't see me grabbing at my side. The great pain from his kick was finally starting to kick in—telling me that I couldn't afford to let him get me again. Or else it was all over for me. And there was no way in Hell I was going to let that chump win. _Okay, think Aki, think! You can't use spells—not unless you get some distance from him. _The problem was his speed. _He'd still reach me too quickly. I could use the Tornado Fist on him…_Thinking it through, I shook my head. _No, that probably wouldn't work. I can tell that this guy did his homework in martial arts—just like Tamahome and unlike the morons I managed to beat in the past with it. If I were to do that, I can't guarantee that I'd land a hit, and my energy would just go away faster. So that leaves me with...using the raw elements—no fancy spells and incantations. _I knew it would require me to move around quite a bit, but it beat being beat by that chump.

From up top, I could hear the guy groan in frustration. "Well, if yer gonna hide, then I don't have time for—" Focusing in on Wind, I directed it down towards him, blowing him back and onto the ground. Seizing the opportunity, I made the tower of Earth level back down to its original place so that I could have a better shot of the guy from his level. Concentrating on Water again (since it was so convenient at the time), I collected a bunch in front of me, and without hesitation, flung it at him as it was shaped in a giant sphere.

As he stood there soaking wet, I called upon a cool gust of Wind to blow by and freeze the layer of water that was dripping off of him—thus making it harder for him to move.

"Wha-what th-th-the h-hell?" Shivering, he persisted on giving me a nasty look, fangs bared and all. Feeling that my victory was close at hand, I chuckled.

"What's wrong? Man can't take the cold? Ooo poor baby!" Just as I had said that, he completely surprised me when he managed to shake off the cold and come at me full speed. My eye twitched. _Are you serious? _Attempting to think fast, I had come to realize that my brain couldn't come up with a valid plan quickly enough before the guy had the chance to reach me.

When he got close enough, I figured that I had thought of something that would at least slow him down. Before leaping backwards, I tapped my foot on the ground, creating a hole in the ground big enough to where if the guy fell in, coming back out would prove a bit difficult. Unfortunately for me, he anticipated my plan and avoided the hole completely. Refusing to give up, every time I landed from my jumps backwards, I would create another hole in high hopes that he would fall in. Turns out, though, that the guy was quick on his feet and wouldn't allow himself to be put into that kind of situation.

My chances of getting out of this easily was beginning to look real slim. The idea of just flying and attacking him from the sky using powerful and legitimate spells was always an option, but I didn't want to take a chance destroying this scenery and the restaurant/inn that already seemed to be having a bad day. I could have also gotten more serious and fought this guy with fire or perhaps more lethal attacks, but this wasn't a to-the-death kind of battle. It was more of a pride thing more than anything else.

Seeing as how I was beginning to run out of ground space—and the fact that I really didn't want to make this place a serious hazard for innocent bystanders—I finally stopped in my tracks fully aware that the guy didn't decide to stop just because I had.

With a confident smile on his face and a blazing look in his eyes, he came racing towards me. "This is it!" He shouted. Just as he was about a yard and half from reaching me, I lightly tapped my foot on the ground behind me causing a softball-sized rock to appear on the ground in front of his path. Before he could even react, his foot caught on the slight added landscape, causing him to lose his balance completely and fall face first to the ground.

"Pftt…" Trying to hold in my amusement proved futile when I suddenly lost it and let out a burst of hearty laughter. "I can't believe you actually fell for that! You are such a moron!" Grabbing my stomach from the pain of laughing, I bent over and continued cracking up. "You fell straight on your face!" Ordinarily, it would have been more clever than funny, but the fact that I couldn't get this guy with anything else except by tripping him was completely priceless. This would be what people call a "Kodak Moment".

Between gasps, I knew I could hear muffled swearing coming from the guy the whole time he remained down there—he must have felt so stupid. When he finally looked up, tears started to form in my eyes from the hilarity of it all. Even him giving me a nasty look wasn't all that affective considering his whole face was red and covered with dirt from the impact.

"That…was playin' dirty…" He spouted.

Clearing my throat and centering myself, I did my best to put on a more serious face. "All's fair in love and war Fang-boy." Crossing my arms, I suddenly felt a hand reach under my foot and lifting it up. With a big enough push, my body fell over resulting in me landing on my butt—hard.

Upon hearing his stifled chuckles, I immediately gave him a similarly nasty look that he had given me not a moment before. "Hey!"

Mocking me while using a high-pitched voice he said, "'All's fair in love and war'," he returned to his normal voice, "remember?" Developing a slightly childish urge, I reached over to him and pulled on his nose.

"How do you like that?" I taunted.

In return, he pulled away and sat up quickly only to aim for my cheeks with both of his hands, stretching them out in a goofy and uncomfortable fashion. "Not as much as ya like this!"

Slapping his hands away, I rubbed my probably reddened cheeks. "You wanna play like that, huh?" Catching onto the childish groove, I swiftly swung my arm around his neck and fiercely rubbed his fiery head with my fist as he struggled under my grasp. "Take this!" Thinking fast, he wrapped his arms around my waist and used his weight to throw me to the ground in front of me, thus breaking him away from me. Sensing that he would try something else, I flipped over onto my back and wrapped my legs around his, making him reunite with the dirty ground once again. Shuffling over to him, I snuck up from behind, slipped my arms under his armpits and brought them back up, locking my hands together against his neck, pushing his head down towards his chest, executing a perfect Full Nelson (yeah, that's right. When Miaka was little, I took a few glimpses at those wrestling shows she was watching. She wasn't the only one with surprises).

Feeling confident, I didn't expect him to take advantage of his weight over mine, swinging my whole body over his head and onto the ground resulting in me facing up to him. While I lie there, stunned, he shifted over and positioned his body on top of mine—just barely hovering over it. Continuing our little "game" he took my ears and started to pull them, making me wince.

"You had me there for a second, but like I said before," he smiled devilishly, "you can't wi—" Right as I put my hands over his to prevent him from pulling any more, the peculiar spark from before surged between us. "…win…" He stopped pulling a wave of pleasant and warm sensations played throughout my body, going back and forth as if the two and us were sharing it.

So there we were, on the ground, him on top of me as we stared at each other from the jolt. Finally realizing what kind of position it looked like we were in, my face instantly turned red and, for some reason, the dark ring around me suddenly pulsated, sending out a wave that would have normally been absorbed by my enemy, causing them to shrivel up in depression. This time, the wave seemed to hit the guy…like physically…causing him to be pushed off of me. Sitting up, I looked over at him who was rubbing his head.

"What the hell was that all about?" He asked.

Something was wrong. Whenever the dark ring targeted anyone in the past, I could feel a piece of my misery break away from me and attaching itself to whoever it was that was a threat—causing them to relieve moments of pain and desolation. But that didn't happen this time…and that was clearly an attack from the ring.

_This…isn't possible…the darkness…it was supposed to affect him…go inside of him and make him suffer but…_

"Umm…are you…okay? Do you feel any more sad or angrier than usual?" I shakily asked.

Standing up immediately, he barked out, "_Mad_? Of course I'm mad! I'm freakin' pissed off! A stupid woman is ruinin' my day—why would I be anything but mad?"

Just as I thought. _He completely repelled it. A-as if there was some type of shield protecting him. _Saru, Kyoko, Kajou, and Miaka had all been able to endure the negative energy better than anyone, even to a point where they didn't notice it most of the time—but even they felt _some_ of its effects, even if it was just a little bit. This guy though…he got out completely free!

Standing up, I kept my gaze upon him as numerous questions raced throughout my brain. "Okay, I give up." I told him.

His eyes suddenly went wide. "Give…up? So easily?"

Shaking my head, I assured him. "I'm not giving up the fight—I'm giving up on trying figuring out the weird stuff that's been going on here." Pointing to him in an accusing way, I said, "Spill it, who are you? And I demand to know what you've been doing to me!"

Getting offensive, he pointed at me in a similar fashion. "Me? This isn't even about me! _You're_ the one who's been messin' with _my_ head. I demand to know _what_ you are!"

Lowering my arm, I realized that going back and forth like this wasn't going to get us anywhere. There had to be some sort of logical explanation as to why all of this funky stuff had been happening to us—

Out of nowhere a long steel chain appeared around me, suddenly encircling my body before I could even react properly. Feeling it tighten its grasp around me, I found that I could no longer move my arms—or any part of my upper body—properly. Falling to my knees as a result of all the motion, I looked up to see the guy I was fighting, thinking that he was the one who was doing this. I had found, though, the he too was tied up with a steel chain, on his knees attempting to get back up. But there were some sketchy guys behind him, holding him down to make sure that he didn't get back up.

Just as I was about to say something, a piece of cloth covered my nose and mouth, making it harder for any of my words to come out clear. Seeing as how another one of the strange guys was trying to constrain me, I attempted to fight back. Breathing in, a strong, sharp smell crawled up my nose, traveling to my brain. The more I inhaled, the more I found my head hurting and vision starting to black out. Everything was becoming a blur and all sounds were muffled. Feeling my eye lids go heavy in relation to my head ferociously spinning, I could no longer feel my body—causing me to completely lose the control of being able to move it myself.

And then, everything went black.

* * *

><p><strong>Genrou's 3rd POV~<strong>

The young man sat on his knees, his whole upper body tied with a strong type of metal, making escape more difficult—thus wasting his time even more.

_Damn that woman! If it weren't for her, I'd be closer to gettin' the cure! And now…_He looked up to the tough-looking guy sitting in a throne-like chair in front of him, completely surrounded by the dirty punks who had sneakily captured him and his lady opponent earlier while they were in the middle of battle. _Those sneaky bastards. They wait until I'm distracted ta capture me. _

"Ah Genrou, so nice of you to be joining us once again!" The tough looking man up front said to the captured young man. He gave a cynical laugh. "Please, make yourself at home!"

The young man, now known as Genrou, refused to look at the guy in the eye and growled. "You know, real men wouldn't sink so low as to wait when his enemy is distracted with somethin' else in order ta capture him." Wondering about the whereabouts of his "distraction," Genrou looked around only to find that the red-eyed woman was sitting there, on her knees, still unconscious—her head resting against the leader's "throne". Around her neck was a sturdy rope, tied as if it were a leash, which also attached to the overly glorified chair. She wasn't wearing the odd foreigner clothes that she had worn earlier—those guys had managed to get her out of that outfit and into a much skimpier one—consisting of some kind of bikini-like cloth covering her bosom, and a longer cloth covering only a portion of her lower half.

Cocking his eyebrow's up, the man's face started to wither from amusement to fury. "And you think that real men would allow our precious treasure to get killed? You have some nerve coming back around here after what you did!"

Genrou gave the guy a puzzled look. "First off, you guy's captured me. I didn't come wanderin' over here 'cause I wanted to. Second…who are you guys again?"

The whole room suddenly did a comedic fall to the ground right after he asked the question. When they finally all got back up, the leader shakily sat back down in his chair. "There's no way that you—" He sighed as his demeanor changed back to serious. "Perhaps the name of the Mt. Kaou bandits will ring some bells." The flaming-haired man's face changed from bewilderment to a solemn one, resulting in him looking away in shame. "Ah, I see that you finally remember!" He rested his head on his hand. "So I suppose that you recall how your bandits—you especially—were the ones who got our precious Reirei killed! You people are also responsible for causing our group to permanently separate. Now, the Mt. Kaou bandits are on the verge of extinction!"

Continuing to look away from the piercing eyes of his enemies around him, Genrou refused to give them a valid answer. He didn't give a damn about the Mt. Kaou bandits, but he knew that it was partially his fault that the young, innocent girl died. It happened way too fast and it shouldn't have happened at all. But it did, and he felt awful—so much to a point where the memory of her caused his heart to squeeze. He wouldn't, however, allow these chumps to make him lose his guard and cause him to feel even guiltier.

A woman with revealing clothes and indigo-colored hair tied up in a tight bun put her hand on the man's shoulder. "It may be best if you were to calm down, dear." Her chilling eyes were enough to make any person immediately freeze.

The man coughed as his exterior anger subsided a bit. "Perhaps you are right, my love." Taking a hold of her hand, he kissed it, causing her to giggle. Turning his attention back onto his captive, he said, "Well, I can see that you don't feel like talking right now. So," The man tugged on the red-eyed woman's "leash". For some strange reason, this caused Genrou to growl. "Maybe this will get a rise out of you. How would you feel if we were to take your woman from you?"

With a black face, Genrou replied, "My…woman?"

"Why yes, this little number right here." He tugged on it again fully aware that the woman at the end of the leash was still out of it. "We saw you two's little version of foreplay back there and figured that she must have quite the impression on you."

The young man's face instantly reddened with what he said—mixed in with colors of anger. "What? How can you even think that I would even consider—with _her_? And what did you say? You thought that we were—that—that was not any kind of foreplay—"

Ignoring the guy's blabbering, the leader intervened. "I don't care what kind of fling you have with this woman. The point is that we are going to repay you for the wrong you have caused us by taking her from you—letting you feel the pain of what it's like to have something precious to you taken away." Stroking his beard, the guy laughed cynically. "She could be a fair plaything for my men—a present to them if you will." Reaching down, he grabbed the woman's chin and lifted her face, inspecting it further. "She may be a bit plain looking for my tastes, but I'm sure the boys will have a lot of fun…"

"And…"The leader's lover wrapped her arms around his neck in a loving embrace. "She could be my servant. You did say that you'd get me one."

"You are indeed correct. Feel free to use her as you wish. And if she doesn't behave," Taking out a switchblade from his pocket, he positioned it under the red-eyed woman's neck, "we'll just have to train her to be good." As the man sat there, toying with her, Genrou couldn't help but feel a hint of rage welling up inside of him. Sure, maybe he didn't like the chick, but she didn't deserve to be brought into his issue's. More importantly, _if he doesn't get that knife away from her, I'll claw his eyes out! Wait—what am I thinking? She's just a woman—the same woman who's been giving me a shit-load of trouble. Why should I even care? _Seeing how helpless she looked in an environment filled with dangerous characters made him start to rethink. _But still…_

"Look," Genrou finally spoke up, "like I was tryin' ta say before, she is not my woman. If you really knew about me and what I was about, you'd know that I don't like women. So why the hell should I care about what'cha decide ta do to her?" Completely surprising everyone in the room, he continued. "You bastards might as well let the lady go, 'cause takin' her wouldn't be all that much of a blow to me." He scoffed. "You call yourselves bandits? Ha! You guys can't even do this job right. Now," Moving around feverishly—the best he could with chains around him anyway—he started to shout, "get these stupid chains off of me before I ground your sorry asses into dirt!" Looking around, he baited them. "Come on! If you want any kind of decent revenge, then you should let my arms free. Then we can settle this!"

"Enough!" Roared the leader as he stood up. "You will suffer for what you have done! Even if it means that we have to dice you up into tiny pieces!" With that cue, all of the men in the room, the leader included, revealed both blunt and sharp weapons ready to be stained with fresh blood. Immediately charging in, Genrou didn't hesitate to stand up—even as his arms were bound. Coming from every direction was someone attempting to slash him in half or crush his bones. Luckily for him, though, he had a lot more skill in brawling than these guys and his speed made it so that the clumsy bunch couldn't even land blow. Had this been against a more competent and formidable opponent, he would probably be a bit more concerned that he was tied up and targeted with lethal weaponry. For example, he knew that if he were fighting that woman at the same time he was bound, he may have been in some serious trouble.

_That woman…_

He shook his head and continued to dodge and evade the constant threat. _I can't be focusin' on her right now! She was the one who got me in this mess in the first place! _He growled. _I could have been on my way lookin' for the cure for the boss if all of this shit was happening. And I won't be able to do anything as long as I'm tied up like this!_

_Damn it all._

Stopping to think for a split second, he glanced over at the girl who was still unconscious. _She shouldn't be out this long. Did they drug her or somethin'? _The memory of her mysterious powers replayed in his head. He started to think: _if she has the power over things like that, perhaps she could somehow use that mystic junk on the chains to set me free! Then—_Attempting to sneak up from behind, one of the thugs raised up his ax in preparation to swing. Sensing that he was in danger, Genrou spun around and used the only weapon on his person that was free—his legs—to swiftly kick the guy in the gut, sending him backwards and knocking him into several of the other guys.

The more men he took down, the more he realized that they would just keep coming on and on until either he tired out or beat them all.

Genrou had to be realistic.

Taking a quick glance back, he was really hoping that the girl would wake up and provide some useful assistance. With all that was happening, he knew that even with his speed, he wouldn't have been able to reach her quickly enough _and_ untie her leash without the punks recovering and coming at him again. _Come on…I just need something. Some kind of edge over these guys—a distraction or a barrier. Somethin'!_

Very faintly he could hear sounds coming from the woman's mouth. She was muttering something under her breath. Genrou couldn't tell if she was awake for sure, but figured she wasn't since she wasn't freaking out about the situation. Sleep-talking perhaps? _Come on…I—just give me somethin' I can use. _

"S—s—se—s…seo…" She muttered. He knew that she was definitely trying to say something. "Seo—seo…s…s—seosh…" Stopping for a second, she said a word out loud that he didn't recognize, _"Seoshi." _Suddenly, a peculiar dome of light covered the half of the room that contained him and the woman. Looking up in awe, he was forced to close his eyes and shake his head, making sure to reserve his feeling of bewilderment for a later time. After all, he didn't know how long this thing of hers was going to last.

Rushing over to her, he squatted down to her height and investigated the kind of knot she had around her neck. _Looks easy enough. At least she was tied with rope and not a chain._ Before he did anything, Genrou was finally able to get a good look of the woman as she lie there motionless. And what she was wearing...barely anything really. And now that it was more exposed, her body wasn't that bad either—The thought didn't even have a chance to completely cross his mind since the bandit vigorously shook his head and looked the other way to stop that way of thinking. There was no way in Hell that he'd look at a woman who had caused him such trouble in such a way. Still though, he couldn't stop his amber eyes from drifting to the corner of his eye and down to her chest. And that was when he saw it: A scar. There was a long vertical scar in between her breasts. _What the? _That was an odd place for a scar to be. What could have happened to cause that?

His eyes grew wide, leading to him mentally punching himself. This wasn't the time to get distracted again! That was his problem in the first place! Lowering is head to her neck, he began tugging at the knot with his teeth, loosening it up more so that it would eventually fall off. The intense proximity to her combined with his lips constantly brushing her skin, made him really shaky and face completely flush more than it already was. Trying to work fast, and part of him still wondering about her oddly placed scar, he tugged and tugged at the right places before the rope finally gave way and fell down to the floor. Breathing a sigh of relief, his eyes were unintentionally brought back to her seemingly peaceful, sleeping face. Groaning to hide back the blush, he thought to himself, _she's just a woman…just a stupid, trouble-causin' woman. At least she ain't awake to bother me._ _Just remember she got'cha into this mess. I'm dumpin' her off the moment I get the chance. _Maneuvering under her, he tried to get her body to fall on him to where he could balance her on his back well enough without using his hands.

Which proved rather difficult. _Damn. _

Backing up from her to assess the situation further, something caught his eye about her that he had noticed earlier. There was some type of…ring? That's what it looked like anyway—some sort of ring circling around her body that looked like it was made of black lightning. He could barely see it—he actually had to squint just to catch what he could. But before the mysterious entity disappeared from his sight, he knew for sure that there was something very peculiar about that woman.

Choosing to get back on the task at hand, he attempted once more at trying to get her on his back.

Getting frustrated, he said, "Come on! I know you're not conscious and all, but if a part of you was able to make this dome-thing appear, then I'm sure as hell that you can wrap an arm around my neck." As though she were listening on a sub-conscious level, she steadily wrapped her arms around him, sending a tiny jolt through his veins. _That one wasn't as big as all the others. Probably 'cause she's out of it. _He groaned. _What the heck has been going on?_

Making sure that she was secure enough to where she wouldn't fall off—hopefully—Genrou waited until the odd dome dispersed to bolt out of there. Passing the group of pissed-off bandits using his incomparable speed, he managed to find an open exit—_those idiots for even keepin' it open—_and go right through. Seeing as how their hide-out was on the edge of a cliff, he was forced to proceed down a sloping trail lined with trees, far enough away to where they wouldn't bother coming after them—at least not for a while.

When he believed that they were safe, he bent his back near a tree so that the peculiar girl could easily slide off and lean against. Squatting down to her height he began his process of attempting to wake her up.

"Hey! Hey, woman! Wake up!" No results. "Wake…up! You can't be telling me that you were able to do all that back there and still tell me that you are still completely out! Wake up already!" This time, there was slight movement with the twitching of her fingers. Genrou groaned in exasperation. _Well, I could always dash back to Mt. Reikaku and have the guys get me out of these chains no problem. _He thought about it for a second. _Then again…how would it look if their future leader came back from some "epic" journey to find the boss' cure, being tied up like some kind of animal? They'd think that I was pathetic to have had those punks get me. And on the other hand, _looking at the woman, he grimaced, _gettin' saved by some woman doesn't look all that great on my record either—especially after her and I had that whole scene a while ago. Which one is better? Going back to the mountains and losin' some respect, or losin' some of my dignity by having this girl help me? Well, I can always gain my dignity back and the guys will never know about this whole mess. Okay._

"WAKE UP!"

* * *

><p><strong>Aki's POV<strong>

Trying my best to open my eyes, all I could hear was some loud, obnoxious voice ordering me to wake up—as if my excruciating headache wasn't bad , my brain felt as if someone had gotten a bunch of sharp needles and decided to puncture them through my skull. Not only that, but it was like everything in my head was being shaken up by some sort of blender. I felt like crap.

"Are ya awake yet?" The irritatingly familiar voice called out at a painfully close distance.

Extending my arm as fast as I could, I grabbed whatever I could of the person in front of me—turned out to be his collar—and brought him to my face. Opening my stinging eyes, which were probably blood-shot, all I could see was a blurry figure. If it weren't for the very prominent head of fiery-red hair, I probably wouldn't even have known who I was dealing with. While squinting at the same time I was trying to give him a glare, I hissed through gritted teeth, "Yes. I'm. Awake. Now shut up or get quiet before I am forced to permanently make your face _one with the ground_." Loosening my grip, I continued with a rather dark tone, "I have one of the _worst_ headaches ever and would appreciate it if you were to lower your volume."

I could faintly see his eyes trailing to the side. "It's not really my fault. You wouldn't wake up."

_I wouldn't wake up? _"Wait…what happened to me." Grabbing his collar again, I ordered, "What did you do?"

"It wasn't me! The Mt. Kaou bandits have some sort of score to settle with me and you just got brought into it. Had you left me alone in the first place, neither of us would have even been in this situation!"

_Bandits, huh? _Growling, I asked, "What situation would that be? And why do I feel so horrible? It's like I have a hangover without the alcohol consumption." _At least this is what I think a hangover feels like. If it's anything worse than this, then I am definitely staying away from liquor. _Body feeling heavy, I stood up on shaky legs—forcing myself to use the guy's shoulder as support. The moment I was up, nothing seemed right—the bright sun intensified my headache and the world just didn't seem like it wanted to sit still. Being on a boat in the middle of a severe storm was nothing compared to how wavy and tipsy everything was looking. "Wha-what did those guys do?"

"Maybe you should sit back down for a second…" To my surprise, I was sure that I heard a slight hint of concern in his voice. "They probably drugged you with somethin'."

I shook my head carefully to avoid any more pain. "No…I just…" Continuing to lean on him, I moved my hand down to feel some kind of cold, metal substance. Feeling around, I discovered that there were chains, and they were tied around the guy—probably to keep him from escaping. Seeing as how it didn't seem like we were in any immediate danger, I figured that he probably got us away from those bandits…all by himself—while I was unconscious. Okay…maybe the guy wasn't _completely_ indecent. "You—you're tied up…"

"Yeah, well…I kind of figured that you could…" He sighed in such an unpleasant way as if he were being forced to do something against his will. Then he mumbled something. "…lp…me…"

"What?"

From my close range, I swear I could see a faint blush on his face as he looked away. "I said, I figured that you could…help…me."

Temporarily forgetting my physical misery, a look of amusement washed onto my face. "_Oh_. You want a _woman's_ help? Are you sure that I'm not too_ helpless_? Or perhaps I'm not quite as technical as a man to be able to get this complicated chain off of you. Oh! Or maybe I'll just _cry again_. So many things could go wrong when something is left in a _woman's_ hands. Am I right?" My sarcasm amazes even myself sometimes.

Giving me a sour look, he grumbled, "Just use you're damn mystic crap or whatever to get these things off of me."

Putting my elbow on his shoulder in a nonchalant way, I looked away carelessly. "I don't know—I'm not really likin' your tone. I kind of want to hear that you've learned a lesson about of all of this—something about women being useful…"

"Bite me."

I chuckled. "Okay! If that's the attitude you're gonna have about it then I'll just leave you to go show all your buddies how you allowed yourself to become distracted and tied up by some chumps…" Taking my elbow away, I attempted to walk off in a badass fashion. Unfortunately, the drugs still had quite the effect on my body's equilibrium—making my only exit become nothing less than wobbly.

"I—you—how did you…? I didn't even say that!"

Holding onto the tree for balance, I processed what he asked. _How did I know that? _Like before, I know I wasn't reading his thoughts…I could…feel his feelings? I didn't know per se that he was worried about being disgraced in front of his friends…but I did know that he was feeling troubled about something. Concentrating, I tried to see if I could feel anything else from him.

Nothing.

_Or maybe I'm just crazy. After all, I have been waiting for when I'd finally snap._

Shaking off my ability to blow his mind, he spoke at me. "How do you plan on even gettin' out of here? You can't even stand up straight, let alone walk properly!"

"Oh, and if I freed you you'd help _me_ out? As if. Thanks for your deep concern and all, but I'll be just fine. This drug trip will eventually end, allowing me to get out of this fiasco—and you'll still be here looking like a sorry dumbass with a chain tied around him. So you gotta ask yourself: who's the real loser in all this?"

Taking each step carefully, I zigzagged in an unnatural way, attempting to get the guy to give in as he watched his opportunity at freedom get further and further. _Three…two…one—_

"Fine!" He shouted. Stopping, I smirked triumphantly. Through gritted teeth, he said, "At _this_ present moment—at _this_ point in time—a woman is…" He strained.

"_Say it_."

"A woman is useful—at this moment! And this moment only—I require your help." Pretending to gag, he added, "Will you…help me?"

Sighing, I knew that I had won. "Well I suppose that's the best I'm gonna get out of you for now." Using my hand, I beckoned him over to me. "Out of the goodness of my heart, I'll help you. But you'll need to come over here. Walking for me is still a bit…awkward right now." Slowly but surely, he made his way over to me—no doubt with a pissed-off look on his face. Putting my hand only about an inch away from the chains, I tried to think of the best way to get them off of him. _Would freezing work? Or perhaps melting the metal would be more effective—_Head spinning, it was difficult to even get my thoughts straight. Shaking my head, I tried to focus. _I have to do this! I've been making a whole big deal about this and if I mess this up…I'll be a disgrace for women everywhere! _

Having Fire in mind, I could feel the heated energy well up in my hand. Easing into it slightly, my energy transferred over to only a few links on cold chains binding the guy. All I had to do was wait until the metal got close enough to its melting point, then he could break free. Thinking that it was a flawless plan, a dizzy spell suddenly hit me, making my energy flow fluctuate in an unnatural way. As a result, a small, unexpected explosion blew up in our faces, sending the flame-haired guy flying a good several yards away.

Standing there with a shocked look on my face, I couldn't help but produce a small, nervous laugh as my wobbly legs finally gave way, sending me to the ground. _That's kind of funny…My Fire reverted back to the way it used to be when I was still training with my wand. Small explosions... Haha…High fives for drugs messing with my powers..._

The moment the smoke from the explosion dispersed, the guy stood there with a threatening stance—both fists clenched and arms straightened down at his sides, teeth grinding, and eyes piercing directly at me. _Huh…he took two of my explosions in one day and came out standing each time…I gotta say…he's an impressive dude...Or very headstrong._ "Why the hell did you do that you psycho bitch?"

Continuing to go on with the nervous giggling, I told him. "Dude, I am _so_ sorry. That was _so not_ my intention. You seem fine though!" Allowing my eyes to adjust some more, they caught sight of something. "And look! You're not tied up anymore!" Waving around his arms, he found that that was true. Unfortunately for me, that didn't stop him from being a bit…angry.

"That doesn't give ya the right to be sneaky!" Turning around to cross his arms, he stated, "I knew a woman couldn't be trusted—especially one like you."

All amusement draining out of me, my face was taken over by a look of disdain. "What is that supposed to—" Something had just occurred to me. My brain was finally working to extinguish all foreign drug substance out of my system, allowing me to become somewhat more aware of things again. The thing that was the most noticeable were my clothes—my clothes! _Where the hell is my normal clothes? _Flailing around, I began to completely spaz out. "What happened to the clothes I was wearing earlier? Why am I wearing this—this—"Face heating up by the second, I was completely embarrassed. Those perverts had put me into some revealing bikini like thing with my cleavage showing and everything! Holding up my fist and allowing my energy to help me get up on my feet, I threatened, "Those guys are dead!" For some reason, my eyes began to water. The thought of the potentiality my innocence being skewered forever must have really stuck me hard.

"Calm down. Those losers aren't worth it," The guy told me. _Oh my gosh! The guy! _I looked down and remembered just why I hated wearing bikinis and things that showed my cleavage. The scar...My arms immediately rose up and crossed over my chest as I turned my back to him, ashamed. _He saw it! Someone actually saw it! _From behind me, I heard a small gasp escaped from his lips when he saw the anger mixed with extreme panic on my face. "Look, they didn't do anything to you. I was there the whole time and they didn't even touch you that way…"

My head quickly snapped to the side as I gazed at him out of the corner of my eye. "You saw them stripping me?"

"No!" Even his face started to redden. "They took you out of the room for that."

"Then how would you—"

"There wasn't enough time for them ta do anything like that. Believe me, if they had done somethin', they would have—" He stopped himself to think about something. "They would have had a different attitude when they were threatenin' me. Besides…I—I wouldn't have…" He sighed. "…let them do anything like that…to you…" The moment he said that, I instantly calmed down as my body relaxed. Seeing my new expression, he added quickly, "A real man wouldn't have stood by and let a woman get violated like that. Men who allow those things are scum…and don't deserve to be called men." Even though the guy really infuriated me, something sort of…switched inside of me. The sides of my lips curving up slightly, I couldn't refrain from relaxing a bit and giving him a thankful smile—a genuine one. But for some reason, I looked down with a slightly flushed face. It was then that I realized that something was very wrong:

My bracelet was gone.

The bracelet that Hikaru designed and had made custom beautifully—just for me—had disappeared from my wrist. It was my most prized possession and it was gone. My ties to the Host Club and life in that world was in that bracelet! Wondering where I could have possibly left it, my head snapped up to the bandits' hideout. Anger welling up inside of me, my sudden burst of energy began to steadily lift me from the ground, ferocious Wind flying all around.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He shouted through the violently swirling winds.

"They. Stole. My. _Bracelet_."

"What?" Grabbing onto my wrist, he attempted to tug me down. "You're not seriously gettin' all fussed-up because of some stupid piece o' jewelry!"

Pulling my arm away, I chose to ignore him. "I'm going whether you help me or not. I've helped you out of those chains, so you can just go." Having said that, the hold on my energy was still rather shaky, making staying in the air pretty challenging. No matter what, though, I was determined to get my precious bracelet back.

He scratched his head with an annoyed expression. "Women always get worked up over the stupidest things…"

_I am so done with this guy! Forget him! _Putting my energy and focus back onto the bandits, I knew I had to really concentrate if I wanted to get through this still-being-drugged thing. So even though things were still a bit—actually a lot—shaky, I proceeded with levitating up the steep cliff to face the sorry bastards who chose to mess with Akimoto Tsubaki.

* * *

><p>Just as I was getting close to the entrance, another severe dizzy spell attacked me, causing me to fall to the ground, straight out of the air. Body struggling to look up, my vision was still quite blurry, and in combination with everything looking as if it were always moving, things were quite distorted in my eyes. Panting, I tried to use my energy to help me get back up. But when I discovered that it took more effort than it should have, the possibility of me actually losing energy from trying so hard was coming to light. It was just like what Miss Emiko had told me, <em><strong>"It's not good to try and force it like that. You have to think of your energy like a stove: what you were just doing was like turning the knob to turn the fire on, but all you get is gas. Without the spark, the fire, or your power, will never start and you'll keep wasting energy, causing you to tire out a lot faster than you normally would while using magic<strong>_." If I continued trying so hard, then this whole thing would have been for nothing. I was doing more harm than good to myself. As long as the drugs were in my system, using magic could have been hazardous.

_But I have to keep going! _

Finding a way to get up, I noticed an entrance that was surprisingly unguarded. Either those guys were idiots or they were confident. No matter which way it was, I still planned on going in there and raising all Hell if I had to.

Working my way through the hallways, I found that there was nobody…anywhere! I mean, did they all go out hunting or something? Or maybe I had the wrong bandit hideout…

Finally hearing voices, I followed them into a brightly lit room—sneaking along quietly. Peeking around the corner, I had discovered that everyone had gathered themselves into that one room—which was big, but it kind of unnerved me to see them all just grouped up like that.

"Get Genrou! Get Genrou!" They all chanted. _Genrou? Who's Genrou? Is it that loud-mouthed, chauvinistic, fanged red-head that I left behind? _"Make him pay!"

"Honey…" A rather tramp-ish looking woman with deep indigo hair in a bun snuggled herself up to some big, middle-aged, rough-looking man. Considering he was in the middle of it all, I figured that he was their leader. "I really wanted that girl to be my servant. Are we going to go after them again?" _Servant? As if, bitch! _

"Yes my dear. Genrou will pay for what he's done to our last leader as well as Reirei. And if you really want that girl, then we'll make sure that we don't lose her again." He put his arms around her waist. "Does that please you?"

She giggled coolly. "Of course. And this little token pleases me even more!" Holding up her writs, I gasp to discover that the little slut was wearing my bracelet!

"I knew that it was your style." He kissed her on the cheek.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to assume that 'style' means something completely different here than where I come from." Revealing myself, I stepped out of the shadows and acted as if the drugs weren't still in effect. "Because that new accessory of yours makes you look like a bracelet-stealing ho!" Despite the witty banter, I was mad as hell. There was absolutely no way I was going to let that bitch where my bracelet for sport.

Seeing the woman's face scrunch up distastefully, she spoke. "Well if it isn't our new toy. You'd never know it when she was asleep, but she has quite the mouth on her."

"Don't worry my dear, we can easily fix that."

I growled. "You'll need something fixed if you don't give me back my bracelet!"

"Aww isn't that cute? She thinks she stands a chance!"

"Hey there girly, want to have some fun with a real man?"

"Maybe this time we can play with her when all of her clothes are off!"

"How should we have her first?"

"Now, now men." As my anger boiled to an all-time high, the leader spoke. "Don't do anything too drastic until Genrou comes. I want to see the look on his face when he sees his woman submit to us…"

All mental barriers completely broken from both my fury and the drugs, the energy networks in my body seemed to be vibrating from the intense chaos of trying to escape and make its way out. Emotions racing out of control, there was nothing stopping it from making its way out. With the dark ring around my body flaring out of control, the negative energy peculiarly mixed with my Wind element, producing a black, ominous wind that seemed to consume the whole room. Lights flickering on and off, the population of the room all fell to the floor as the Dark Wind picked up various objects around the room, crashing them into all corners of the room. I couldn't understand why all of this was happening. Ever since I met that guy, Genrou, I guess, weird things have been going on with my magic, emotions, and my body, and I was called out, drugged, kidnapped, robbed, I was having an all-around bad day. In fact, it surprised me a bit that it took _this long_ for me to finally lash out at someone. On a normal bases, I may not have exploded so dramatically from my bracelet being stolen, but the whole notion of having it taken following the other screwed up events of my day was what tipped the rest of my patience completely over the cliff—along with my emotional-spell control. So in all fairness, everything that was happening may have been a bit over-the-top, but it was _completely_ justified.

Extending my arm, the Wind complied with my mental command and blew the woman straight to me. With a terrified look on her face, she just stood there as I forcefully took her wrist and slid my bracelet straight off. Letting go of her, the Wind persisted on blowing her into a nearby wall just as I was returning the beautiful ring to its rightful place—around _my_ wrist.

Feeling like my job was done, I slowly made my way to the already open double-doors. As my brain and magic was beginning to fizzle out, I continued to allow my energy to go full throttle. Walking in a both unnatural and uncomfortable fashion, each step was getting smaller and smaller in correlation with my energy depleting—fast. My feverish panting was a sign that I was almost at my limit.

As the Wind continued to blow, something flew to my feet. It was my clothes—my normal clothes. Taking the obvious opportunity, I squatted down and took them into my arms, anticipating the moment I could put them on again and get out of that ridiculous get-up they had put me in.

Just as I was becoming content with the outcome of things, my body finally decided to fail on me, making me fall backwards in defeat. Expecting to hit the cold floor, I was surprised to find two firm arms holding me up by my shoulders, instantly sending an awakening shock through my system—which seemed to be the jumpstart I needed to snap me into full consciousness again.

Looking back, I saw the familiar amber eyes and fiery hair that belonged to the beginning of my problems of that day. "You know, you seem like the type of woman who has trouble constantly followin' her." Sighing, he gave a confident smile. "Honestly, this is such a drag and a waste of my time." _Then why are you smiling you jerk? _

The negative energy in the air began to behave abnormally the moment Genrou got to me—it suddenly became more violent and hostile, eventually targeting me. Before it even had a chance to, a peculiar golden light consumed the two of us only to be fused with Wind just as the dark energy did, going straight for the threatening presence. The two forces seemed to have been fighting one another, like two opposing forces, yin and yang, going head to head. Rooting for Light to win, all it took was a mental push and the Wind of Light overwhelmed the darkness, completely making it disperse. _Where did that Light come from? I wasn't even thinking anything positive…or about Hikaru. Yet, it came out of me. It even felt as if I hadn't even lost any energy at all. I have been completely re-charged! _

Snapping out of my awe, I faced him. "Why did you come back anyway?"

"Well…my conscious was botherin' me—damn thing—and I couldn't let this sorry excuse for bandits completely get away with ruinin' my day." _Well I suppose if I have to suffer a bad day, it would only be fair if someone else I knew did as well. It feels good knowing that I wasn't the only one having a crappy time! _

Scanning the room, I noticed how all of the guys in there were starting to recover from everything that had just happened, signaling to me that it was time to get out of there.

Seriously, I was so done with the whole bandit thing. Genrou was right—they were not worth the trouble.

As he helped me up, it seemed as if we had a secret agreement to each other to get the heck out of there. Just as the exit was in sight, we somehow missed the swift ambush that was set upon us. The logic of how it was even possible that they were able to pull all of that off without either of us noticing is completely beyond me. Of course, I could always make some kind of complaint about how the Laws of Physics should be applied here, but ever since my journey began, the Laws of Physics lost so much of its credibility that it was just as valuable as a scribble drawing by a three year old. To all the parents out there reading this, I'm sure you all think that your cute, little pre-schooler is the most adorable thing in the world, but let's face it, their drawings absolutely suck—just like the supposed "Laws of Physics" that are supposed to apply but don't.

Yup, I could just hear the universe laughing.

Their leader revealed himself from the crowd of violent, weapon-wielding looking characters. "Genrou, of the Mt. Reikaku Bandits, you are responsible for the downfall of the Mt. Kaou Bandits. You can't just think that we're going to simply let you go—"

"Actually," I interrupted, "that's exactly what we plan on doing. So you might as well get used to the idea." Taking a firm hold of Genrou's wrist, I gathered my energy into a big enough burst to lift us both from the ground. _"Ray Wing!" _As quickly as I had casted the spell, we were already out of there, being covered by a shield of wind, and heading far enough away from the place with such speed that they couldn't even think of keeping up.

Feeling the toll in my energy return, there was an unexpected decent as we made impact with and skidded across the ground. Struggling to get up, we both sat there on the ground rubbing our heads.

"Perhaps you should work on that landing of yours—"

"Shut it!" I demanded. "Give me a break here, I am running on reserve energy. Besides, I got us out, didn't I?"

"Yeah, and about that, try warnin' someone next time!"

"What's wrong?" Pouting my lips in a mocking way, I gave a somewhat cutesy performance. "Is baby afraid to fly?"

Face going red, he retorted, "Look, I didn't even need—and I didn't want—to come after you, so don't make me regret even more what I did!" Feeling my first wave of relief all day, I giggled.

But of course, even that temporary peace had been disturbed.

"Genrou! Come back up here and face us!" Roared a voice resulting in the two of us groaning. "What kind of man are you to turn down a challenge?"

_Don't those guys ever give up? _Realizing what the guy said, I faced Genrou. "Yeah that's true, this whole time you've been bragging about how much of a man you are. Are you really gonna take all that crap from those guys?"

Taking a final thoughtful look up the cliff, he told me, "Eh, those guy's' opinion about what makes a man doesn't really matter ta me. Besides, I've dealt with those jerks before and I meant it when I said that they aren't worth it." For a split second, I could've sworn that I saw some kind of guilty look in his eye. As quickly as it came, though, it was already gone. "Had it been literally anyone else, at any other time, I wouldn't have hesitated to prove that I was the bigger man and kicked all of their asses back to their mothers." Taking a peak at my softened look, he pretended to ignore it and kept going. "I just don't have the taste to deal with them."

Before I had a chance to say anything to him, the bandit leader yelled once again, "You will forever be a disgrace to every real man out there!" _Oh, just shut up! _"And you, woman!" My head turned to face the top of the cliff. "This isn't over between us either! You have now mixed yourself up with the nightmare that is the Mt. Kaou Bandits!" _Great. _"We will always be there when you least expect it—ready to make your life miserable up until the day you die. We're coming after you, bitch! Even if we have to go through all the women and children of the land, you will both know suffering!"

"Damn…they aren't even the real Mt. Kaou Bandits…just the ones that were left off from the actual ones. And they say that I'm the disgrace."

"Woman! As plain as you are, you will be ours!"

…_Plain…? Plain? Plain? _Lifting my hands over my head and directing the dark ring, I began to gather intense energy—red lighting forming in my palms. _My bad day ends here. "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows. Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows. I pledge myself to conquer, all the foes who stand—before the mighty gifts bestowed to my unworthy hands. Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess!" _A large sphere of intense red and black energy collected in my hands—the trees all around rustled from the atmospheric disturbance. Aiming at the cliff hideout, I finished the spell, _"Dragon Slave!"_

* * *

><p>"We're sorry!"<p>

"I want to hear you say it again!"

After I released the _Dragon Slave, _my depth perception was still a bit off due to the after effects of the drugs. So, I wasn't able to destroy the whole place down to a crisp like I initially wanted. Instead, I managed to hit the top half, causing that to become completely destroyed which, of course, still affected any and all people inside the building. Whether they were just barely hit by the monstrous spell, or even by the debris, by time the whole thing was over, they finally got the message that they shouldn't mess with me—I made them aware that I was a force to be reckoned with. By the time I had gotten my real clothes (jacket, tube top, shorts, high-top converse) back on—home sweet clothes!—and cleared my head off all foreign contaminants—seriously never drinking or taking drugs…ever—the remainder of their once proud banditry came crawling down the mountain—on their knees!—to beg for my forgiveness. Karma…sweet, sweet karma.

Now there they were, bowing to me on the ground with fear, making sure not to look up at me unless they had a death wish. Crossing my arms, I forced them to apologize again. "I said, _I still can't hear you!_"

"We're sorry!"

"You know, I'm not quite sure that's good enough." Growling, I could immediately tell that they were shaking from fear. "You all have absolutely no idea how sick I am of thugs, punks, and bandits who always think that they can get away with whatever they want with whoever they want…wherever they want! I am so sick of people like you messing with the innocent just for sport. Oh, and it's not just regular people—oh no—you go straight for the 'helpless' women just 'cause they look vulnerable. Well just because there is an opening, doesn't mean that you should go for it." The volume of my voice got louder. "Are you all even listening to me?"

"Yes ma'am!" They all responded simultaneously.

Starting to pace in front of them from left to right, I continued. "Just 'cause I only catch you—and eventually stop you—from messing with the women, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you also terrorize men and children too. Am I right?"

No answer.

"I asked you, AM I RIGHT?"

"Yes ma'am!"

"And speaking of terrorize, I demand to know which one of you sorry people took of my clothes and made me where that skanky trash! If I find out that I'm not a virgin anymore, I will show _no_ _mercy_! _Who was it_?" When no one would fess up, I lifted both of my hands and effortlessly produced two softball-sized fireballs. The fear factor worked so well, that the woman from before instantly stood up.

"I-it was me. They left the job of dressing you to me ma'am. That's how I…'found' your bracelet—wh-which was wrong of me to take!"

I faced the others who remained bowing. "Is this true?"

The once intimidating leader spoke up next. "Y-yes. We were too occupied with Genrou to give you 'special attention'. So we dressed you up in that little number so that we could—" Catching my glare, he finished his explanation quickly. "—toy with you some more but now we know that that was completely wrong and will _never_ do it a-again—ma'am!"

"Yeah, I'm sure you won't…" _Thank God. I'm still innocent._ I raised my voice once more. "Heads up everyone." Without hesitation, all of their heads snapped up. "If I ever, and I mean _ever _come across another punk, thug, slave-trader, or bandit mess with anyone so bluntly in front of my face agin, then not only will I deal with that specific person, but I will make sure to come find you guys regardless of whether that person was even a part of you or not ." With each of them giving me similarly frightened looks, I answered the question that was probably floating around in their heads. "Yes, I have a tracking spell that will find you so fast that you won't even have the chance to say 'holy crap, we're dead'. I promise you…that I will come and find you—_all of you_—and make your lives so full of pain and misery that you will embrace the thought of hell. It will look like a pleasant vacation compared to what I have planned." My eyes narrowed. "So I advise traveling around and telling your network of bandits to behave. Got it?" Making fire appear in my background, I proceeded to let them all cower in fear.

I could even hear a faint, "S-scary" coming from Genrou.

Ordinarily, I wasn't an outwardly aggressive or violent person. Any kind of hostility I showed, it was usually when provoked and usually only lasted a few minutes—if that. Because of the intimidation status I had all my life, I eventually stopped using the dark ring's power on people to make them leave me alone. All I really needed was empty threats and a cold tone, and that would send them running. Believe me, I don't like fighting in a physical and violent sense—arguing is completely different, I do find amusement in that—I just use it when I feel threatened or when necessary. And sarcasm would be splashed in there, very often, with my unique timing and please. But all in all, I wasn't a bully who demanded people to fear her just for the sake of being a jerk and being on top—in a way that would bring me extra attention—a different kind of attention, but attention nonetheless—which I hated. All I wanted was for people to leave me alone since I was so used to loneliness anyway.

But for some strange reason, Genrou's contact caused some part of my emotions that I have been repressing or locked all these years to…release…or make themselves more known. I wasn't quite sure if this whole thing was good or bad as of yet, but it was probably best that I lost the emotional-high soon so that I could actually start thinking straight again.

* * *

><p>About half an hour later, the sun was setting and Genrou and I had already left the bandits behind to wallow in their fear. We both walked in silence since that whole outburst of mine, making this really uncomfortable. What made it even worse was that he saw my scar...no one was supposed to ever see that. I was so embarrassed...<p>

He eventually broke the ice. "So…do you actually plan on findin' them again if more bandits attack someone?" _Well, at least he's not asking about my scar..._

I shrugged. "Yeah, probably. Like I said, I'm fed up with all of that crap I have been dealing with since day one. I just can't stand guys like that!"

"You um…ya do know that I'm a bandit, right?" His question made me stop in my tracks.

"Yeah, I know."

"Then why aren't'cha…"

"Going all homicidal? Well you haven't done anything to make me mad lately." In fact, and I wasn't going to admit this to him, I thought he was a pretty decent guy—rough around the edges, yeah, but decent nonetheless. Sighing, I went on explaining. "Look, I was mad earlier today when we met because you called me a bunch of unnecessary names and pretty much insulted my gender. If I didn't react negatively after all of that, then there would definitely be something considerably wrong with me—or _anyone_." Remembering what he had said about women's emotions earlier, I added, "Yes, I agree that some women can be extremely crazy and bi-polar. If those were the types of women you grew up with that made you so bitter towards this gender, then I am sorry. But you need to understand that women have emotions just like men do. They act upon them when appropriate—like I did and do." Waiting a few minutes for an answer, I was starting to realize that I wasn't going to get a real response for all that stuff I had said.

Then he spoke up. "Why does it always take women such a long time ta get their point across?"

Lowering my head in a groan, I thought to myself, _I give up. _Changing the subject, I perked up slightly and held out my hand for a shake. "It's nice to meet you Genrou, my name is Akimoto Tsubaki." His eyebrow cocked up with my introduction. "I actually prefer to be called Aki." I waited a few seconds standing there like an idiot with my hand out. "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"Aren't you gonna shake my hand?"

Looking at my hand once more, he turned his back to me and rested his hands behind his head "Don't really wanna."

_What? _Faking a smile, I wondered something. "Tell me, Genrou, are you gay?"

Finally getting a reaction from him, he jumped and faced me again with a dumbstruck expression. "What?"

"Well I'm just asking because you keep saying how much you hate women. So…I figured—"

"That I was gay? No I am not! Just because I don't like women doesn't mean that I prefer men. I don't have to like either you know."

"What, are you some kind of species that reproduces asexually or something?" I asked causing him to completely flip out.

"I'm a human, you idiot! Why would'ja even ask somethin' like that?" At this point, his face was completely red. I could tell that I was swimming in uncomfortable territory for him.

Pretending to actually do some thinking about this, I looked all around as if in thought. "Well if you aren't gay, and you don't reproduce asexually, then," dropping a fist on my other palm in an epiphany, I said, "then you must have the mentality of a child."

"Huh?"

"You know, how little boys are always like 'girls are so icky' and 'girls are all annoying' and 'I will never like girls for as long as I live'? Well, that's kind of how you act. With the woman subject anyway."

"I do not act like a kid!" At this point he was in my face, attempting to make his point. "I just don't like women, okay? They bother me. So drop it."

Smiling victoriously since I was successfully able to strike up a rousing conversation, I attempted to make peace. "Okay, whatever. By the way, I will admit that you are…an okay fighter. But I would have totally taken you out in that fight—"

"No you wouldn't have. Any chance you thought you had, it was just because I was goin' easy on ya. Don't get cocky." At that, he started to walk away. "See ya."

Alarmed, I asked out to him, "Where do you think you're going?"

Continuing to walk, he glanced back at me out of the corner of his eye. "I told you, I'm in a hurry and this whole day has been a complete waste."

"Well then…" Thinking quickly on my feet, I told him, "Let me come with you." That got him to stop.

"Why would I want to travel around with the likes of you?"

"Well…let's start with the fact that we are both looking for something." I had figured that that was the reason as to why he himself was on a journey as well as why he was in such a hurry. "Since there is strength in numbers, it wouldn't be all that bad of an idea. And it wouldn't be for a long time, just…temporary."_ It would only be until Miaka gets back...I'm not even sure that it'll be _that_ long, but it's probably a good estimate._ Aside from the fact that I needed someone around who knew the land—since, once again, I forgot to ask Hotohori for a blasted map—it had come to my attention from this whole experience that it may have been a good idea after all to have a close-combat fighter at hand for those times when I needed to cast.

"Look, Aki, or whatever yer name is, I don't need the extra baggage. Like I said before I'm—"

"—in a hurry. Yeah, I heard the speech already. And I wouldn't be holding you down—I can handle myself. And if you're worry is about you looking less macho with me around, don't worry—I'm plenty tough and not girly in any way. You saw what I did to that building back there." My intention was not to sound as if I absolutely needed to travel with this guy. I just wanted to be smart and practical.

Unfortunately, he didn't agree with my views. "You wouldn't be able to handle it."

"Bet I can." Just as I said that, a gust of wind blew by and when I blinked, I found that Genrou was gone! Looking around, I tried to discover what the heck had even happened. Levitating high into the sky, I noticed a trail of dirt quickly being kicked up in a long, moving line. It was Genrou. He was moving extremely fast probably in an attempt to get away from me. _Oh no. You are not getting away that easily! "Ray Wing!" _Producing the shield of Wind once again, I zoomed through the sky, gaining speed until I was going at the same speed as my new acquaintance. In fact, the only way possibly for me to keep up with him was by flying and a boosting spell to back it up. Descending, I eventually went low enough to where I was only a few feet above him. "You jerk! I can't believe you did that!"

"Go away, will ya?" Maneuvering in different directions, he attempted to lose me on his trail. Considering I had the birds-eye-view, his attempts were all in vain. The whole time, I kept up with him, not allowing him to leave my sight.

Soon enough (twenty minutes later), he stopped, bent over and panted. "O-okay…I-I'll admit. You're the only one…who could ever catch up to me." Recovering quickly, he stood up straight. "Say I let you come along. What's in it for me?"

_Not that you deserve it or anything…_Summoning the kunai Hotohori gave me from my space, I held it out for him to see it clearly. "You see this? It means that I'm a personal friend of the Emperor. With this, I can go anywhere and buy anything that would assist me on my journey. So if I come with you, you'll get the spoils as well—" Blinking, I realized that the kunai wasn't even in my hand anymore. _What the?_

Looking on about ten yards ahead, I saw Genrou with the kunai in his hands, smiling evilly. "You should know better than to take out something so valuable in front of the future leader of the Mt. Reikaku Bandits." Laughing menacingly, he turned around to escape…only to find me standing right there. Got to love the lack of Laws of Physics around here.

Stomping the ground, I used the power of Earth to make it rise up and capture his legs, making it so that he wouldn't be able to get away again. "Hand it over." Growling, he reluctantly gave me back the kunai way easier and faster than I thought he would, sort of making me believe that he hadn't really been intending to steal it. It felt as if he was just messing with me. _Well at least he's learning. _

Releasing him, the Earth retreated back into the ground, reverting the landscape completely back to its previous state.

Scratching behind his head sheepishly as he looked away, he sighed. "Fine. You can come along."

* * *

><p><strong>I hope you enjoyed yet another long chapter (totally unintended once again). Please review! I really want to know your opinions about the story and how things are going, how they went, your predictions, humor me! <strong>

**Anyways, thanks a bunch for reading!**

**Love you all!**

**C ya next chapter!**


	25. Siren's Song of the Suffering

**This week has been soooo hectic! I've barely had any time to work on this, which frustrates me so much. I had a 2-page essay to work on that I ended up making 8 pages, as well as a big Biology Exam that I had to study for (which didn't happen since the class was cancelled). So…tired! Of course there was Statistics homework, but for some reason, that's been the easiest thing so far…haha who woulda thought? XD**

**I apologize for this being updated a bit off schedule. I've just been so tired lately, and my stamina hasn't been all that great…But I still wanted to get this out!**

**Enough about that, though, let me just say that I am so happy that you guys are still reading this! It always fills my heart with joy to see when people put this story on alert, favorite, or leave a review! I totally love you guys for that ^_^**

**Well, without delay, here's Chapter 25**

* * *

><p><em>You can't trust him…<em>

It had been a while since Genrou and I started traveling around together. During that time, we hadn't really rested much, since he always seemed like he was in some sort of hurry. The thing that sort of irked me, though, was that the talking between us was kept to an extreme minimum. He seemed like such an emotional guy at first who always had something to say—yet he insisted on us having as few conversations as possible. There was no way that he was shy—not this guy—so I figured that he had a lot on his mind. Every now and then he would glance back at me with a suspecting look, following with feelings of uneasiness and uncertainty. Yeah, I was still weirded out about the whole unintentional empathy thing that I had with him—which might or might not work both ways—but it helped fill the auditory void that was so obviously there.

Even without him talking, I was curious about the guy. I decided to join some random dude who happened to be one of the things that irritated me the most in these worlds—a bandit. He didn't really come off as the "torment people for no reason just because I'm a jerk and can" type though. Actually, I wasn't sure about what kind of guy he was…and I had no interest to.

_You know nothing about this guy and he doesn't wish to know about you. _

The fact that he and Kajou looked so similar still bothered me in the worst way, but I believed that my initial negative reaction to it was over and done. Even if the guy annoyed me a bit, he didn't deserve to be chewed out just because he resembled my dead sister. After all, it's not like he could control the genes he was given.

_You know that meeting new people is futile if you have to leave them—it's even worse when they betray you. Tell me Akimoto, do you really want to try your luck with yet another "friend"? _

Even as I walked in the seemingly positive environment, the mysterious female voice entered into my head, steering me into a certain, unexpected focus of thought. Her words suddenly produced pictures of everyone I had met so far on my journey in my mind, the more recent ones being of the new people I had acquainted myself with back in the royal palace. Feeling a slight squeeze in my chest, I couldn't help but frown at the thought of them. As much as I didn't want to admit it, the voice was making a whole lot of sense.

_The more of them you add to your life, the greater the pain will be when they hurt you. And you know that pain…the despair of loneliness. You'd never experience it if you just kept yourself away from all those that could hurt you—everyone. _

Keeping a few feet of distance between him and me, I observed Genrou as he insisted on encouraging the silence. It seemed apparent that he didn't want me around—I knew that from the very beginning. There could have been a number of reasons as to why he didn't like me as well as why he found that my being around was inconvenient to him. He had his own agenda, and I had mine. But even though my curiosities lead me to want to discover the reason for his journey, I found the whole notion to be futile since he didn't give a damn about me at all.

The woman's voice made me realize that my friendship with him was no friendship at all—completely non-existent. This relationship was purely business oriented—I needed him to cover me as I casted, as well as a navigator and he probably needed me to get out of some various scrapes that he might get in—whether he would admit it or not. The fact of the matter was that our personal businesses didn't intertwine, and probably shouldn't, so there's no point. We aren't going to be together long anyway, so why form any kind of bond that I know will be so easily destroyed? Even I could see that I was juggling quite a bit while being friends with Hotohori and the others, as long as I kept them at arms-length, any and all future pain could be avoided.

_Don't get too comfortable Akimoto… _

While being in the middle of my thoughts, I didn't even realize that the two of us had arrived at the border of a small town. The fact that I wasn't aware of our arrival told me just how distracted I was by everything. I couldn't believe that that voice had the ability to make me so unfocused.

Both of us stopped before progressing any further—observing the new space.

"It's about time we reached a place with people," He said with an irritated tone. "I was gettin' sick of not havin' any luck with things." Turning around to face me, he scratched the back of his head in an annoyed manner. "Jeez, I was beginning to think that you were some sort of bad luck charm er somethin'."

Grimacing, I told him, "Yeah, you would think that. Let's just use Aki as the scapegoat since you can't produce results on your own—_real _nice Fang-boy." _Typical. The first time he talks in a while and it comes out as an immediate statement that could produce an argument._

His eyebrow twitched as his eyes narrowed. "Are you tryin' to say that I'm incapable?"

Closing my eyes, I turned my head and giggled slightly, making sure that my sarcastic tone was apparent. "Nah, I would _never_ say that." Having all seriousness return, I brought my head back into its original position. "If you wanna go there, just do it." I smirked. "You don't need _my _permission, do you?"

Scoffing, I could see his hand moving slightly, probably tempted to grab out for my throat. Really, taunting should be an Olympic sport, if it were, who knows how many medals I would have had by now. Releasing a deep breath out, his eyes still stayed sharp as they looked upon me when he smugly said, "If I did need permission from someone, it definitely wouldn't be from a woman." He stuck his tongue out at me causing me to widen my eyes and feel taken aback. _Counterattack! _I honestly didn't expect him to say _or_ do something like that. So much for this guy being a predictable chump.

With his eyes laying on me containing a sparkle of triumph, I knew I had to think of something fast to make sure that he didn't think he had beat me in that little game of back-and-forth. In my mind, my finger snapped as an idea came to my head. _Got it! _"So…what I'm hearing is that you need permission. Am I right?" Feeling his smug attitude diminish, I decided to conclude my victory by walking away in confidence. The moment I took my first step into the direction of the city, a wave of negative energy seemed to have passed through my body, sending an immediate chill down my spine. As fast as the sensation came, it was already gone—almost as if some sort of warning was shot out at me from somewhere. Trying to search the energy of my surroundings, I feverishly scanned, my eyes darting into all directions hoping that I wouldn't catch sight of some horrible phenomenon.

Genrou must not have noticed my immediate change in demeanor because he persisted with our precious conversation—or...more like he was trying to get the last word in on it. "I don't have to take any of this crap—especially from you." With him walking past me in a huff, I couldn't help but stand there, looking onto the new town that apparently contained some unexplained sense of alarm. Some part of me was saying that there was something up with that place, but the horrible feeling came and went so fast that I couldn't even confirm what it was. There was a good chance that there may have been Shadow Maidens lurking around, but the problem with that theory was that the chilling sensation went away too quickly. I've dealt with those things long enough to be able to tell if it was them or not. If it were, though, then they were toying with me somehow—either trying to get me to leave, or lure me in. Whichever way I wanted to look at it, something about that town didn't seem right.

Noticing that I wasn't following him, flame-head finally looked back with a look that resembled bewilderment and aggravation. "What are ya just standin' there for? Come on!"

"Umm…" _What should I do? _I knew it was my job to deal with shadow entities, but did I want to deal with this while having Genrou by my side? There was always a chance that it was nothing—I could have just imagined feeling what I did. But then…why would my nerves persist on being on the edge? I didn't particularly like taking people down with me when it came to facing those creatures. After all, they were dangerous, and it seemed like I was the only one who could face them successfully, and only win if I really dedicated myself to it. The guilt would have been absolutely horrible if I had let anything happen to him or anyone at the hands of my enemies.

Yet, another part of me was telling me not to worry and that everything would be alright. I had been through a lot and I knew how to take care of myself. Not only that, but Genrou seemed like the kind of person who wouldn't back down even if I were to tell him of the Shadow Maidens. My leaving probably wouldn't have been a good option since it most likely would have made him curious not to mention suspicious.

_You know what? I'll just go along with it and see what happens 'cause standing here like this is making me look like an idiot._

He was finally starting to catch on that something was bothering me. Making his face transform into a look of concern, he asked, "What's wrong?"

Blinking a few times, I shook my head. "Nothing that you need to worry about." Beginning to walk again, I headed into the direction of the city, passing Genrou who still looked upon me with unease. "Let's go." Continuing to walk, I glanced back at him out of the corner of my eye. "You wanted to talk to some people, right? Well you can't do that if you just stand there."

"Y-yeah…" Not a second later, he joined me as we walked into the unknown town.

_Whatever happens, happens. And if it does, I'll just deal with it and make sure that no one gets harmed. _

After looking around for a while, we couldn't help but notice how there wasn't anyone around. I'm not saying that there was just one person every now and then—no, there wasn't anyone around…at all. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with the place or much of a reason for people not to be there, it actually seemed pretty peaceful and like a much smaller version of Konan's capital city, where the royal palace and emperor were. Taking a peek into a good number of the houses, I noticed how each one of them seemed like they were just inhabited not too long ago. There were beds that didn't seem to be made, food still on the table, food still being made on stoves, stuff like that. If this was the case of people moving away, then some of the houses should have been empty of all personal items. If this was the case of something scaring the people away, then the town would have looked a bit more chaotic with various things knocked over due to people running past them and not caring what happened as well as a bunch of footprints that had been stomped onto the ground.

At least all of those clues would have made sense. This—everything that we were seeing—didn't. So it made a whole lot of sense that my nerves were quite bothered by the whole thing.

"What kind of whacko place is this?" During our investigation, Genrou stopped and threw his arms up in frustration. "There ain't anyone around and this whole thing is wastin' our time. We obviously won't get anything done here, so let's just go." He started to walk away, not bothering to look around anymore.

As I stood there in the same spot, I began to wonder if leaving was the right thing to do. Something was definitely up, there was absolutely no doubt about that, but should I stay to see exactly what it was? This may have been something that only I could fix…_But what If there was nothing to be fixed at all? There is always the chance that the logical explanation for this town being empty being something other than Shadow Maiden related…and on the other hand this was something sinister in the works and I'm expected to take care of it. _It wasn't like I was completely intimidated by those things—yeah, some level of fear was in there with good reason, but I had been in enough scrapes with them to know that I could handle what they threw at me. The fact of the matter was that I didn't like fighting them…at all. They were irritating, deadly, and…well no, that's pretty much why. Sure, I may have had the most badass powers ever, but I wasn't invincible, and I wasn't going to pretend that I was—and I didn't particularly like the idea of being killed by them or having someone else killed by them. So I think that I was completely sensible in thinking that avoiding this whole thing would have been fine. If this situation was in any way connected with the Shadow Maidens and whatever crappy luck they tended to bring along with them, then it was almost certain that they could sooner or later follow me. They always did, 'cause didn't you know? I'm the ultimate magnet for dark forces. Just. My. Luck.

But then again, this may not have even been about them.

When I caught back up with Genrou, we continued to walk without any argument of whether we would stay around any longer.

Just then—

"Where are you two going?"

An unfamiliar voice from directly behind us came out of nowhere causing both Genrou and I to completely jump. Resulting in my unexpected involuntary response of throwing myself straight into the "safety" of my fanged companion—with me huddled close to him, hands on his chest looking warily behind at the mysterious figure that spoke to us.

It was a man who looked like he was somewhere in his twenties. He had ceil-blue hair that was in a long, skinny ponytail in the back as well as a very long, prominent bangs—or bang-type of thing—that seemed to defy gravity in that they were blossoming at a spot on his head, sticking straight up, only drooping a bit to the left as it got closer to the tip. His clothes consisted of a simple white shirt with long sleeves under a regalia cloak with circular white designs that were all over it, wrapped around one of his shoulders, almost covering it completely, that linked around with the other corner of his cloak by a ring at his torso. Along with olive green pants that included a white and black attachment and the bottom, he wore black flats and around his neck was a red-beaded necklace that contained several much larger light green beads. Completing his look would be a long golden staff—called a Shakujo staff—with a loop containing dangling rings, really similar to Miroku's staff—this kind of tipped off to me that this guy was a monk of some sorts. His eye color couldn't be seen since his eyes were closed in a playful, fox-like manner. The expression on his face seemed to be one of interest and curiosity.

Realizing that he had startled us, the guy rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Sorry, didn't think I scared you, ya know?"

Trying to keep a tough character, I shouted, "Scared? What do you mean scared? You didn't scare me one bit!" By some weird, cosmic coincidence, Genrou had said the exact same thing at the same time I did.

"Even though you two jumped? You seemed pretty scared to me, ya know."

"As if!" Again, our words were perfectly in sync.

It was when we said that that Genrou and I analyzed the physical situation we had found each other in. Along with my close proximity to him, I discovered that one of his arms was wrapped around my shoulder in a protective manner. Faces turning red, we pushed away from each other. For some reason, my push seemed a bit more forceful since I ended up sending him to the ground.

Immediately standing up, he started yelling at me. "Why the hell did you push me so hard? I barely touched you!"

Scratching my cheek, I trailed my eyes to the right. "Protective response."

"'Protective response' my ass!" Changing the object of his anger to the blue-haired monk, he pointed accusingly. "And you—what's the big idea with ya popping out of nowhere like that? And why were ya pretendin' to hide?"

The guy tilted his head up, putting a finger on his chin in a thinking notion. "Hiding? I'm pretty sure I wasn't hiding, ya know?"

Genrou grabbed the guy's collar. "Why you—"

Chopping his head lightly, I told him, "Leave the guy alone. I don't think that he had any bad intentions." Seeing how my words allowed him to let go of the strangers shirt, I switched my attention to the guy. "I'm sorry about how we acted, and I know that you don't know who we are, but can you please tell us what's up with town? Why is everyone gone?"

"Well…that's a bit difficult to explain, ya know? Weird things have been happening in this town for at least a couple of weeks now."

_Weird things? _"Like what?"

He held up three fingers. "Three things have occurred." One finger. "First, all of the women disappeared, ya know?" I swear I could've heard Genrou whisper "Good riddance" in the background, compelling me to elbow him in the stomach. The monk put up two fingers. "Second, a melodic sound, could be heard throughout the whole town." Three fingers. "And third, after hearing the song, all of the men in town went straight to the nearby forest and haven't returned since, ya know?"

"Hmm…" _That is weird. Why would they just get up and go like that? And they heard a song? _"Do you think you know why all of this has been happening—"

"And if what you say if true, then why ain't ya with the other men?" Genrou interrupted causing me to grimace in frustration.

"To answer your question," he faced the flame-head, "I can honestly say that I'm not completely sure why. Maybe I'm immune, ya know?" Facing me he said, "And to answer your question, perhaps it's some sort of demon or evil spirit, ya know?" Crossing his arms, he displayed a slight look of distress. "And as much as I don't want to say or think it, those men may have very easily been killed or eaten, or both!" _Well…they do sort of correlate with one another…_"I sort of deducted that whatever that song was, that's what was luring those men in, ya know?"

A lot of what he said was sounding familiar to me. I knew that I had heard some sort of legend like that from back in my world. "Like a Siren?"

Genrou faced me with a puzzled look. "What's a Siren?"

"It's supposedly a water creature of the female gender whose song has the ability to hypnotize its victims, traditionally men, luring them into their watery deaths."

Grabbing his chin, the monk spoke. "'Watery deaths', huh? That's kinda coincidental since a mysterious lake formed in that forest I told you about at the same time the women disappeared, ya know?"

"Huh…I wonder—"

"Who cares about all of this? It doesn't matter to us at all, so let's just go—"

I chopped Genrou's head again for disrupting me. "You know, you have this annoying tendency to interrupt what I say. Why don't you just go off and play—let the grown-ups do all the talking." Ignoring all of his yelling and complaining, the thoughts of whether this whole thing required my attention. After receiving all of this new information, it was obvious that this whole situation was sketchy and sinister. And if it did turn out to be Shadow related, then it immediately made it my problem. Since so many people were already involved, it was my job to make sure that they didn't suffer any more.

"While I'm not completely sure about what's going on, I'm pretty sure it's something evil, ya know?" The both of us looked at the monk. "The aura of this place is riddled with darkness. That's why I came to this town in the first place ya know." _The aura? How is it that he can see the darkness in the air and I can't? I've been fighting these jerks for a while and the only thing I get to go on is a feeling. _

"Well if ya came to the place for the reason of findin' somethin' wrong with it, then why didn't you just go investigate on yer own?" Genrou asked.

"I tried to, but…" He tilted his head and puffed his cheeks in a comical fashion. "Some kind of barrier wouldn't allow me to get in ya know? A person can only try so hard before knowing when it's time to give up and rethink your strategy."

While we all pondered on the new information for a few minutes, Genrou turned around and started walking away. "Well, this was fun 'n all, but I'm outta here. You comin' or not Aki—" Reaching my arm out, I grabbed onto the back of his shirt, preventing him from progressing any further.

"Hold on there, Tex. We should probably stay and see this thing through."

"Why the hell should we do a thing like that? It doesn't concern us—"

"You're wrong, it concerns me!" When I said that, he stopped fussing. "Well…it probably concerns me. I told you that I was on a journey for something, and this very well might be a part of it." I couldn't allow those people to suffer…not at the hands of the dark forces of the universe. "Look, if we save them, then you'll have a bunch of people to talk to regarding your problem. Isn't that reason enough?"

He growled as he thought about my words. "By the time we rescue them—if we rescue them—you and I could have already been in the next place. Besides," Giving the monk a suspicious look, he continued as he got closer to me and lowered his volume, "this guy could be makin' the whole thing up. I mean, what do we honestly know about him? He could be here to devour our souls er somethin'."

My eyebrow shot up. "'Devour our souls'? What are _you_ smoking?" When he gave me a peculiar look, I went on. "You didn't know anything about me when we met a while ago, and you still don't—and yet you keep _me_ around. Are you honestly telling me that _he_ looks like more of a threat than_ I_ do? Please." We both snuck a peak at the fox-faced guy, only to return back to our conversation.

"I guess ya have a point there. But I still don't see the practical benefit in all this…"

"What's the benefit? The benefit is saving innocent lives as well as useful info. I know that we could be asking other people, but you know as well as I do that they might not have the information you want. These people we save might." _I know we'd be juggling a lot on this, but either way, I have to go and check this out. _

For a few moments, Genrou and I stood there staring into each other's eyes, both of us trying to get the other to break. All that mattered was that I made it there to take care of the problem, if he didn't wish to come along, then…the better, right? So, why was I persisting so hard on getting him to agree with me?

After a while, the monk finally spoke up. "Umm…are you two okay? Or is this some new type of courtship ritual that I'm not familiar to?"

"No way!" The two of us shouted at him, thus breaking our staredown.

Genrou coughed and looked away. "I guess we'll come with you to find those people…" My face softened as it formed a slight smile.

The monk clapped. "That's good to hear, ya know? I honestly wasn't expecting to recruit any help, but I'm very much open to it. So, thank you." He bowed to us.

Waving my hands, I tried to get him to stop. "Oh, please don't bow like that. Any decent person would help." I shot Genrou a look, causing him to growl again. As that was said, we all just stood there exchanging glances from one another. Fang-boy became irritated before too long and turned his annoyed self to the monk.

"Well what're we waitin' around for?"

"Huh?" The monk gave him a puzzled look. "I was kind of hoping that we would all introduce ourselves. I heard that that was the standard thing to do when meeting someone new, ya know?"

Genrou and I exchanged looks. _Introduce ourselves? _I knew the idea sounded completely normal, but looking back at my record, I recalled how almost every first-encounter and name exchange I had with people on my journey consisted of something that a person usually wouldn't envision as a proper meeting. When I first met Inuyasha, he was trying to kill me, when I first met the Sohma's, I crashed through their roof and made Kyo transform into a cat, and then transform back into a human without any clothes on (that memory still makes my body temperature rise), when I met the Hitachiin twins, they were blackmailing me, when Miaka and I met Tamahome, he was helping us out in a fight and we didn't formally meet until we were in jail…and the list goes on. The fact that this guy wanted us to do an actual normal introduction shocked me a bit. But it was slightly refreshing.

Extending my hand, I told him, "My name is Akimoto Tsubaki, but I preferred to be called Aki."

Smiling in a friendly way, he complied by shaking my hand. "It's nice to meet you Aki. And your friend?"

"You can call me Genrou." The monk extended his hand out as well, and Genrou took it reluctantly while rolling his eyes. Narrowing my eyes at flame-head, I thought, _oh, he shakes his hand, but not mine? Bastard. _

Returning to my hospitable smile, I turned to the monk. "So, what shall we call you?"

His smile widened. "I'm Chichiri! You two seem like you'd be a bunch of fun, ya know?" We looked at each other.

"Yeah…things are a barrel of fun with us…" Sarcasm was called for in this situation, it really was.

He walked ahead of us. "I guess we can get going now, ya know? Just follow me."

Before I could take a proper step forward, Genrou reached out and grabbed my arm, bringing me back so that he could talk to me in a closer proximity. "If we don't get positive results from this, then I don't know if I'll be able to keep ya around. I told you that I was searching for somethin'—somethin' that I need really fast or else somethin' bad might happen. I can't afford to waste my time. So…"

Expression becoming serious, I nodded. "I understand. If you don't get the answer you require, then I'll leave you alone—we'll part ways then and there."

* * *

><p>About an hour later, the three of us managed to make our way over to the neighboring forest. Each step closer towards the unknown territory made my body feel more and more anxious. And with each step, previous feelings of doubt about whether or not Shadow forces were at work here were beginning to diminish. The only time my senses were on high alert like this was when those things showed up. But like some of the other times, this feeling wasn't completely the same as the one when I got with the legitimate Shadow Maidens. Considering all of the women had disappeared from that town, there was a good chance that they had been Shadow Kissed—the phenomenon that was still quite a mystery to me. I still couldn't grasp onto how the live women could be possessed like that—was it because they wanted to be possessed? Did they allow darkness to take over their hearts in a time of doubt and weakness? Or were they forced? Too tell you the truth, I was still unsure of how the Shadow Maidens came to be. Knowing who they were was just a part of the bigger puzzle. Damn, I hated figuring out stuff on my own.<p>

All of a sudden, a chilling sensation seemed to hit my body followed by the world around us becoming as dark as night—which was odd considering it was still in the middle of the day just a few moments before. The scenery around us began to consist of tall trees as well as other well-grown plants signifying our arrival into the forest.

"So this is what it's like on the other side of the barrier. I didn't think it'd be quite like this or that easy to get in, ya know?" Chichiri continued leading the way in front of us, looking back (as well as he could with closed eyes anyway) to make sure that we were still there.

"Barrier, what barrier? I didn't see or feel anything," Genrou commented.

Chichiri turned his head to the other side to face me. "What about you Aki, did you feel anything?"

"Well…I sort of did, but my mind was sort of elsewhere at the time, so I wasn't completely aware of it, sorry."

He tilted his head in a curious manner. "Your mind was elsewhere? Perhaps it would be better for you to retrieve it again before we continue on into the unknown, ya know?"

Catching the joke—hopefully it was a joke—I sighed. "It's a figure of speech ya know…" _Oh crap! Now I'm doing it!_

"I wonder if it's because of one of you two that the barrier accepted us. Last time I was here, it repelled me completely ya know." _How suspicious—I come along and the three of us are instantly invited. Sure, there was always the chance that this place really wanted Genrou and not me, but if I were to go back to my record again (damn this thing has gotten big! If my permanent record back at home was this huge, the school administrators of every district would most definitely be breathing down my neck, keeping me under lock and key) the pattern seemed to be more in my favor—and by my favor, I mean completely against me. _"But now that we're in, how do we deal with the evil forces?"

Giggling nervously, I told him, "Let's just focus on finding them for now." After all, I had a hunch, but I still wasn't one-hundred percent sure that this was as bad as I was hoping it wasn't.

For a while, we kept walking deeper and deeper into the darkness-ridden forest, neither of us knowing what to expect. The unbelievable feeling of déjà vu occurred to me, making this whole thing feel like that night I went after Naraku. Back then, my magical skill was a little on the iffy side, and yet I chose to go running after one of the most powerful demons—okay, half-demon—just so that I could prove myself. That was also the same night that I came across the Shadow Maidens for the first time—the first time their horrible chill coursed through my being. They didn't do anything to me then, all they did was watch me with their glowing yellow eyes, swaying from back to forth in an ominous way.

My body just couldn't shake the feeling that even now, almost a year later, they were still watching me in reflection to the day we first encountered each other. But were they always watching me? Was that night really the first time we saw each other, or have they been with me longer than that? Even after all we had been through, it astounded me how much I still didn't know about them.

Before too long, the three of us arrived at a beautiful lake that seemed to be located directly at the center of the forest. From where we were standing, it looked pretty normal, and yet I couldn't shake the feeling that something was very, very wrong—the anxiety persisting to gnaw at my side. There was nothing that I could see that would tip off anything evil—it was a good think that I knew about false appearances and their dangers.

"So…what's wrong with it?" Genrou asked referring to the lake. "I don't see any demons er evil spirits runnin' around."

"Don't let things fool you," Chichiri informed him. "I know, this place seems like a pretty relaxed atmosphere to the untrained eye, but in reality, it's completely enshrouded with a black aura, ya know?"

"Ah." Genrou nodded in agreement as the monk's words sunk in. Then he spoke up with a loud tone, "Hey! Wait a minute—what do ya mean by 'untrained eye'? You sayin' that I don't have what it takes to see what you see?"

I answered almost immediately. "Yes that is exactly what he is saying." This resulted in him giving me a nasty look where he bared his fangs.

Chichiri sighed. "I didn't think you two would manage to turn that into an argument, ya know?"

Ignoring flame-heads eyes shooting daggers at me, I proceeded to walk up to the edge of the lake, trying to see if my horrible feeling persisted. Never failing, I actually felt worse—body shaking almost feverishly as well as a beating in the back of my mind warning me about very imminent danger. Even though I knew that something was wrong, I was still bothered by the fact that Chichiri could actually see the evil aura and I couldn't. Did Taiitsukun know about this ability? If she did, then shouldn't she have thought that it would have been a useful skill for me to possess? What if one day the Shadow Maidens mask their essences? Then I'd be in trouble since I didn't have any other means of locating them. _Forget waiting for that old hag to make a move, I'm gonna ask Chichiri to teach me how to do that. _

Stopping at the edge, it only took me a second to realize that I was the only one who took the initiative to investigate up close. "Hey, why aren't you guys joining me over here? Don't you think that getting close would kind of, oh I don't know, help?"

For some reason, I could feel a nervous reaction come from Genrou, being illustrated by him looking away uncomfortably and rubbing the back of his head. Speaking quickly, he said, "N-nah, I think that my distance is good enough. My keen eye for detail is way more effective from a distance. Believe me, I can spring into action all the better from here." _'Keen eye for detail'? Who does he think he's fooling? _

"I'm not completely sure that getting that close is all that safe, ya know?" The blue-haired monk told me.

The confident part of me compelled me to smile back and tell him, "Don't worry. If anything happens, I could—" All of a sudden, a black hand sprung out of the lake and grabbed around my ankle, causing me to look down in horror. Before I could react fast enough, a violent tug downward resulted in my being forced into the lake. Struggling ferociously, I flailed my legs repeatedly in an effort to escape—all while holding my breath to prevent me from drowning. Being completely submerged by water was making me panic in the worst way, leaving not even a second for me to relax and think things through. I had to get out.

When I attempted to move my arms, I found that they were being held up by someone or something. As that particular force attempted to pull me up, the stronger, more plentiful entities that had done this to me in the first place was dead set on me sinking to the bottom. All I could do was struggle and fight the best I could, to no avail. My heart was racing so much that it seemed like it would give out at any time. Nothing seemed clear—my body wouldn't do what I asked and my mind was completely freaking out, trying to ignore the burning in my lungs tempting me to take a fatal breath. Dreaded memories of the past brought out my horrific fear of being submerged by water—a phobia that I had hoped had been overcome with my new abilities.

But apparently, some parts of the past don't die out just because you've grown up a bit.

* * *

><p>"<em><strong>Hey demon, why don't we send you back to where you came from?"<strong>_

_**My parents, Kajou, and I all decided to come to the park and have a picnic next to the lake about fifteen minutes from our home. If my big sister didn't suggest the idea—say, if it had come from me—my mother and father wouldn't have even considered it. They never listened to me or what I wanted, but a part of me was still happy that they came out here to spend time with Kajou—I was pretty much there as an attachment. **_

_**A crowd of about ten to fifteen boys ranging from ages six to thirteen completely surrounded me—a few of them containing the same several guys that I was forced to make leave that little girl Miaka alone about two or three months ago. I honestly didn't expect a bunch of kids to come around and ambush me for making them feel bad. I mean, the idea was totally farfetched all things considered. I was just thrown a little off guard by the angry mob. It wasn't exactly my fault they they got hurt, after all, I only made people feel miserably whenever I felt threatened. In fact, most of the time I really couldn't control it. I had just simply learned to read it's patterns. The ability wasn't something that I was proud of, but I did admit that it was handy at times. Hopefully it would be useful in this situation as well.**_

"_**You think that just because you have those red eyes that you're so tough?"**_

"_**Well how tough do you feel now?"**_

_**I had to admit that the way they formulated this little plan, was slightly impressive. No matter what, I couldn't let my emotionless facade falter. "Quite tough. I can't believe that you guys came all the way here just to suffer—at the hands of an eight-year-old no less." **_**Talk about a shot to the ego. These people cause themselves pain. Why can't they just leave me alone?**_** Somehow, they had managed to back me up to the edge of the small lake. A small amount of rage welled up into me knowing that my parents were sitting under a tree watching all of this unfold without any questions. Kajou had gone off to get some ice-cream, leaving the perfect opportunity for these punks to jump out and attempt to scare me.**_

"_**This isn't going to be like all the other times."**_

"_**We're going to make sure that you pay for hurting us."**_

"_**It wasn't right!" They all shouted at me.**_

_**Narrowing my eyes at them, I allowed a little more emotion to come through than I honestly wanted, "It wasn't right? Please tell me one time that I actually came after you on my own. You all know that I prefer to be alone, so why would I come after you?" They thought that I was being unfair to them? All they had to do was stay away from me and they'd be free to live happy lives. The way I made them feel? That was how I felt virtually all the time. I was really the only one who was allowed to complain. They had no right! Not with how easy life was for them. I closed my eyes, regathering my self-control. "You guys get hurt 'cause you bother with something that you don't understand." **_

"_**Shut up!" One of the older boys roared. "Just because you are off by yourself doesn't mean anything! The fact that you exist means that someone is always going to get hurt—"**_

"_**Not to mention humiliated…" Another one mumbled to himself with a slight blush. **_**Are you seriously telling me that this is really an ego thing? Please, these guys are so pathetic! _I was really the one who had problems. You didn't see me out and about trying to take it out on the rest of the world. _  
><strong>

"_**Just leave me alone…" I warned. **_

"_**We're not going to let you tell us what to do anymore. You don't have your sister around to get you out of this, and your parents don't even care. Teaching you a lesson will do the world some good." When they proceeded closer, my sense of feeling threatened lit up, forcing me into the defensive position of protecting myself. Concentrating as much as I could, I tried to manipulate the strange power surrounding me. A wave of darkness shot out and struck all of the boys, causing them to stop in their tracks, body shivering from the chill of despair. Thinking that they had gotten the idea, I backed off, allowing them to recover. But to my surprise, they kept on coming towards me.**_

_**What?**_

_**A part of me though that perhaps I wasn't trying hard enough, so I took a step forward to hold my ground better, agreeing to let more dark energy seep through. This time, I was sure that it had hit them, since the added effort made the ring flare unexpectedly. They just kept coming at me, pained looks written on their faces—some of them looking as if they were about to barf and/or break down and cry. My ability was affecting them, they were just toughing through it…**_

_**For the first time, I was beginning to become afraid. **_

_**Time after time again, I shot out another wave, but they wouldn't stop. **_**What's going on? Why are they still coming at me? How are they still able to keep going? **_**Then something occurred to me: what if the dark ring didn't just bring feeling of pain and misery, but of rage and anger as well? Those were negative sensations, after all. I just wasn't used to that particular reaction. **_

_**But why did the dark ring choose now to change its objective?**_

_**Before I could think another thought, the boys violently grabbed me. I tried to break free, but the fact that I was just a small eight-year-old against a bunch of guys who were bigger than me didn't give me much of an opening for escape. **_

_**I had no choice. The second after they took hold of me, my tough facade broke and I screamed out. "Kajou! Kajou! Kajou help me!" There was no use, she was still off getting the snacks. Mentally hitting myself, I forced myself to ask for help elsewhere. "Mommy! Daddy! Help me, please!" When I caught sight of them, it was like they were pretending as if nothing was wrong. They just sat there under the tree drinking tea and talking to each other. The thing was, I knew that they heard me because for a second, I saw their cold eyes glance over in my direction. **_

_**Tears forming, I knew that calling out wasn't going to do anything for me, but through gasps, I continued to try. "Kajou!" Lifting me up, they threw me into the lake. When I tried to fight it and swim back up, punching and kicking against the water, I felt a bunch of hands holding me down so that I wouldn't get out. The only thing that I could hear was my screaming from under the water, and the cruel laughter from up above. To add insult to injury, a bunch of rocks shot past me, a good majority of them impacting with my body in a stinging sensation. **_

_**Then they became cruel. The boys would lift me out of the water for a split second, only to dunk me under again…and again…and again. My lungs were crying and eventually, my body started to give out, accepting that this may have very well been the place that my life would end. With one final push, they held me under the surface, with me staring up at their pained, yet mocking expressions.**_

_**Vision blacking out, I didn't expect to be completely brought out of the water by warm, inviting arms. Feeling my body hit the ground of the surface, I coughed violently to get all of the water out of my system, gasping for air. With my brain still in shock, all I could see were the various clouds in the sky floating overhead—everything else in the world seemed to be blocked out. My heart still felt overwhelmed with pain, feeling as if it could give out at any time just from the agony of it all.**_

"_**Aki! Oh, my dear Aki!" It was Kajou. She came for me before it was too late. A wave of relief swept over me when her beautifully familiar long, flaming locks hung over my face—her inviting yet worried amber eyes forming tears for my well-being. Holding me up, she embraced me in a hug. "I'm so glad that you're okay!"**_

"_**K…Kajou…"**_

"_**Shh…don't speak. You need to rest. And don't worry…I dealt with those evil boys…" When I weakly looked around, I saw all of the boys scattered on the ground—completely motionless. I didn't see a twitch or the raising of chests to signify breathing. **_

_**My big sister held me closer before turning around to face our parents, a look of extreme fury in her eyes. "How could you two allow this to happen?"**_

_**Not to my surprise, they didn't faze. "They were just playing around. We knew that everything would be alright."**_

_**My mother took another sip of her tea. "You shouldn't have disturbed them my dear daughter, children develop better when they can engage with their peers."**_

_**Kajou cursed under her breath. "Damn those two…" Shaking her head, she reached into her pocket and brought out a cell-phone. Dialing in the numbers clumsily, she managed to get the number she wanted and put the device up to her ear. "Yes? I need and ambulance, hurry!" A few seconds later, my physical and mental exhaustion took the best of me, putting me into a deep sleep that I wouldn't awake from for three days…**_

* * *

><p>Struggling to open my eyes, I tried to catch what exactly was tormenting me. My eyes immediately widened at the sight: there was a bunch of pale women, each with a dark tint to their bodies, the eyes that were visible were a soulless, pitch black. The thing that really stuck out to me was that they all had black fins of some sort on the lower halves of their bodies—almost as if they were mermaids. And I'm not talking the friendly type of mermaids you see in things like Disney movies either—no, these women seemed much, much worse.<p>

As one of them continued pulling on my leg, the rest of them tugged on the rest of my body, wrapping themselves around me in attempts to make me submit and sink. The ones that weren't latched on kept circling around me, sending their miserable thoughts and feelings my way.

"_Why won't he love me?"_

"_I know he's cheating on me. He's almost never home!"_

"_Have I not been a good wife and mother?"_

"_What more must I do to please him?"_

_These women have been Shadow Kissed…_

"_I'm pathetic…a horrible excuse for a woman…"_

"_What's the point of living if I'm going to be alone?"_

"_Why must I be the only one who suffers! Only they, the men should feel our pain, if not more!"_

"_I will make him love me, even if he has to suffer!"_

"_We will be together always…I don't care what he thinks or says!"_

"_Kill myself…that's the only way of leaving behind this sadness…"_

The thoughts were overwhelming my head—the sensation was even worse with their feelings of agony absorbing into me, as if I was some sort of negativity sponge. Their chilling aura's brushed up against my skin, leaving me surprised that I hadn't frozen over yet. With all of the warmth of light being blocked to these women, the only thing their minds and bodies could process was desperation and depression. The whole idea of one's attitude projecting out to others was in great play at this moment. It was like they all fed on each other's despair, thus making the situation worse. I realized that it was because of them that my childhood trauma had come back into light, making it even harder for me to even think rationally long enough to get myself out of this situation.

And eventually, my lungs couldn't take the torture any longer. Unfortunately, my mind was all over the place, so I couldn't relax, making my heart and lungs work even harder for the sake of keeping myself alive. When it comes to those systems, though, over-working could mean death from the heart and lungs growing tired and giving up. Even while knowing this, I struggled and struggled against the violent forces, every thought in my head progressively getting worse and more morbid.

I was beginning to think of what the benefit to survival would be. There was no one I could love, no place I really belonged, and chances were that I would be killed by Shadow forces somewhere along the line, so why progress it any further? Why should I continue pretending that everything was alright?

_Akimoto! You must focus!_

My eyes shot open at the sound of the familiar, yet still unknown male voice.

_This is not the time to be giving up and giving in to the darkness! Don't allow yourself to be caught inside the same trap as these women—you are stronger than this!_

In my head, I started to cry. _But…_

_No! Do not doubt yourself! Take no heed in what these women are saying. They need you, Akimoto, to find their light again. Or else they will lose it forever and be no better off than the Shadow Maidens. Now, stay strong!_

Forcing myself to relax the best I could, still shaking in fear, I tried to forget that I was under water. During my temporary mental calm, my eyes caught sight of something at the bottom of the lake. There were giant spheres, maybe bubbles of some kind, containing some people in individual ones. Squinting harder, I discovered that it was the town's lost men—each sleeping in their spheres.

Just as I was observing the sight, a great pull on my arms lifted me up and out of the water, right out of the Shadow Kissed hands. Flying out of the water from the force, I landed on the ground right on someone's chest, next to him was someone else.

Coughing and hacking, my body was at the same time shivering from the cold and extreme fear of reliving one of my worst childhood nightmares.

A voice spoke to me with a concerned tone. "Aki, are you alright? C'mon! Say somethin'!" Hyperventilating a bit, my eyes stayed fixated on the water that had almost taken my life for the third time.

"You have to calm down—breathing like that isn't good, ya know?"

I felt someone's arms wrap around me, sending a warm jolt surging throughout my drenched body. After blinking a few times, the world around me began to focus again.

Breathing finally calming down, my eyes shot around to see what was going on. Turns out that I was on the ground, being held by Genrou, and Chichiri was right next to us, also on the ground as if he had just recently fallen back.

"Genrou…Chichiri…" Assessing the situation, I realized that the upward tug on my arms was those two grabbing onto me, attempting to get me out of the water. They must have managed to hold onto me at the last second before the Shadow Kissed was able to pull me completely down.

"Are you alright now?" Genrou asked.

Figuring that the position we were in was just as uncomfortable for him as it was me, I moved, weakly, out of his grasp. Nodding I told him, "Yeah. Sorry I put you two through all that." Facing Chichiri, I gave a weak smile. "I guess you were right about getting too close being too dangerous." _Lesson learned: only be confident when you know everything about the situation. _

Before the monk could even speak, flame-head spoke up with a voice filled with more anger than concern. "Why the hell didn't you just use your powers? You could have easily gotten out of that!" His words were filled with anger, but our empathy bond was telling me that he was feeling a slight hint of worry and guilt.

_My powers…_I could have used my powers, but my brain and body were panicking so much that nothing seemed to get through. It was hard to think rationally, making the only clear messages being "get out of the water, I don't want to die".

The mere memory of my experience a few seconds prior caused my body to start shaking feverishly.

I tried to speak. "I—I'm…" But the shaking just persisted, making it hard to proceed on.

Chichiri's face seemed to soften as he looked upon me. He then turned to Genrou, who still looked like he wanted to punch something. "Hey, why don't you give her your trench coat?"

"What? Why?"

"She'll catch a cold if she stays in those clothes, ya know? They need to dry and she needs something to wear."

Covering my body with my arms, I told them. "I d-don't need it. I'll just use my powers over Wind to blow-dry myself."

The monk's face fell. "That will just blow cold air onto you, making you sick even faster, ya know?" I grimaced. _Damn…he's right. And I can't afford to get sick right now…_

Without any other hesitation, Genrou took off his black coat and handed it over to me, leaving only a white shirt with long sleeves to be worn on the upper half of his body. "Take it." Blinking in surprise, I didn't think that he would give it over so easily. The notion caused me to blush a bit, forcing myself to look down as I reached out and took the coat.

"Now, get out of those wet clothes, and hang them on a nearby tree. A nice enough fire and a little bit of time will make them dry in no-time, ya know!" He smiled.

Rushing to some nearby bushes, I proceeded with taking off my clothes—except my bra and underwear—and put on the bandits' long black trench coat, tightening the belt at my waist to fit my smaller form. The sleeves were long, going past my hands, and the whole thing carried his scent. The whole situation was completely embarrassing, but I couldn't help but feel a sensation of warmth overcome me.

My face continued to heat up. _Why the hell did I end up being the one stuck in this situation?_

Coming from behind the bushes, I kept my head low to void the gazes of the men regarding my probably pitiful look. Even Genrou was looking away from me at this point. _Man! If a person were to come along at this moment and see what I looked like, it may seem like I just got out of bed with someone after a hot and steamy night. I hate this _soooo_ much. _

"It doesn't look too bad on you, ya kno—"

"Shut it!" Face completely flushed, I couldn't help but make an outburst like that, resulting in the backing off of Chichiri with a uneasy smile on his face.

In an effort to avoid discussing the situation, I proceeded with hanging my wet clothes on a tree. After laying down a few sticks and braches for firewood, I snapped my fingers, instantly sending a small flame to ignite the stack.

Keeping my eyes closed, I walked over to the two with an irritated yet discomfited attitude. Even with the two standing, I sat on the ground, cross-legged, and crossed my arms. Looking up at them, I put on a serious face to mask my true emotions. "Let's get down to business. When I was down there, I saw all of the towns men and women. The mystery of where they were at has been solved."

Genrou's eyebrow cocked up in surprise. "Really? Were they all alive?"

"The women…more or less…and the men, not completely sure. The men were trapped in some bubble-like thing at the bottom of the lake, so it was hard to tell for sure. And the women…"

"The women what?"

I sighed. "Well, the women will be more of an obstacle to handle…"

"What do you propose we do?" Asked Chichiri.

"I'm not completely sure…" This whole situation all on its own was different than the others. Coming up with a sound plan may prove difficult.

While groaning, Genrou tried to put his point across. "I don't know what the big problem is!" He faced Chichiri. "Yer some type of monk, right? Why don't cha just seal off the lake er somethin' so that no one else gets hurt?" Then he looked down at me. "And you—why don't you just use some of that magic mumbo jumbo to nuke the place er whatever?"

Chichiri looked troubled. "Well, I suppose that is always an option, ya know?"

I shook my head. "No, it's not quite that easy." They both faced me with curiosity. "The people down there are all victims—anything that has happened or does happen here isn't their fault. It would be wrong to punish them for acts they couldn't help committing."

"How do ya know that they're not just demons or evil spirits like Chichiri said?"

Without hesitating, I told him, "I've dealt with them before—or something very similar. Those women have been Shadow Kissed against their will. We have no choice but to find other means of overcoming this obstacle." _But how am I going to bring light to them? I can't go back underwater, they have the obvious advantage under there…_

"This is quite the conundrum…" Chichiri held his chin, tilting his face up in thought.

"I don't know what yer talkin' about. I understand that they are being forced to do things against their will, but shouldn't we stop em from hurtin' anyone else?" Genrou gave me an identifying look. "Aren't you the one who said that we had ta do somethin' about it?"

Shooting him a glare, I asked him, "Why don't _you_ go do something about it if you're so eager to walk into the face of danger?"

Taking a hint and the bait, the bandit looked at the lake with an anxious look. Laughing nervously, he said, "You know what? I am _completely_ okay with you two takin' yer time." I couldn't help but be curious about something. From what I knew about this guy, he seemed like the type of person who wouldn't back away from any kind of fight—especially after claiming so many times what it meant to be a "man". Every time he lost his composure, though, he seemed to glance at the water. _Could it be that…he's afraid of the water too? Or can he not swim? _Shaking my head, I knew that I had to focus on the task at hand before trying to de-bunk yet another mystery.

_Until we figure this out, perhaps it would be good to at least slow them down. _Standing up, I walked past the boys and up to the edge of the lake once again. Even out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the two of them twitching when the saw me head towards the same spot where I found myself in trouble just several minutes before. Putting up a hand at them, I let them know that it was alright. Believe me, I wasn't stupid enough to allow myself to be pulled in for a second time. Gathering up my energy, I allowed the manipulation of Water into Ice to take place._ "You who crosses between sky and Earth, gently flowing water, gather in my hand and give me power!" _The temperature of the area lowered considerably around the lake—a thick fog started to roll in. _"Demona Crystal!" _The thick, white fog completely enshrouded the lake, making it temporarily unseen.

"What'd ya do to the place?" To my surprise, Genrou actually walked up to me this time.

Smiling slightly, I told him. "Just wait." The moment the fog rolled away, the surface of the lake revealed to be completely frozen over (just the surface, the water underneath was still very much in the liquid state)—earning me a look of complete astonishment out of Fang-boy.

"Holy crap! That was awesome!" He shouted with a big smile on his face that revealed his fangs.

Closing my eyes, I crossed my arms and grinned widely with triumph. "Why thank you."

"I knew you were a witch and all, but I didn't think you could do anything this epic—" Almost immediately, that comment earned him a good chop in the back of the head, sending him straight to the ground, grabbing the back of his head in pain. "Why th' hell did ya do somethin' like that? I was complimentin' you!"

Maintaining my "pleasant" smile, I said, "It would be wise for you not to call me a witch, m'kay?"

He growled. "I can't believe you—"

"This is quite impressive Aki. When Genrou said that you could use magic, I didn't think it was this advanced, ya know?" Chichiri walked up next to me and stared at the lake…at least I think he was looking…it's a bit hard to tell with his eyes closed. Honestly, how _does_ he see that way? Pretending that I wasn't thinking about the mystery of his eyes, I thanked him. "I'm a bit curious—how did you learn this branch of magic anyway?"

The question surprised me. _This branch of magic? Are there other kinds? Or is there something he knows that I don't? _"U—umm…"

All of a sudden, a muffled melody began to be heard from under the ice, causing us all to stop what we were doing and stare at it. We couldn't really decipher any legitimate words, but there was definitely some type of musical noises coming from under there. Before we could even ask any questions or exchange glances, a very distinct cracking sound emerged from the sheet of ice. _No freakin' way! _In quite a few spots, the ice was cracking from underneath. In a blink, a fist managed to punch completely though, and then another…soon, my ice was completely shattered by an army of fists.

Eyes widening, I was shocked to see the fists belonging to all of the men of the town, all emerging out of the water, inching closer to us on land. The three of us back up, trying to assess the whole situation. Each one of the men stumbled around with sleepy looks on their faces—as if they were trapped in some type of trance. _Of course they are. _I groaned. _You know, I'm going to rule out right now that speaking to them rationally won't work. _

There wasn't even any time to think of a good plan since they charged at us so suddenly. None of them had weapons, but considering _something_ had to have been pulling the strings on them, I didn't think that it would have been very wise to underestimate their abilities. The numbers of these men was too much to count, after all, we were talking about a whole town's worth of them. Even as those ones were coming at us, even more emerged out of the water. The odd thing was that they weren't trying to mutilate us, per say. Each time they came at us, it was more like they were trying to grab us—quite similarly to how cliché zombies in all of those movies go after their victims by first grabbing onto them…_and then_ tearing them limb from limb. Well, this was like that…except for the whole "limb from limb" part. There was no way in Hell we would even allow them the chance to do that.

Genrou ended up punching and kicking all of the guys around him, while Chichiri was fending them off the best he could with his staff.

"You sure that we can't kill off these guys?" Genrou yelled at me.

"Yes, I am very sure. They aren't—" One of them came at me from behind, resulting in me sending a gust of Wind his way, knocking him directly into a tree. The sight earned me a look from Genrou making me shrug. "What? I said you couldn't_ kill_ them, I didn't say you couldn't use self-defense."

Eventually, the same song from before could be heard, but since the ice was broken, the melody could be heard at a much louder volume—I don't know about you guys, but I had a really bad feeling about this. The men became more aggressive, leading me on to believe—or rather, confirm—my theory of this being a siren-like situation. Grabbing at my hair and clothes, the loose trench-coat began to slide off of me, revealing my black-laced bra. Face completely heating up from the thought of my two companions seeing me more exposed than I really wanted, a ferocious wave of energy shot out from me, knocking all of the men down like dominoes.

Sliding the coat back up my shoulder with one hand, I used my other to cast a plethora of spells. Pointing to a group of men in one direction, I shouted, _"Giga la Seoshi!" _The same green _Seoshi _from before appeared around them, trapping them completely in the energy sphere. Turning to another group, I repeated the spell. _"Giga la Seoshi!" _And then another, _"Giga la Seoshi!" _A few more times, _"Giga la Seoshi! Giga la Seoshi! Giga la Seoshi!" _Panting harshly, I observed the results of my casting. At least ten large green _Seoshi _completely covered the area, entrapping all of the men in trances. Some of them attempted to go through, but found they couldn't when a painful shock electrocuted them the moment they made contact with the barrier. That was the difference between _Seoshi _and_ Giga la Seoshi—_One of them was purely meant for protection, while the other trapped your enemies in the type of container that could hurt them whenever they tried to be hostile.

Thinking that my troubled were over if only for a few minutes, Chichiri yelled out to me. "Aki!" When I faced him, he motioned over to Genrou who seemed to be staring at the lake. I hadn't realized it, but the song being sung by the Shadow Kissed—Sirens…whatever—was still going on. My eyed widened. _Then that means…_

Without saying a word, Genrou walked slowly towards the lake that he was cringing at before.

"Genrou!" I called out—he didn't even react. "Genrou!" Running after him, I blocked his way to the lake. Looking into his eyes, I saw…nothing.

And for some reason, that bothered me.

Reaching down for his wrist, I used my power to cause the natural shock between us to intensify. In a quick flash of bright, golden light, he blinked a few times and held his head with his free hand.

"Wha-what happened?"

Breathing a sigh of relief, I told him, "You let yourself get caught in their hypnotism, you idiot."

"What? No way!" He argued. "I'd never let myself get caught so easily!" Looking down, he noticed that I was still holding onto him. With his face slightly turning red, he gave me a nasty look. "Do you mind?"

Averting my eyes, I gave him an answer, "Yes I mind. I'm not doing this 'cause I want to. I'm doing it because you'll just end up in a trance again if I let go." _Believe me, if we didn't have that stupid spark between us, this option wouldn't even have been on my mind. Which reminds me…_"Hey Chichiri! How come you didn't get hypnotized?"

Trying to think of an answer, he said, "I guess I have some sort of immunity, ya know? It's probably because of all my years training in the ways of magic and being a monk that got me out of it."

A part of that explanation stuck out to me. "Wait a second…did you say _magic_?"

"However, I am quite curious as to why your touch snapped Genrou out of it so quickly." Holding up a finger, he instructed, "You should probably continue to hold onto him so that nothing bad happens, ya know?" His confirming of my past statement to Genrou caused us both to shift uncomfortably.

Coughing, and in an effort to change the subject, I observed my surroundings. "Okay, we can't kill the men since they aren't at fault here, and we can't exactly fight, nor hurt, or brutally maim the women down there because—let's face it—they'd kick our asses in that lake." In no way was I saying that I couldn't defeat them. On the contrary, I could easily use Lightning to send a deathly shock through the water, since water conducts electricity, and completely fried those women to a crisp (fish sticks anyone?). But like I said, I'm really being limited by the fact that these women weren't doing all of this on purpose. And I just knew that my conscious would be bothering me for the rest of my life if I were to go through with killing them.

"You think that whole trick you did with me could snap those guys out of it?" Genrou pointed to the still trapped men. Thinking about his suggestion, I rolled it over in my head.

"Probably not…they aren't the ones being possessed by darkness…If they were the ones who were Shadow Kissed, however…then a similar thing would get them out of that miserable state…" _But that's where the problem lies. How do I win against people in their own element? _I listened to the never ending melody, watching the men continually fuss, attempting to escape captivity. _The song…_An idea suddenly hit me. _What if there was a way that I could block the frequency of the song and fix everything? _

Chichiri spoke my thoughts. "If we could just stop that song somehow, then we would be the ones with the advantage, ya know?" Fortunately for him, I had already thought of an idea—but I wasn't going to like it.

I sang.

"_Just drive, I'm sick of talkin'_

_We know where this is going._

_I'm done, take me home, home." _My voice stayed at a moderate talking volume, just so that I could make sure that my voice was up for the task.

"_I can't wait forever,_

_For you to get yourself together._

_I'd rather be alone."_

Genrou turned to me. "What…are you _doing_?

Face flushing from the embarrassment of it all (because I really didn't like singing in public, and now I was putting on a performance for the enemy? What has this world come to?), I told him, "Just trust me, okay?" If my song could somehow mix with the Siren's song, or even overpower it, then I could probably win this!

"_I'm so tired of pretending,_

_Just want a happy ending."_

Gathering up my energy, I allowed it to flow out along with the lyrics, transforming this song into a makeshift spell.

"_Wish I could put a spell on you,_

_Wish I could make you feel like I do,_

_Wouldn't that be sweet?_

_So magical!"_

The men in the _Giga la Seoshi's _were starting to calm down and listen to the music—high sign that my plan was working.

"_Wish I could blink and wave a wand,_

_Get everything that I ever wanted._

_And put a spell on you,_

_And make it all come true."_

I could tell that the Shadow Sirens were starting to get frustrated because their song's volume increased. Apparently, my song was a threat—another great sign that I was making valuable progress.

"_You taught me what I know,_

_Guys like you come and go,_

_But I know things can change."_

Using my natural power over Wind, my voice gets sweetly carried throughout the whole area, lake included, to make sure that everyone could hear every word, loud and clear.

"_See my heart it may be broken_

_But that won't stop me hoping._

_Wish I could put a spell on you,_

_Wish I could make you feel like I do,_

_Wouldn't that be sweet?_

_So magical!"_

At this point, each and every one of the Shadow-possessed Sirens poked their head above the water in an attempt to make their voices more prominent. They knew that they were losing and if I was going to finish it, it had to be now.

No matter what, I had to keep singing, especially when the enemy was now fully exposed, allowing all of their energy to come gushing out in one big burst. Even I was beginning to feel the chill of the darkness emitting off of them, but like the voice said: I had to stay strong.

"_Wish I could blink and wave a wand,_

_Get everything that I ever wanted._

_And put a spell on you,_

_And make it all come true._

_I just wanna know what we should've done,_

_Wanna figure out what we could've become,_

_Cause in my heart I'm not over you."_

Letting go of Genrou, since I was sure that the Sirens' song wouldn't affect him at this point, I levitated myself into the air, floating over the lake and maintaining my initial focus. Any chance of me winning this relied on my use of Light, so while reliving happy memories of the past, the warm feeling of Light welled up in me.

I hadn't even realized it, but I was smiling as I sang. _I suppose that singing does calm me down a bit…_I recalled how on the night I sang at Hikaru and Kaoru's party, I received my first kiss—believing that that was where I truly belonged. But thanks to Dark, I knew that I still had a part of my dearest friends in my heart, who gave me the strength to continue on every day.

"_I just wanna go back and try it again,_

_Turn back the time_

_This isn't the end of us._

_This isn't the end of us!_

_Wish I could put a spell on you,_

_Wish I could make you feel like I do,_

_Wouldn't that be sweet?_

_So magical!"_

With the warm feeling growing inside of me, waves of pleasure continued to run through me, putting me in a moment of genuine bliss. _Why am I feeling so amazing this time? Every other time I used Light, it felt good, but the incredible feeling was never this dramatic and…and natural! Has something happened to make me feel this way? _For the first time in my life, I felt like I was the most powerful being alive—as if nothing could ruin my blissful buzz.

With my body completely covered in Light—and might I point out that this was the longest I had ever managed to maintain this power—I dipped one finger into the water, resulting in my Light spreading completely throughout the water, consuming the women in pure cloaks of golden energy. Brightness emitting the whole area, I looked over at Genrou and Chichiri who were staring in awe. While being in the state of true happiness, I gave them both a smile. Once Genrou and I locked gazes, a shock wave left my body, encouraging the light to shine even brighter.

Knowing that I was on the verge of winning, I summoned away the _Giga la Seoshi's, _which left a whole bunch of un-trance(d) men fallen to the ground, sleeping.

_Time to finish this up. _

"_Wish I could blink and wave a wand,_

_Get everything that I ever wanted._

_And put a spell on you,_

_And make it all come true._

_Wish I could put a spell on you,_

_Wish I could make you feel like I do,_

_Wouldn't that be sweet?_

_So magical!_

_Wish I could blink and wave a wand,_

_Get everything that I ever wanted._

_And put a spell on you,_

_And make it all come true." _With that last word, the brightest flash of light imaginable shone throughout the area. The moment it dimmed down, the lake was completely gone, not even a crater left behind, and the women had (thankfully) reverted back into normal humans, sans the mermaid tails, pale skin, and black eyes.

Energy completely drained, gravity took over, causing me to drop to the ground. At the very last second, I could feel myself being caught by someone—Genrou.

Giving me a confident smile, he commented, "That wasn't half bad. I never woulda though that you could do anything like that."

Returning the smile, I told him, "You and me both." _I'm completely exhausted, but it felt wonderful. _I was lucky that I was even able to do all of that—even if it was a one-time thing, I was very grateful.

"I'm impressed with your singing!" Chichiri complimented. "Besides that, you really seem like the type of person who would be full of surprises, ya know?"

_Dude, you have no idea. _"Story of my life."

* * *

><p>After I recovered and clothes dried off (thank God), the three of us managed to help everyone out and rally them back to town. Luckily the town was neighboring the forest, otherwise this would have been a huge pain. I didn't notice it until we got out of the forest that the negative energy barrier that had contained it, making it look as dark as night, had dissolved away—returning the space to its natural state.<p>

Everyone was so grateful for what we had done that they completely surrounded us in the town square—men and women alike had huge smiles on their faces reflecting that all of the darkness was purified out of them.

"Suzaku bless you three for helping us."

"We owe you our lives."

"I never felt so happy in all my life!"

"What can we ever do to repay you?"

"We would have been stuck in that misery if you three had never come along!"

All the attention was making me self-conscious. Even if it was good attention, it didn't change the fact that I hated being in the middle of crowd—and since I was literally in the middle of the crowd, I felt even worse.

Yet…I felt _really_ good.

Looking down with a flushed face, I made sure that they got the record straight. "I only did it because it's my job to take care of the Shadow Maidens n' stuff…" I wasn't sure if they could hear what I said since it sort of did come out as a mumble.

A group of little kids fight their way to get through the front of the crowd just so that they could present themselves to us. Apparently, the little kids were in town the whole time, they were just hiding in little nooks and crannies to avoid being influenced by the darkness. The mystery of how they avoided it—cause I was completely sure that hiding wouldn't excuse you from the inevitable darkness—was beyond me.

"Thank you so much, Miss, for saving our parents."

One of them tugged on my jacket. "I was so scared…but you three made everything okay."

"I want to be just like you guys when I grow up!"

Seeing all of their big eyes and cute faces made the blood rush to my face even faster. What I didn't expect to see what Chichiri leaning over to look at my face.

"You're as red as a tomato. You should get that checked, ya know." Gasping, I turned away and hid my warm face with both of my hands. _How embarrassing! _

From being my fingers, I could hear Genrou gasp as well—but more in an epiphany than in embarrassment. "Oh yeah, there's somethin' I've been meanin' to ask ya folks—"

"Why get so serious my young friend?" An elder of the group pointed out and exposed a big wrinkly smile. "This is a time for joy—get questions out of the way later—after the celebration!"

The bandit groaned. "Look old man, I really gotta—"

"There will be much drinking and merriment for all! Even a big feast!"

Genrou continued. "Like I said, I can't—" He paused after the man's words sunk in. Then a goofy grin appeared on his face. "Did you say…drinking? As in sake?"

The old man nodded. "Why yes! What kind of celebration would it be without it?"

"Alright then! Let the party begin!" Flame-head bellowed followed by laughter. The rest of the townspeople felt compelled to laugh along with him.

Off to the side, Chichiri and I stared at the sight.

"I'm amazed that it was that easy to get him off track, ya know?"

I sighed. "Seriously."

* * *

><p>"Well I hope that you're happy with yourself."<p>

It was late in the night and the town was still hot in celebration. Either this place was really grateful to us, or this was just a party town from the beginning. There were colorful lanterns lit up everywhere, as well as tables and tables of food being surrounded by merry dancing people to music being made by the town's musicians.

Genrou had pretty much been eating and drinking sake the whole time, apparently enjoying himself. When you first meet the guy, he seems like this tough badass who is all work or fight-oriented the whole time. Never did I expect this guy to also be the fun-loving type.

"Happy? Hell, I'm completely content!"

As the town continued to celebrate, Genrou and I found a nearby rooftop to sit and watch the events of the night take place below us. Chichiri seemed like he was having a good time playing with the little kids—showing them some magic tricks and giving them piggy-back rides. The whole scene was actually pretty adorable.

Rubbing my temples, I voiced my opinion. "Out of all the people to travel with, I happened to attach myself to an alcoholic."

He sat up. "Who are ya callin' an alcoholic?"

"Oh, I don't know, probably the underage drunkard sitting next to me."

"What d'ya mean underage?" His eyebrow cocked up.

"You know perfectly well what I mean. You can't be any older than me, and the law says that if you're under twenty one—" My words trailed off as he persisted with his peculiar look. _Oh yeah, that's right. I'm not in America and I'm not in my world or timeline—of course the laws are different. _Sighing, I told him, "Never mind."

"Besides, I'm not an alcoholic. That stuff is a luxury that I don't get the pleasure of havin' all of the time, even if I wanted to. Plus, you gotta understand," Putting his hand on my shoulder, I turned to him in an alarmed state. His face seemed slightly flushed and his eyes a bit droopy, the apparent scent of alcohol rolling off of his breath. _Yup…he's drunk. _"I hadn't eaten or drunken anything decent in weeks! Those damn jerks back at that inn sorta interrupted my meal, remember?" Nodding, I signified that I recalled that day quite well._ Maybe not a heavy drunk, more like buzzed, tipsy at best. _Without warning, he put his arm around my shoulders and started to chuckle. "Plus, you gotta lighten' up Aki! It is a party after all. Sometimes, one needs to have a good time!"

Taking my hand, I took his from around me, causing his arm to drop to his side. "No, I don't. Scene's like this aren't really my thing." This whole conversation was almost an exact reflection of the one I had with Hikaru at that festival in Karuizawa. I wasn't quite sure whether the memory should have made me sad or happy… "I guess I'll have to be the one to point this out, but didn't you want to ask the townspeople for something?"

"Oh yeah…" Falling back onto the rooftop to lie on his back in a comfortable position.

"And…" Letting out a deep exhale, I went on, "I promise to keep my promise."

Turning to lie on his side, he faced me. "Promise?"

"Yeah…I told you that if you didn't get any leads towards the info you wanted, I'd leave you alone."

His face softened as my words processed in his brain. "Oh yeah…I forgot about that." Closing his eyes, his voice began to trail off. "Why do you women have ta complicate things? How 'bout we talk about this in the morning? Or…whenever I wake up…"

Looking down at him, I waited for him to say something else, but there was nothing coming out of him except for gentle breaths. He was asleep.

I couldn't help but sigh again, but this one resulted in a small smile. "Genrou, you are definitely an interesting character." Upon further observation of his features—his wild fiery hair, the way his seemingly gentle face reflected the glow of the lanterns below, the sharp canines of his that could be seen with every inhale—it occurred to me that this guy wasn't that bad looking…in fact, he was kind of attractive (him being asleep helped considerably as well)—not that I was enticed in any way! Not at all! Only of you like that whole "tough guy trying to be macho" kind of thing...

Seeing Chichiri, the newest character added to the story of my life, down below with the children in mixture with the fanged bandit next to me, I began to wonder about all the things that were about to happen. Miaka was probably going to be gone for a while, so I was probably in for a long, wild ride.

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><p><strong>The song was called "Magical" by Selena Gomez. Don't the words just fit perfectly? <strong>

**Once again, thank you to all those who read this story and alert/favorite it. Even though some of you don't review, I'm happy that you take time out of your day to read this.**

**Well, this is the end of this chapter (a SUPER long chapter btw)! I look forward to the reviews (Please, please, PLEASE REVIEW!) and seeing what you guys think of this story so far as well as any predictions you may have—or just humor me!**

**Thanx again!**

**C ya next chapter! **


	26. From Deception to Auras Part 1

**HAPPY OCTOBER EVERYONE! (best month ever…and not just cuz I'm turning 18 this month ;))**

**Hey there readers and fellow fanfiction-ers! Welcome to the 26th chapter of "Love Hurts 5 Ways"! Wow…I can't believe it's been 26 chapters, not only that, but so many new readers and reviewers have come along which makes me happy like you have no idea. **

**That being said, the story has now reached 300 reviews! So it is that time again! To list all of my reviewers that have stayed loyal and absolutely love for their comments, helpful hints, and just fun stuff to read!**

**BloodColoredRose**

**Escape to Ouran**

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**CloudEnvyKunoichi **

**KittyLynn**

**Yanza**

**Winter Star light**

**Vatala Darkmist **

**HeartsNaruto **

**XXTakaraXX**

**Kimmiko T.**

**Starred**

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**JeffreyFai**

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**Lunamonki **

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**XXThe wish GranterXX**

**FOAatyourservice **

**I know that the list is a bit lengthy, but I am just sooooo happy! Thank you all so much for staying faithful readers! And to you all out there who read, but don't review, I love you all too cuz you are all a part of this story's success (and I'm sorry I couldn't thank you by name…but I don't know it…0_0…just knowing that you're out there though makes me feel awesome!)! This story is still quite a ways off from being over and just a heads up, there will be a Season 3 (but that's quite a ways away…). **

**Once again, I bow my head to you all in thanx, honestly I am extremely blessed and thankful that people actually give a darn about this story. I hope that you all continue to read (and tell your friends) up until the very end. **

**Well, enough with the mushy stuff, let's move on to Chapter 26! **

**Oh! This chapter came out REALLY long. So, I was forced to separate it into 2 parts. The 2nd part won't be revealed until 1-2 weeks from now ;) So please be patient with me!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><strong>~*Part 1*~<strong>

After a party that included drinking and merriment, you'd expect someone to sleep for about a million hours, right? Well, I certainly didn't expect my fiery-haired companion to get up _before_ noon just so that he could get down to business and get information from the good-natured people in town. Either the guy had some internal alarm clock that was activated with his motivation, or he's so used to getting buzzed that he magically formed some type of immunity to it. Whichever way it was, he was already up and active before I even regained consciousness.

Not particularly feeling the urge to join him on his little scavenger hunt, I ended up sitting on the edge of a short, white wooden gate, waiting for him to finish and reveal the verdict of his findings. Standing beside me was the peculiar, blue-haired monk with the gravity-defying bangs named Chichiri whom we had just met the day before. The guy seemed pretty legit and didn't in any way seem like a threat. It would be sort of hard to be intimidated with that playful fox face of his anyway. Only two things really bothered me about the guy: the first was that he habitually said "ya know?" after the vast majority of his sentences. Part of me really wants to ask why he does that, but it may end up being because he was electrocuted as a child and his brain got stuck in "ya know" mode. The second thing was that it seemed like his eyes were closed, yet he could see perfectly…huh. Yeah, there's not very much one could say about that…I couldn't believe out of all the weird things I had experienced and seen, this was the one that completely baffled me. Oh well.

Oh yeah, and there was also the thing about him being able to use magic as well.

With the comment he made earlier, I assumed that his type of spells were different than mine—which would make sense since I was supposed to be the only one of my kind (at this time. After all, there were a bunch of girls before me). But magic was magic, and another magical consort was significantly invited.

"Rather than use my own energy to control the elements like you do, my type of magic utilizes the raw, flowing energy of the universe, called chi, in various ways, ya know? But not everyone can do it. One has to be in tuned with their own chi, which is consisted of their life-force, and use it to request assistance from the universe, ya know?" This time alone had allowed the two of us to discuss or methods of sorcery. I told him that I had the ability to control the elements—and then some—and how I was born with the natural ability to control Wind. Chichiri explained to me that since I was using my own energy to manipulate the universal elements, it made sense that I would lose stamina after a while and how it would definitely screw up my health—not to mention endanger my life—if I were to push too much while using it. He, on the other hand, had the fortunate ability of the universe allowing him some of its power, taking away the immediate dangers of over-using it. These of course were assumptions since I wasn't skilled in the art of chi manipulation or whatever. This made me suspect that the kinds of spells he performed were of a different category entirely. So this makes a person wonder: what was this guy capable of?

Eyes widening with fascination, I responded by saying, "Interesting. You know, I never thought that I'd come across a sorcerer in this world." Biting my tongue on the reveal of me not being from that dimension, I quickly fixed it by showing a sly smile. "And you tried to hide it by pretending that you were a monk."

"Pretending?" His eyebrow cocked up in confusion. "Is it really that odd that a monk can have magical powers?"

"Well, how many other monks do you know that can do things like that?"

Pondering it over for a few moments, he crossed his arms with a concentrated look on his face. The whole subject of monks helped me recall the times I had with my first monk friend Miroku from the Feudal Era. In a way, he was brilliant in his trade, but believe me when I say that there wasn't anything "magical" about him. Well, if you count being magically perverted (hmm…sounds like a new slogan for Lucky Charms…I'll be putting that in my back pocket for later!), then sure, he was a magnificent sorcerer!

Finally replacing his bewilderment with a smile, he came up with an answer. "I suppose you have a point, ya know?" This compelled the both of us to chuckle a bit at his epiphany, automatically setting an atmosphere of comfortable friendship around us. Usually I felt uneasy whenever I met new people, but for some reason, I felt completely calm and we instantly clicked. It must have been some sort of bond between magic-users or something—even despite the fact that he was a bit odd and looked like he was about four or five years older than Genrou and I.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of said flame-head rushing around and talking to people as if his life depended on it. The funny thing was that I had no idea whether it did or not.

"What do you suppose he's asking people about?" The fact that Chichiri was the one who asked the question caused me to wonder whether he was reading my mind or not. After all, I, once again, wasn't completely sure about what he was capable of.

Shrugging, I gave him an honest reply. "I never really got around to asking him." I didn't want to ask because that would have probably been crossing the line of "none of my business". And when the joint journey of ours begin, I made sure to tell myself that the relationship between us would be strictly professional—exchanging info like that would have meant stepping closer into intimacy. _Like I said before, I only need him for protection and navigation, while he needs me for convenience. _"It doesn't particularly matter to me. The only thing that seems important right now is if I keep my end of our agreement."

"You guys had an agreement? What was it?"

Sighing, I closed my eyes for a few seconds, and opened them back up with my eyes looking at the blue-haired monk from the side. "If he doesn't get the info he wants, I have to stop hindering him and leave him alone permanently."

Chichiri's look became troubled. "'Leave him'? Doesn't that bother you? I thought that you two cared about each other, ya know?" The moment the question was asked, a peculiar force caused me to comically fall backwards off the gate to the ground in surprise.

Ignoring the pain, my body instantly grabbed onto the wood to support myself back up. "Why the hell would you go and think an insane thing like that?" _I just met the guy for Pete's sake! _

"I'm not entirely sure why, but you guys seem like you'd be rather close, ya know? Not only that," My expression became serious when he left me hanging in suspense. "You guys' aura's, every time you are in close proximity of one another, tends to fuse together and become a brilliant golden color, ya know? It's actually quite peculiar and interesting at the same time!" The information came as sort of a mild shock to me—which was only mild 'cause I knew that something weird had been happening between the two of us since the very first time Genrou laid his hands on me back at that inn. More often than not, whenever a part of our bodies touched at time of high emotions (that's what I inferred anyway), we would feel a pleasant, unexplainable shock running through every inch of our bodies. Not only that, but it felt like the emotions I figured I had under control seemed to deteriorate at certain times—only when I was with him. Hits of empathy were exchanged between the both of us only on certain occasions which proved to be slightly troublesome considering I had my own feelings to worry about, why the heck would I want the burden of someone else's?

And now, this guy was telling me that our aura's were attracted to each other? Ever since I left the palace, the strangest things had been happening to me and it was all thanks to that flame-headed Fang-boy.

_But besides that…_

"Hey, Chichiri?"

"Hmm?"

"I know that this is a bit out of the blue, but I was wondering if you could teach me how to see auras the way you can. For a magic-user, it seems like it would be a practical thing." Sure, I didn't exactly know when or how I'd apply the usage of aura's to work past my obstacles, but I figured that it would probably come in handy whenever the situation called for it.

Tilting his head to the side, he asked, "You wanna learn how to see auras? Well…"

Assessing his demeanor, an idea formed into my head as to why he would be hesitant. "If you have something else to do or somewhere else to be, then I'd totally understand that you couldn't do it—"

"Hold on a second!" Holding up his hands, palms facing me he said, "Believe me, it's nothing like that. I have plenty of free time and no one to meet up with, ya know? I was just concerned that it would take a while to teach you, ya know?"

Shaking my head, I told him, "I'm pretty much free as well!" _My agenda is pretty much open until Taiitsukun decides to come in and crash the party, _I bitterly thought.

"Well then, why not?" Chichiri's famous playful smile returned, complimenting his closed fox eyes. "This could be a lot of fun, ya know?"

Returning the smile, I realized that Genrou and I had just added a new member to our group (well,_ I_ added him, and since Genrou wasn't the boss, I could pretty much do whatever I wanted). The thing was, if it turned out that he didn't get what he wanted from the townspeople, then we would separate. At least with this new alliance I knew that I wouldn't be alone even if Genrou and I did depart.

Not that I really cared or anything…

Back to business. "So, what do I have to do in order to learn this _impressive_ technique?"

As my question was asked, he concluded his leaning against the gate and proceeded closer to the town's structures. Before his face past my line of sight, I noticed how he had a concentrated look on his face, almost as if he was either devising a plan or attempting to recall just how he himself was able to acquire the ability. Considering I was pretty much able to remember how and when the important milestones of the progression of my powers happened—they were, after all, really important checkpoints in my journey—it seemed a bit suspicious that he couldn't remember something as significant as learning how to see auras for the first time.

"I guess, simply put, you need to become aware of your own aura before you can see other ones, ya know?"

"Yeah…" I reluctantly said while processing his words. "That makes sense, I suppose. How do I do that?"

"Considering the situation, I think the easiest way to go at it would be for you to connect yourself with someone who has an Aura Bond with you, ya know?" Stomach churning, the whole thought of the idea caused me to grimace since I had a probably spot-on theory as to whom he was talking about. Catching onto my discomfort, he added, "Think about it: the strength of the two aura's would combine together, thus allowing your senses to be more in tuned with it, ya know?" Teeth gritting from the mere thought of having to do something that consisted of any kind of "connecting" with Genrou in order to attain this new skill, I knew that it—whatever it was—had to be done. Damn it all.

The sense of utter defeat consumed me, thus I asked, "So…what do I…have to do?"

Turning around to face me, he surprisingly still had that pleasant smile plastered on his face. "That's easy! All you have to do is bind yourself in some way to Genrou until you can see your combined auras, ya know?" Taken aback, by body stood there in shock for what he was asking me to do. _Easy? Easy my ass! How the hell does he expect me to do that? Who knows how long it will take until this infernal plan works? _Damn. It. All. To Hell.

Sure, I didn't have to go through with this, and it wasn't exactly necessary for me to see auras. _But I'll be damned if I lose the opportunity to learn something that useful just because of uneasiness and my _precious _pride_.

As the strategy of how I was going to go through with Chichiri's lesson plan formulated in my head, Genrou walked over with a sullen expression riddled on his face. _That's never leads to good news…_

"Yeah…so it turns out that no one could tell me what I wanted to hear—and I'm pretty sure I checked with everyone in town." When his amber eyes connected with mine, what I saw wasn't so much of a look of indifference, but more of a look of regret. _I wonder what that's all about…_

Even in my confusion, I was willing to walk over and act as if what he said didn't matter. I know I said that I wouldn't care about something like that, but…to separate from someone just because of some stupid promise seemed so…anti-climactic—not to mention disappointing. But I knew those feelings would pass, so I had to put on a face that said that his words hadn't affected me. And technically they didn't, I mean…it wasn't like I completely thought that someone would be able to deliver the info he wanted. It was only a fifty/fifty percent chance. Just as in a game of heads or tails, it's either one or the other, and there was always a fifty percent chance of you coming out disappointed. The probability was never in your favor, no matter how confident you were, leaving the universe to decide whether or not it wanted you to be happy or successful— and whether or not it thought of you as deserving or worthy.

That's just the way it goes. And those who couldn't take it were weak.

Offering my hand for him to shake, I made sure that my voice didn't waiver as I showed a fake, yet convincing smile. "Well, a deals a deal. I'll be going now and you'll never hear from me again." Putting my hand out deserved me the reaction of him looking down and away, rattling his mind for the next proper action to initiate.

Before he even had the chance to do anything, Chichiri stepped in. "Now hold on there—this may not be over yet. If you tell me what you're looking for, I just might be able to help you, ya know?" My eyes widened in surprise. _Why is he interfering? Is he trying to make it so that Genrou and I don't separate? _

The bandit thought about it. "Well, I'm lookin' for a cure, ya see—a cure for a really serious sickness that kinda needs ta work fast." _A cure? For who I wonder…_

"Can you be a little more specific about this certain kind of illness?"

Resuming his thinking face, Genrou eventually gave a goofy smile while putting one of his arms in the back of his head. "Ya know…I left so fast that I never even bothered to ask!" Chichiri and I just stood there with blank looks on our faces. Unable to fight the urge, I slapped my forehead. _What an idiot! That's the kind of detail that Miaka would mess up on! _Seeing as how the monk was trying to come up with a solution, I thought, _Thanks for trying Chichiri, but it's pretty safe to say that this conversation will get nowhere fast. _

But just when I was starting to mentally prepare myself for my departure, Chichiri spoke up as he snapped his fingers. "Okay then! If you don't know what kind of sickness this is, then we might as well go for the thing that we know will work for sure, ya know?"

"What thing?" I asked.

"Well, there is this flower that has been said to cure any ailment. It's called the Sacred Blood Lily and it only blooms every thousand years, ya know?"

"Sacred Blood Lily…" It even sounded important. But for a flower that blooms ever one thousand years, it must be very rare, not to mention valuable. What were the chances that we could even get to it?

"Every thousand years, huh? Well, what're the chances that it been a thousand years and is in bloom right now?" Genrou seemed slightly skeptical to the whole plan—and I couldn't blame him. It just sounded a bit far-fetched.

Even though Chichiri's whimsical fox face seemed pretty consistent, it shifted in a certain way that came off to me as a "duh" face. "I wouldn't be mentioning it if it weren't, ya know? That'd just be mean and a tease." This caused me to give a nervous chuckle. _I suppose that's true. There wouldn't be any point in giving info like that if it proved to be useless, especially in a situation like this—or to be mean like he said. _

Apparently the blue-haired monk's answer made Genrou feel slightly stupid for not considering the idea himself. To my surprise, though, he didn't address that particular part of the conversation. "Well don't leave us hangin', tell us where it is!"

Chichiri's expression turned a bit troubled. "I don't really have the exact location in mind…" Just when I was about to shout out why he would even tell us something that he couldn't fall through with, he snapped his fingers, and in a poof of white smoke, a kasa hat—you know, one of those stereotypical flat and pointy straw hats that many people envisioning Asians wearing—appeared out of thin air. Part of me was about to completely flip out and ask how the heck he did that, but the answer was obvious magic and I was sort of able to do something similar when I put items into my personal space—like what I did for my late wand, spell-book, and kunai. "…but I do have it handy, ya know?"

"Whoa!" Genrou completely lost focus at the showcase of basic magic. Inspecting the area surrounding Chichiri's person, he tried to identify where he managed to pull the hat from. "How'dja do that?"

"Magic, ya know?" At that was it—plain and simple. Returning his focus back onto the seemingly flat hat and hit his arm all the way inside of it, completely making it vanish.

Now _that_ shocked me. It shouldn't have been possible for him to make his whole arm disappear in a hat like that—just couldn't be done. And no, his arm wasn't just hiding in the rims or crater of the hat, it was like it went into a different dimension that existed inside of it.

"How did you do that? It's like you're bending or manipulating space!" I said in astonishment.

"Exactly, ya know!" I knew that I wasn't supposed to take the Laws of Physics very seriously anymore, but still, this was completely going against it! Sure, what he was doing was kind of cool, but I still wanted to know how that worked. Unfortunately, my question was never answered since he ended up pulling out a rolled up scroll. "This is the map that we'll need to find the location of the flower. However, this map will only take us to the entrance of a maze in which the plant is hidden, ya know? After that, we're pretty much on our own, praying that we'll get through the maze before we either die from danger or old age, ya know?" I couldn't quite understand it, but he said that last part in a more pleasant way than you'd normally expect. But hopefully the combined intellect and powers of a martial arts savvy bandit, a Master Sorceress, and a monk sorcerer (or wizard…magician…I didn't know how he liked to label himself), would make it so that we found our way through that place long before we grew old and died. If worse came to worse, then I'd just nuke the whole place until an exit was made.

A confident grin played on Genrou's lips, as he brought up a fist. "Chichiri, you're a life-saver! And maze or not, we still have a lead, so let's get our asses over there!" He pointed in a random direction. _Our? So does this mean that I don't have to go? _

Unrolling the map, Chichiri scanned its contents. "The maze is actually in the opposite direction, ya know?"

"Whatever! It's the damn principle of the notion!" Genrou barked. "Let's just go!"

"Oh, are our blessed hero's departing from us?" From behind us, the town elder as well as a group of other townspeople appeared, most having a sad look on their faces.

"Yeah, sorry, we almost forgot about telling you," I told them. "The truth is that we weren't really planning on staying as long as we did, so we really need to get going." Out of the crowd, the same bunch of little kids emerged, each launching themselves at me, causing me to fall to the ground.

"You can't leave us Miss Aki!"

"Please, you're our hero!"

"We want you to stay and teach us how to be as cool as you Big Sister Aki." Their cute faces were slightly pink and puffy from tears that were running down their cheeks. _Oh man! Why did they all have to be so freakin' adorable? _

Not having the willpower to get the kids off myself, Chichiri walked over and raised them off of me, one by one. "I'm sorry children, but we really gotta go, ya know?" _Man…I really hate good-byes…_They always just seemed too sappy and emotional for me—that was why I usually tried to avoid them…unless I needed some kind of closure or something.

The elder gave a sad smile that could easily be seen through his thick gray beard. "We understand that you three must go and continue on with your lives. You've already done more than enough for this little town. We would just like to express our gratitude to you—"

"Really, that's not necessary!" I explained to him. "Like I told you guys yesterday, I was happy to do it an all, but it was mostly something I had to do—it's basically my job…so yeah…" Call me weird or whatever, but I always had a problem with people thanking me so excessively. Something like that almost always drew more attention to me and made me feel completely embarrassed. Even when Miaka's brother thanked me when we were little kids, I wasn't really comfortable and didn't know the proper way to respond. It's a little sad, but I suppose that I'm more used to people being jerks to me than grateful—which adds yet another characteristic of mine that I needed to improve on.

"Regardless, you still saved our lives, so please take this as a token of our thanks." From behind him appeared an older woman with graying black hair whose bright smile made her look younger than she actually was. In her hands was a beautiful silk deep scarlet shawl with both gold and silver glittered swirl and knotted designs decorating the whole thing. The piece of cloth was so impressive—no, stunning!—that it came off to me as some kind of valuable treasure that most people wouldn't even dream of just handing off to strangers.

She spoke with a sweet voice. "This scarf has been passed down for the many generations of this town. It has brought us good luck and happiness, and we hope that it does the same for you."

"No, no, no, no. I cannot take this from you. It would be wrong." All of their faces showed a tint of hurt the moment I said that. Attempting to save the situation, I told them, "If you wanna give anything to anyone, give it to your god Suzaku. He's the one you should be thankful for." _I suppose. _

The old women's smile could even been seen in her eyes. "We did, child. We thanked the generous Suzaku for sending us the blessing of an angel such as yourself to appear to us and save us in our time of need." There wasn't much I could say to that. _They think I'm an angel? _"Thanks to you, each one of us has seen a holy light that has warmed our hearts and allowed us to feel the love that we all have for one another. Since then, there have been no doubts in any of the relationships and marriages throughout the town. So, we figured that this treasure of ours has done us so much good that it's time to pass it on to the next deserving person—you, my dear." _Has my Light really affected them that much? _I had absolutely no idea that my Light had that kind of lasting positive residual effect on people. It was hard to believe that that little display of magic had changed all these people's lives and showed them real happiness—even if it was only for a little while.

And that made me feel…good!

As I was lost in my thoughts, I hadn't even realized that the shawl was already in my arms, the smooth feel of it rubbing against my skin. "Huh?"

Seeing the faces of all the people who agreed to give this important item to me made my heart swell in a pleasant way. "Take it, we insist."

There didn't seem to be any use in arguing about it anymore, and I didn't want to insult them either. So, I just ended with a bow. "Thank you for this. I promise to take care of it."

"We know you will."

* * *

><p>"So tell me, <em>why<em> didn't _we_ get anything?" After the three of us had said out goodbyes, we made our way down the trail, me still carrying the beautiful silk scarf in my arms. Genrou apparently had a problem with my getting something and his getting nothing. "Not that I wanted it or anything, but I don't get why Aki was the one who got all the praise. I mean, what're we? Some kinda beef jerky?"

"Well, actually, they thanked us too—I mean they had a whole party for us! But when you look at the big picture, Aki did a lot more than us, ya know? She _was_ the one who saved the day."

Hearing Fang-boy growl a bit, I spoke up. "Look, can we just stop talking about it? It's making me uncomfortable enough as it is."

Genrou gave me a skeptical look. "_You're_ the one sportin' it around as if it were a trophy er somethin'. You know what I think?" _Don't really care._ "I think that you secretly like all of the attention and are shovin' it in both of our faces." _Boy, you are dead wrong. _Sure, I liked feeling like I did something good, but I didn't particularly like all the hype about it.

Keeping cool, I closed my eyes. "Sounds like you're both jealous and insecure to me." Opening one of my eyes slightly, I noticed how he was starting to grind his teeth. "What would someone like you even do with something as elegant as this? Wrap it around your waist and wear it to your sister's baby shower? Please. Just stop acting like a baby and get over it."

Stopping in his tracks, he stomped his foot down and threatened me with a fist. "God, I am so sick and tired of women like you thinkin' that they can just get away with sayin' anything they want and thinkin' that they're all the shit. Well I'm gonna—"

"You're gonna _what_?" Narrowing my eyes at him, I gathered my energy together in preparation for any fight that may or may not break out.

Just as all Hell was about to break loose, Chichiri intervened by sticking the end of his staff between the two of us. "This is really not the time for this, ya know?" He turned to me. "What do you plan on doing with that scarf anyway?"

Blinking a few times, I mentally got myself out of battle mode while trying to focus on an answer to his question. "Well, I really have no use for it myself, and I don't really need it in my arsenal, so when I get back to the capital city, I'll just give it to the emperor so that he could hang it up somewhere I suppose."

"The emperor?"

I nodded. "Yeah, he's a friend of mine, and I plan on returning there once another friend of mine returns from her home. But until then," Using a slight amount of my power, I transported the shawl into my personal space until I needed it later, leaving my arms free once again. "I'll be here with you two trying to get this oh-so-important plant." _Or whatever whacky adventures that plan on meeting us. _

"Huh, so you know the emperor. I guess that makes you pretty important, ya know?" _No, not really, I'm just a friend who helps out in Suzaku affairs while babysitting his priestess. _He clapped his hands once. "But onto more pressing matters!"

What I didn't expect was for his voice to come tunneling through my brain as a message. '_Remember what we talked about earlier? Now would probably be the best time to initiate it, ya know?' _Aside from the shock that he could send messages telepathically, I had to focus more on his words. He was talking about the whole "bonding myself to Genrou in order to see my aura more easily" thing. Just as I was starting to feel semi-relaxed…

Grimacing, putting on a _real_ distasteful look, I reluctantly turned to face the guy I was just in an argument with. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that yet another would start up after what I was about to force myself to do. His harsh expression immediately lit up when he saw the trouble on my face.

"What's wrong with _you_?"

"_**I think the easiest way to go at it would be for you to connect yourself with someone who has an Aura Bond with you, ya know? All you have to do is bind yourself in some way to Genrou until you can see your combined auras."**_

I sighed. _Well, best to get this over with…_

Before he even had the chance to ask another question, I reached out my hand and held his, making sure to hold on tight enough so that he wouldn't be able to escape easily.

"What the hell?" The moment he began to struggle, Chichiri extended out his hand over ours as a light green light sprinkled out in little particles from it, surrounding our hands. Not a second later, they rushed and hit our skin, disappearing on impact. _Umm…what was that? _As I sat there baffled, Genrou decided to take this opportunity and break free. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't going to be that simple. "Hey! What gives? I can't let go!" Getting a certain itch at the back of my mind, my curiosity led me to try and attempt to let go as well. But I found that I couldn't either. _That light that came from Chichiri. Wait! Could it be that he—_

"Chichiri! Please tell me that you didn't do what I think you just did." I could actually feel all of the blood leaving my face, probably making me almost as white as a sheet of paper.

He nodded with a grin. "Yup! I used a spell to bind you two together at your hands, ya know?"

"Why in God's name would you do something like that?" As I spoke, I could practically feel the heat of rage emitting off of Genrou even though I wasn't looking at him.

"I was only trying to help, ya know? Personally, I think it was a great I idea to hold his hand. That way, you can still move around comfortably and still have one arm open. I initially thought that you were going to hug him instead, that would have been an inconvenient problem for you, ya know?"

"This whole thing is an inconvenient problem!" I shouted, getting all up in his face. "If I thought that you were gonna bind us in such a way to where we couldn't let go, then I would have never agreed to this!"

With his back arching backwards, he held his smile but had a vibe of nervousness coming from him. "But it's essential for your training. Besides, if I didn't do it, then knowing you two, you would have gave up and let go before you even had a chance at learning, ya know?"

Violently yanking my arm back, by whole body almost fell backwards as Genrou switched places with me in the "Blame Chichiri Game". "What kinda damn trainin' could you possibly be doin' than involves me being connected to a woman? I didn't volunteer for this!"

"Of course you didn't! I didn't particularly think you would—that's partly why the binding spell was necessary. Oh, and it's not _my_ training, it's Aki's. She wanted to learn how to see auras, ya know? And I wanted to help her out!" My body stiffened up. _Why oh why did he bring up my name? _Almost immediately, Genrou glared back at me, fire blazing in his eyes from anger.

"This was _your_ idea? Seriously, out of all the hands in the world, why the hell did it have to be mine?" For some unexplainable reason, my body was shaking uncontrollably and my voice wouldn't work properly, making it even harder for me to defend myself. On a normal basis, I wouldn't have had a problem with telling this guy off, but seeing how mad he was—negative emotions filling the atmosphere—I didn't expect to feel a hint of distress. This of course provoked the dark ring around me to flare and go into defensive mode, using its immense energy to push the guy back. From our close range, I could see him struggling to keep his ground, almost as if there was some big force attempting to push him down. Like before, the odd phenomenon occurred where he didn't absorb the negative residue, instead, he repelled it, which turned into more of a wall than its intended wave.

"You must understand. It had to be you Genrou, you are the only one that has an Aura Bond with her. This way, she'll learn the technique faster, ya know?"

Finally finding my voice, I lashed out. "Do you honestly believe that I'd be doing this if there were someone else? If I have any chance at being able to do this, then I have to suck up my pride, and you will just have to live with it until it's all over!" Seeing as how he didn't say anything back, I continued. "I've been following you around helping you find this cure, so the very least thing you can do is cooperate." My face softened only slightly. "Please."

A few minutes went by then—to me the stare-down seemed like hours. The both of us exploring into each other's eyes with a look of fiery determination apparent in us both. No one bothered to say anything allowing the only sounds to be ones from nature—birds chirping, wind blowing causing the trees' leaves to rustle. I just couldn't ignore the fact that while all this was going down, we were holding hands. Usually, you'd expect someone to squeeze the other's hand when annoyed at them, but in this case, our hands were completely relaxed, which didn't compare to how we really felt. It was true that I didn't like that I had to do this, he had every right to be mad—hell, I would have been pretty darn pissed too. But any decent person would just accept the fact that something they didn't like happen and just go on with their lives instead of dwelling on it. It's just like when they say "No use crying over spilled milk." Now, I'm not going to lie and be a hypocrite and say that I get over _everything_—that would be a flat out lie. There are those times, though, when I just know when to let go. And in this case, Genrou had to let go, 'cause he was stuck with me until I got this technique down.

What seemed like ages went by before he let out an exasperated sigh. "Fine. We'll do this, but I'm not gonna like it." Before I had a chance to thank him, he turned away in an irritated fashion, illustrating just how ticked off about the whole thing he was. _So what? He's pouting now?_

"Look, I'll try and learn this thing as quickly as I can, alright?"

"No, take your time," His voice became harshly sarcastic, "there's nothin' that I wished fer more in my life than ta be literally stuck to a stupid girl. Now I can say that I died a happy man." _Keep talking and you'll get your wish. _Clenching my fists, I used every bit of my will-power to not knock his flame-headed block off. Damn that fanged bastard.

"Wow, you can actually _see_ the tension in the air, ya know?" Both of us looked at the blue-haired monk who we temporarily thought wasn't even there. Chances were that he was trying to stay out of our little squabble until the end when he could chime in his own thoughts and play diplomat. Him trying to break the negative energy of the atmosphere made it evident that he wasn't too fond of companions battling it out like this. This kind of made me wonder: if Chichiri were there on that day when Genrou and I first met, could we have avoided that battle between us? "I'm glad that we're all at an agreement now. Perhaps as we go along, you two will be more comfortable with the idea, ya know? This could even help you two become closer friends—"

"Like hell it will!" The two of us shouted at him, causing Chichiri to momentarily shrink in our gang-up.

"It's your fault for binding us together!"

"Don't think that you're gettin' outta this so easily!"

Out of nowhere, the monk held up a small white sign that had that had the word "Pacifist" on it in bold black letters. Smiling nervously, he said, "I did it for the greater good, ya know? Just give it some time." Genrou and I just ended up narrowing our eyes at one another before simultaneously facing in opposite directions, eyes closed and our faces scrunched up in a scowl.

Chichiri scratched his cheek sheepishly and looking troubled. "I hope this turns out well, ya know?"

* * *

><p>After a while, the three of us finally managed to start walking towards our destination once again. Chichiri led the way in front of our little group, while the bandit and I trailed behind with our hands connected, but never daring to glance at the other. <em>If he's gonna be such a damn brat about it, then there's no use in me trying to make things all nice and peachy.<em> I felt the need to mentally thank the universe for not allowing us to come across any towns or forms of civilization as the two of us remained bound. There would have no doubt been talking all about the place about how we were a couple, and other "so not going to happen" things. The embarrassment of it all would have probably been enough to make me go insane, or worse, take my frustrations out on the next person who felt the need to comment on our "relationship". It was bad enough to be singled out in a crowd, it was worse to be singled out in a crowd because of some stupid misunderstanding.

Maybe this whole thing was a big mistake. It wasn't necessary to learn how to see auras. After all, I had gone by just fine without even knowing about it. Was this whole thing worth the cost of losing a potential friendship? Genrou and I were just starting to get used to the idea of one another before this whole mess happened. For a person like me, losing a friend would have been yet another one added to my extensive list of ruined relationships. Being so used to it, the blow to my feelings wouldn't have been all that significant. But since there was absolutely no denying that he and I had some sort of bond between us, I felt very compelled to explore it more and see what it was all about. If it weren't for that curiosity, I probably wouldn't have even bothered the attempt at trying to get him to agree to this whole situation.

Regardless of all that, the extended periods of awkwardness were unbearable.

"Hey Chichiri, how long do you think it will take to get through the maze?" Well if someone was going to break the silence, then it might as well have been me.

"It's difficult to say. It all depends on the strength and determination of the person going through it, ya know?" Yeah, I expected an answer like that. And considering that this place was containing such a rare item, there was almost no doubt that there was more to the maze than just walk through and get lucky. There would almost definitely be some type of catch that will probably get on the last of my nerves. So in the long run, Genrou is making us go through some stupid maze to get what he wanted, and I was making him stay connected to me so that I could get what I wanted. I suppose looking at it like that just further encouraged one of the laws of the universe known as Equivalent Exchange.

About five days went by of sheer awkwardness went by. Due to the fact that we didn't even want to think of evening sleeping arrangements, we continued traveling all through the night, and taking short naps under trees during the day a few times. Every time we did that, Genrou and I ended up on opposite sides of the tree as our hands remained connected.

Somewhere along the way, the tension seemed to die down, making the staying with this group a little more bearable. Chichiri would attempt every now and then to strike up a conversation which managed to get the both of us to talk to him but not to each other. Deep in my heart I knew his true goal was trying to patch up things between the two of us, but considering how we went around parts of the conversation deliberately trying to avoid one another, he probably felt like he was failing. During the times that we weren't talking, I couldn't help but feel that Chichiri was formulating plans in his head to get the two of us to finally break the ice. After a while, I wasn't even sure if it was anger that was preventing us from talking comfortably, perhaps it was just because it was awkward that made things difficult. I started to assume this the moment when his negative feelings went away, there was a good chance that he could feel mine dissipating as well.

But I would never rule out the possibility that he just hated me.

The three of us stopped at what seemed like an entrance to a deep forest. Thick, leafy plants pretty much made up the wall of the area, making it appear as if there was just one opening to get inside. The entrance, as pointed out before, consisted of a short tunnel of trees that were arched overhead, seemingly attached to the branched of the trees straight across from them. The whole design was so organized that the structure seemed almost like it was planned as well as man-made. Each and every one of the leaves on the plants was the greenest I had ever seen, with absolutely no signs of disturbance from animals or other externalities as a whole. A place like this seemed like it was reserved for something special, it even had sort of a mystical feel to it—I could even feel that this was no ordinary forest.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that we had successfully made it to the entrance of the maze.

"Can you two feel the immense level of chi emitting from this place?" Chichiri asked. Genrou and I nodded in unison. Chi—the energy flowing throughout the universe and all the beings inhabiting it. Was it possible that this whole time I myself was manipulating chi? Somehow I figured that what I could do was a slightly different concept. But that didn't take away from the fact that the odd, soothing air around this forest was practically causing my own energy to become restless and act up a bit, attempting to escape my body on its own—a phenomenon that was so absorbing that my Wind was unconsciously starting to blow a slight, unthreatening breeze all around us. The whole thing was quite peculiar to me, but since no one was getting blown away, I had no complaints. "Ordinarily, if a person were to go through this tunnel of arched trees, it would just seem like a normal forest. But using this map as a key will reveal what's really there, ya know?" He turned to face me. "A spell is needed in order to make the gate open to the true path, ya know?"

"A spell, huh?" The hidden message of his words finally dawned on me. "Wait, wouldn't that mean that only magic users would be able to get to this place then?"

"I suppose it would mean that."

That of course made me curious. "Say, Chichiri, how did you even get your hands on that map?"

"It was a gift, ya know?"

_A gift? _My face fell in disbelief as I tried to scan his for any sign of deception. That would have been more successful if he didn't have such an impressive poker face. "I'm sorry, but something like that can't just be a 'gift'." With two fingers on both hands, I illustrated the sign for air quotes when I repeated the word "gift". Going along with it, I decided to put on a performance filled up to the rim with sarcasm and wit. "Hey, Chichiri! For your birthday, here's a rare map to a valuable, magical flower that can be found only once every thousand years. It was a bargain at Walmart, so I wrapped it up with the best wrapping paper possible and decided to give it to you. Oh, and for next year, how 'bout I rent you out a room in the White House and invite Katy Perry to sing a song dedicated just for you? Then we could invite all of the My Little Ponies for a _real_ wild time." When I was finished, it didn't surprise me one bit to see the two of them giving me one of the blankest, most _clueless_ stares I had ever seen in my whole life—I mean, they were _completely_ lost with about eighty-five percent of the things I said. The whole scene of it all was pretty hysterical from my stand point. Think about it: I had the power to completely mess with people's heads in this world just by talking in slang and about the pop culture of my "futuristic" society. Seriously, I could be giving them a compliment or one of the biggest burns of a lifetime, and they would never even know. Yup, I could now definitely say that this world was starting to grow on me.

Don't worry, I promise to use my powers for good—or entertainment, depends on my mood.

For the remainder of a minute, both the monk and the bandit stood there with faces that told me that they were attempting to process all of the info that spewed from my mouth.

Genrou finally shook his head and replaced his face with an annoyed, yet bewildered expression. "…What? _None_ of that made _any_ sense. Did your brain just decide to quit on ya makin' you speak some kinda gibberish?"

"Aki, please explain what a Walmart is as well as the purpose of this White House? And who is this Katy Perry and these My Little Ponies?" Chichiri still looked a bit troubled.

Keeping my cool at this point was failing miserably. A deep laugh was forming in my gut, and I just couldn't take it anymore. With a burst, I started cracking up like no tomorrow—the confused faces of my companions made the hilarity of it all that much more satisfying.

"What are ya laughin' for?"

After wiping my tears, my arm immediately switched to my stomach in an attempt to fight the pain that was building from all of the laughter. "I'm sorry—I'm sorry! It's just too funny! You guys are so much like those spoiled rich-kids of the Host Club. They were just so ignorant!" Was that why I was laughing? Was it because these two reminded me so much of the group of friends I left behind? Back when I was with the Host Club, I learned that spoiled rich people often didn't know the things that consisted of being a "commoner". They didn't know what instant coffee was (or that it existed), they weren't aware that "poor" people had the ability to blow up a small poor for kids, they were absolutely mortified at the sizes of houses that "commoners" lived in, and I wouldn't have been all that surprised if they never had fast food a day in their lives. If it weren't for Haruhi and I, they'd probably still be in the dark about some things.

They were indeed an interesting bunch, but they were my friends, and I couldn't help but miss them.

I wasn't going to be sad about the fact that I left them, at least not at that moment. Recalling a happy memory was a good thing, just like Dark had told me.

_And yet, you'll never find happiness in any of these people. _

Almost immediately, my laughter died down the moment the unidentifiable woman's voice made its way into my mind.

_Memories will be all you have. Can you honestly live this way? Stop fooling yourself._

At this point, my high was totally extinguished, leaving yet another uneasy silence between me and the two guys who were dropped off a long time ago on the clueless highway. I did cherish my memories, but what if the voice was right? What if I just kept moving from world to world only keeping memories, but losing friendships. Eventually, the memories may not be enough—their positive effects would just die out, leaving me with a bunch of regrets and sorrow. A person cannot live with just reminiscing on things with different people. Precious memories are meant for those who you stay with so that you can create even more memories with them. The way I was living, my memories were just a tease of what could never happen again.

"What happened to you?" Genrou must have noticed the sudden change in atmosphere around me, his amber eyes showing a hint of concern. "You were all happy just a second ago, and now you're…well, not." I wasn't sure if I was imagining it, but it sort of felt like he squeezed my hand for a split second during that last sentence of his.

Shaking my head, I told him, "Don't worry about it. Let's just go through with this thing." My expression went completely serious, showing that I wasn't really up to talking about my personal problems. "You want that flower, right? Well we're not gonna get anywhere just standing here." Still the confused looks persisted, this time I noticed that Genrou was analyzing me in some way, as if he were trying to figure out the complex puzzle that is me. At this point they both probably thought that I was completely insane. Not only had I said a bunch of stuff that would take about half an hour to explain, but I laughed like a maniac at my own joke then broke the laughter completely by pretending that the temporarily moment of happiness was just some sort of brief dream that had never happened in the first place. They had to think I was crazy—_I'd_ think I was crazy if I were in their shoes. It was a good thing that I didn't particularly care about my appearance to others, otherwise I'd be forced to spend the next few minutes explaining what all that bizarreness was all about.

Taking a few more seconds to think things over, the flame-haired one reluctantly agreed. "Y-Yeah, she's right." Shedding all shreds of hesitation, he turned to Chichiri. "Hurry it up already, we don't got all day! The sooner we get through this place, the faster we can get that flower an' get on with our lives."

"Tell me the spell Chichiri, so that we can both say it…" An evident lack of disinterest could be heard in my voice. It wasn't exactly intentional, but with that negative female's voice coming in out of nowhere kind of made me lose some of my motivation for trying.

While analyzing the tone of my response, the monk warned us with a semi-ominous tenor. "I just thought I should mention how once we enter the maze, there will be various trials to test us and make sure that we're worthy of its precious treasure, ya know? You two think that you can overcome whatever the maze throws at you?"

"I'd like to see it bring me down so easily." Genrou brought a fist up, resting it on his chest as he proclaimed assuredly. "Hell, if ya just send me in there now, I'd probably be outta there in less than fifteen minuets. No sweat."

Giving him a sideways glance, I said, "You know it's the kind of confidence you have that horror movies tend to have a lot of fun with."

"What's a movie?"

Groaning, I ignored his question and gave my answer to Chichiri. "I'm ready for anything. But we won't even get to that anything until we open the portal, right?" After all the crap that had been thrown at me since day one of this journey, I thought I could pretty much withstand whatever that maze decided to torment me with. And if worse comes to worse, anything could be solved with the magic of a few "innocent" explosions.

With that, the blue-haired monk walked up to me and whispered the spell in my ear. The temperature of my body couldn't help but rise with how close he was to my face. Shaking my head, I mentally threw any unnecessary thoughts out the door, and listened to the short and simple incantation.

Positioning ourselves so that Genrou was in the middle, Chichiri and I held up the map with one hand as we commenced with the spell.

"_We call on the dreams of creature and mortal—to heal the wounds the worlds divide. From now on, we can each create a portal that our own paths decide!" _Using our combined energy on the spell, the map began to glow a bright pale green color. As if the portal were calling for it, the parchment started to vibrate in our hands, attempting to escape our grips. On an impulse, the two of us let go, watching as the map flew out to the opening of the arched trees, quickly growing greater in size until it fit the size and shape of the arched opening. No longer could we see the tunnel of trees that we were able to before, this time it was a portal consumed in an ever-glowing great light that seemed to beckon for its guests to proceed forward.

"Since the map could be considered something like a recyclable key, it has to be recreated every thousand years, ya know?" Chichiri explained. "It would also be worth mentioning that the location of the flower is different every time so that no greedy people decide to come along and use the flower for the wrong reason, ya know? We were pretty lucky to have it so close to us this time."

"I still don't understand how anyone would even be able to get that map. If things are always different, then there couldn't possibly be a pattern to where someone could get their hands on it." There just seemed to be so many holes to this whole story that just irked me.

"You're right, there is no pattern, ya know?" Chichiri explained. "You see, only those who are chosen by the universe are able to get the map. And since no one knows what the universes personal opinion is, no one can predict it, ya know?" _The universe, huh? _Whenever something in these worlds didn't make sense, it always traced back to the universe _somehow_.

To my surprise, Genrou managed to actually stop focusing on the maze for once to ask the monk a question. "So let me get this straight—outta anyone in existence, the universe decided to choose you? Ya have somethin' real valuable there and yer willin' to give it up to a couple of strangers? Why would'ja do somethin' like that when you could have the spoils fer yourself?" To be honest, I was actually thinking the same thing. Any person I knew would have turned completely avaricious the moment they realized what they had. The fact that this guy was so willing to give up something that precious to us seemed a bit…suspicious.

Instead of getting offended and emotional about it, Chichiri just gave both of us a sincere smile. "It's not like I had anything to use it for, ya know? Besides, sharing is much more exciting than keeping something to oneself, don't you agree?" Turning his attention back onto the portal, his smile never faltered. "I believe that the universe lead me to you guys, so it's no surprise to me that I was actually able to do something with this map. I'm quite grateful that you two have allowed my help in all this, ya know?" Even when it isn't direct, the universe still continued to be a part of my life whether I wanted it to be or not. And frankly, whenever the subject of the universe is even mentioned, I instantly feel and undying sense of anxiety. Could a person really blame me? If the universe didn't interfere so darn much with my life, who knows how much of a happier person I could have been. The whole being in itself was so twisted that you could never foretell what it would do next—of course I was anxious! To add to all that, the recent discovery of Taiitsukun being its "Ultimate Ruler" and all tends to steer my suspicions towards thinking that somehow, she was connected to a great deal of the crap that I had to endure. This particular situation with the maze and how the map chose people was no exception.

I had no choice but to shake the uneasy feeling I was getting from this place. The only real thing that was bothering me (that I actually chose to acknowledge anyway) was that my flow of energy was really acting up to the influence of the maze. My whole body seemed to buzz and vibrate within as the energy coursed vigorously through me, attempting to find some type of satisfying outlet. My reaction was so evident that I wouldn't have doubted that Genrou was feeling everything through the connection of our hands. If it weren't for the control I had built up, a full-blown wind storm would have broken lose, most likely blowing away anything in its path. It wasn't necessarily a bad impression, and wasn't quite good either. But what I could say was that the temptation to just release it all was so…inviting! I almost felt as if this was strictly a magic zone—anyone was free to just go crazy with their powers without any consequences. So despite my conscious warning me that this place practically reeked of trouble, I was still itching to go in and further explore this sensation.

"Let's go in." The two guys stared at me for my sudden impulsion.

It didn't take too long for Genrou to agree. "I'm with her. We're not gonna get anythin' done if we just stand here like idiots."

"Well, as long as you are sure, ya know?"

Without any further delay, Chichiri led the way into the green-glowing unknown.

The very moment I stepped foot into the portal, my energy raced about so much that even my blood felt like it was on fire—the odd thing being that I wasn't in any pain at all. The chi contained just in the tunneled portal alone was calling out to me somehow—it seemed to awaken some part of me that I didn't even know existed. The empowering feeling was so overwhelming that the sheer possibility of me giving in, letting all of the contained Wind go, was a definite possibility.

Taking my first step onto the other side of the gate was a completely different story, though.

Just as I laid my eyes onto the new forest-like terrain surrounded by leafy walls around every corner, observing the lack of other life forms, the air devoid of any breeze except my own, I was instantly caught in some type of dizzy spell. Closing my eyes, I tried to put everything back into focus once again. Could this have been a result of the energy overload?

The energy inside of me had calmed down, but a part of me still felt as if something had changed somewhere on the inside. My body continued to stay warm as the incredible rush of power consumed me.

So why did it feel as if something was missing?

Taking a peek, it only took a split second for both of my eyes to shoot wide open in shock. When I tried to take a deep breath in, it only came out as short bursts as I did my best to search for oxygen. The proper words couldn't even form to describe the emotions that came trickling through my being.

The dark ring was gone. Completely gone.

This wasn't one of those times when it seemed to just disappear—no, I could even feel its absence. It was like I was finally free of a curse that had been haunting me since I was little—the cage I was trapped in for so many years had finally been opened. Was this really happening? Or was this some kind a dream—a tease that the universe was so cruel to induce? Reaching my hand out, I had to investigate whether or not this whole thing was real—

"What are you doing?"

Ceasing the motion I was about to perform, my heart skipped a beat the moment I heard a familiar voice. _There's no way…_Forcing myself to shut my eyes closed, I waited a few seconds to see if the dream would end. _There's no way….there's just no way! _The airway to my lungs seemed to have shrunk about a million sizes 'cause breathing was becoming more and more of an obstacle for me.

There was a sudden tug on my arm. "Hey, Aki, what's wrong with you?"

Forcing my eyes open while looking away, my heart just wouldn't stop beating so rapidly. _There's no denying it, it is him! _

_But…_Turning around slowly, I traced the hand that was being held back up to its owner. The mischievous yet playful golden eyes, the pinkish, strawberry blond hair, there was absolutely no mistaking it. _How would it even be possible? _

"Hika…ru…" I whispered in a hush tone.

"What was that?" He asked. "I can't hear you if you just mumble things like that."

Body completely frozen from the shock, all I managed to do was just stand there, staring in disbelief. _This shouldn't be real—Taiitsukun would never allow it. I should be the only one who could switch worlds like that. Why would he just show up out of nowhere? _It wasn't like I wasn't happy to see him, it was just…I had too many false senses of bliss to just fall for this one. For all I knew, I could have very well been dreaming. Perhaps going through the portal knocked me out for some reason, sending me into a false sense of security. All of these choices were very likely—especially with my track record.

But he seemed so real…

"Did you lose your voice or something? How come you're not saying anything?" That was definitely his voice, and those were definitely his eyes—and hair…his vibe. It could have been possible that I was having a lucid dream—where I knew I was dreaming and was able to control everything that was happening. If that were the case, then why fight it? If dreams were honestly the only places where I could be happy, I just didn't see the harm in enjoying myself a bit.

"Hikaru!" Launching myself into his arms, a genuine smile ran across my face as I reunited myself with the boyfriend I was forced to leave behind. Ordinarily, I'd never be the one to make such a dramatic move—or the first move at all—but since this was a dream, who was there to judge? "Don't make fun of me just 'cause I did this—I'm only doing it because I missed you."

For some reason, I didn't feel his arms wrap around me in return. Instead, his body seemed to tense up in an unnatural way. "M-M-Miss you? Wha-What the hell are you talking about? I've been here this whole time you crazy woman! And why the heck are you smothering all over me?" Using his free hand, he pushed me away—his face completely flustered mixed with annoyance.

With a look of confusion and hurt, I persisted on. "Been here this whole time? No you haven't. In fact, I haven't seen you or the Host Club in weeks…almost a month…" There was hesitation as well as a slight tone of denial hanging on my voice. "R-Right?"

Cocking his eyebrow up, all he did was stare at me with his mouth gaping open as if I were the craziest person he had ever met in his life.

"He _has_ been here this whole time, ya know?" Someone's hand rested on my shoulder in a comforting notion. "Are you okay Aki?"

Seeing movement out of the corner of my eye, the incredible, defying gravity blue bangs of Chichiri came into view—revealing that Hikaru and I weren't the only ones standing there. Actually the more I thought about it, everything was starting to come back into light. We were supposed to be in some kind of a maze…to get that flower that Genrou wanted.

Genrou…

Where was he? Ever since we stepped from the other side of the portal, I hadn't seen him at all. And yet my hand was still connected to someone's—Hikaru's. But I was supposed to be holding Genrou's hand, not Hikaru's. Genrou was supposed to be here, I shouldn't have been able to even see Hikaru. _So…this has to be a dream. Yeah, that's what it is—that's why nothing makes sense. How else would the dark ring have disappeared? _The universe was cruel, it was trying to get me to lose my guard and become weak—I couldn't fall prey to its trap. But my head was starting to ache and tear from the confusion—this whole situation was actually getting to me.

Trying to take my hand back, I found that it was stuck…with a spell…to Hikaru's hand…just like…

My eyes widened with terror, blood quickly escaping from my face. _Oh God no…_

"Aki?" Chichiri's concern persevered.

Choosing not to acknowledge the monk (not to be mean, but because I just had to get to the bottom of something), I turned my attention to Hikaru. _Something is definitely up. The Hikaru I know would have been joking around and annoying me to some point with his playful sneakiness. Not only that, but after not seeing me for so long, he would have hugged me before I even had a chance to think about hugging him first. Yup…there were no boundaries with that one…_My eyes narrowed as my thoughts persisted. _ Hikaru wouldn't have spoken to me the way this one did…what's going on? _

Clearing my throat, I looked into the golden eyes of my old boyfriend—searching for all of the honesty I could. "Please tell me that you're just having a bad day and that you somehow got teleported from your world to this spot."

His face scrunched up in continued perplexity. "What are you talking about? I told you before that I've been here this whole time!" Grunting, he crossed his arms. "You can bet your ass that I'm having a bad day though—and your acting like a psycho idiot is adding to it."

My stomach performed an uncomfortable flip as explanations flew around my brain. A huge part of me didn't want to ask a certain question, but I just needed to know… "Tell me how you feel about women."

Without any hesitation and using a matter-of-fact tone, he said, "You already know how I feel about that—they're annoying, overemotional, and I can't stand them." That blow went straight through my heart, completely shredding the small spark of hope that was forming within. Knees trembling, head spinning, I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep myself up for much longer, not after all that. "Hikaru" wasn't Hikaru at all—he was Genrou…who looked like…sounded like…felt like…the real Hikaru. But it wasn't…

It was too much—I just couldn't take in anymore surprises.

Feeling gravity take over my body, my brain stopped functioning, leaving my vision to just fade to black.

_The universe…_

_is such…_

_a __**bitch**__…_

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><p><strong>Though college may be messing with my stamina, I still managed to get this out! Haha! Take that higher education!<strong>

**Well, that's the end of that chapter! Thoughts please? I'd love to hear your opinions and predictions in your reviews!**

**Again, thank you all for your support, I'll try and have the next chapter out A.S.A.P!**

**Well, until next chapter! (Part 2) **

**C ya!**

**~Aki**

**P.S. Did anyone catch that other anime reference I made in there? If you did, then I tip my hat to you ;)**

_**PLEASE REVIEW!**_


	27. From Deception to Auras Part 2

**Hey everyone! Thanx so much for all of the reviews last chapter (thanx for all the chapters really). **

**I hope that you all remember what happened at the end of last chapter cuz this is the second part! Enjoy~**

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><p><strong>~*Part 2*~<strong>

**Genrou's 3rd POV**

Aki's body collapsed, Genrou was able to keep her from completely falling to the ground using the hand that was forcibly bound to hers. All day she had been acting weird, going from one emotion to the other—talking about things that made no sense whatsoever. And now she passed out on him.

Great.

He knew that the girl was a bit odd, but everything that she displayed that day was almost enough to convince him that she was completely wrong in the head somehow. Well, that's what he wanted to think, but he knew that wasn't true. Ever since Chichiri had bound them together, he had been able to read her inner emotions clearly. The girl may put up a tough and constant exterior, but there was so much more to her than that—things that made him quite curious about. When he met her on the other side of the portal, he suspected that something was off since that peculiar ring around her seemed to have disappeared altogether. He didn't know what it was, why it was there, or even if she knew that he knew about it from the moment they met, but what he did know was that its disappearance affected her in a dramatic way. Perhaps that was why she was acting so looney.

No, that couldn't have been it. She was acting weird even before they went in the maze.

_God dammit! Why do girls have to be so damn complicated? _

Gently bringing her to the ground, Genrou quickly observed her sleeping features—her fair skin, the lightness of her body, her sleek, dark brown hair that almost fell to her shoulders—she was much less of a headache in this state. He didn't have to listen to her smart mouth, her attitude, and her incredibly hard and annoying sarcasm. But even he had to admit that she was making things more interesting for him. Never did he think that on his journey to find the cure for his leader, he'd pick up some chick who could totally turn the tide of things with whatever she did.

He still hated women—they were still irritating in more ways than one, but Aki annoyed him in a different way—a way that he could actually tolerate.

Shaking his head, he attempted to clear all rogue thoughts out of his mind. _There's no time to get side tracked here! _

"What do you think happened to her?" Chichiri asked as he sat on the ground next to her. "I hope it's nothing serious, ya know?" Putting his hand under her long bangs, he felt her forehead for a temperature.

"Beats me. I kinda figured that the universe got sick of 'er crazy and decided to take her out." Part of him wished that she was awake to hear that. Sometimes there was nothing better than arguing with someone who could not only deal with it, but dish it out. She made arguments so entertaining that they were almost sport-like. Chichiri just didn't seem like the type of guy who would bother with squabbles like that.

_Wake up Aki! You can't leave me with this non-argumentative weirdo!_

A sharp pain impacted the back of Genrou's skull. "Dammit! What the hell?" Looking to his side, he realized that the monk had whacked him hard with his staff.

"That comment wasn't very nice, ya know?" What sucked was that he couldn't even tend to his wound since he was holding the girl with one hand while his other was connected to hers because of a spell. With every fiber in his being, he prevented tears from forming in his eyes. If Aki happened to wake up at that moment, she'd definitely never let him live it down should just one tear escape. "She doesn't have a fever…But this could be serious, ya know?"

"I doubt it. She probably just had some sort a meltdown er somethin'," Genrou told him. "She'll wake up again in a few minutes." _Which is still too long—we need her to wake up now!_

The monk's atmosphere turned into mystery. "So…do I have to point it out, or do you want to do it?"

"Point _what_ out?" Genrou looked up at him.

"Are you telling me that you don't see those lines of light on her?"

"So you can see them too!" The bandit laughed nervously. "I was kinda worried that that portal made me high er somethin' causin' me to see things." In all seriousness though, the other thing that immediately caught his eye other than her ring going missing was the appearance of the bright, light-grey glowing jagged and branched lines completely painted onto her skin. They were all over her body—on her face, her neck, her exposed stomach, her legs…no doubt in other places as well. If he were to trace the lines with his finger, he would probably find that they were all connected to each other. It was definitely an interesting sight, the energy emitting from the mysterious lines put up a field of confusion around the woman's two companions.

"You think we should be concerned with everything that's going on?" Chichiri broke Genrou out of his train of thought. "I mean, after that performance, her passing out, and now these lines…what if she needs our help? I don't like seeing her so distraught, ya know?"

Processing his words, Genrou looked back down at her with concern. "Well, if she needs it, we'll be here—simple as that." Seeing the understanding look the monk was giving him, he looked away, face slightly flushed. "Look, we need ta focus on wakin' 'er up. Jus' sittin' here won't do anyone any good—"

Movement could be felt coming from her. She was waking up.

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><p><strong>Aki's POV<strong>

Fluttering my eyelids, the world was starting to come back into focus. _What happened to me? _The familiar and pleasant face of my past looked down at me as I lay in his lap. "Hikaru?" _Was everything that happened just a bad dream? _Could it have been possible that I was still in the Hitachiin's mansion—or even in the club room?

Closing his eyes, Hikaru groaned. "Why do you keep calling me that? Don't tell me that you actually forgot my name."

"Aki…" My eyes shifted over to Chichiri, who's face held a mask of concern. "This is Genrou, ya know? Do you not see that?"

My brain refused to accept what he was saying, all I wanted to do was stare at him, take in the sight that I had been missing for so long. But as moments went by, the weight of everything came rushing back at me—the realization from before reopening the wound on my heart (as if it were completely healed).

Sitting up, I couldn't help but feel slightly—scratch that—_really_ depressed. The dark ring was supposed to be gone and yet…I still felt horrible. I may have been free of my tiny binding, but I was still trapped in a world of self-misery. Some things just couldn't be repaired—especially if the damage was so deep that it just couldn't be repaired.

As my eyes trailed to the side, I was able to put my attention onto something else for once—and boy was this a big "something else". "What the hell are these lines that are on me?" Observing what I could, I found grey-glowing lines trailing all over my body—like veins of some sort. Yeah, that's what they looked like: veins. They were all over the surface of my skin—well, more like etched into my skin, seeming as if they were distributing the flow of energy that was so determined to escape before. The color of the veins was the exact same color of my base Wind energy, so I figured that these veins were somehow a part of me—I was just never aware of them. Or perhaps, they had never revealed themselves before…

Continuing to gawk at the fascinating phenomenon, my trance was broken with Chichiri's voice. "Now Aki, can you please explain—"

"Wait a second…" I interrupted as my focus came back into the more pressing situation. "What the heck is going on around here? Why does Genrou look like Hikaru?"

"Don't know, do you plan on _fainting_ again?" The smugness of "Hikaru's" voice compelled me to shoot him a look of distaste. Unfortunately, seeing his smirking face made me lose my sudden spark of irascibility, causing me to look away with a heated face.

During this time, Chichiri managed to some thinking to make sense of the madness. "Well, I'm not quite sure about who this 'Hikaru' person is, but I suspect that this is one of the trials, ya know?"

"A-A trial?"

He nodded. "Yup. Remember when I said that the maze would make the people who enter it go through various trials to make sure they're worthy? Well, I think that this is the first of them, ya know?" Letting out a deep exhale, I hung my head down to my chest. _Great, just great…three people here, and the maze messes with _me_. _I scoffed. _Am I really _that_ surprised? I've been the universes' cruel plaything for so long that I should learn to expect these things by now…_ "Since you're seeing Genrou as someone else, I suspect that you must learn to decipher the illusion from reality in order to pass the test, ya know?"

"I understand that...but…" I couldn't help but take a look at Genrou—er…Hikaru…umm…Genrou? Whatever. He looked like him, yet I knew it wasn't him. How was I supposed to get over someone if the universe keeps shoving these things in my face? It hurt to see Hikaru, yet it made me really happy—like, beyond happy.

_If Hikaru were actually here, he'd probably be clinging to be right about now. _In all actuality, I hated being clung to, but I grew so accustomed to the particular way that he and Kaoru held onto me that it created a sense of belonging that I had longed for all my life. Those two always wanted me around—even going so far as to betray me to do it (even now I knew that their methods were flawed, but extremely sweet). Those two had become my closest friends only near the end of my stay there. If only I had realized their kindness more quickly, as well as accepted their friendship, I could have enjoyed their company for a longer period of time. And now, I would never get the chance…

The universe was so damn cruel…

"Say, Aki," Genrou spoke to me through Hikaru's voice, inducing the pain even more. "Who is this Hikaru guy anyway?" Averting my eyes from him, I refused to give an answer.

"I was wondering about that as well, ya know? What kind of sentimental value do you have with this guy?"

I didn't have to reply to them—this was _my_ business anyway. It had absolutely nothing to do with them…they probably didn't really care. If it weren't for the natural curiosity of humans they wouldn't even have been asking.

"Was this guy related to you or something? Or maybe he was your boyfriend?"

Bringing in my knees to my chest, I buried my head in my free arm. _I had already accepted the fact that I'd never see him again... or anyone else from those worlds…so why do I have to endure more of this?_

"Or maybe he was your—"

"Genrou!" Chichiri ordered. "I don't think we should be probing her anymore. It's making her uncomfortable, ya know—"

"He was someone important to me," Keeping my voice muffled only as loud as needed for them to hear, I continued to avoid their gazes. Fist forming on my free hand, I told them, "But I can never see him again, so there's no point in talking about him…" For a few moments, silence coursed through our small group, the other two trying to find the right words to say and me hoping that the conversation would just end.

"…Is he dead?" Genrou's question was a bit unexpected, only because I figured he would persist with the relationship status questions.

"No…" Lifting my head up, I gazed at the artificial night sky—completely filled with a sense of melancholy. "Well…probably not. But regardless, I can never see him again…He might as well be dead to me…"

"Aki…"

"Look," Facing him, I did my very best to ignore the familiarity of his features. "There's no point talking about it since it won't bring me any closer to him. So just drop it." I didn't mean to sound like a bitch and pretend as if everything I had been through with Hikaru, Kaoru, and the rest of the Host Club was nothing to me. Even though it took me a while to get used to and accept things around there, I grew to love that place as if it were my home. But when you get down to it, it's because I had such precious memories with them that makes the pain even worse. Before I gave Genrou an opening to talk, I shifted my head to face Chichiri. "I am so done with this…Tell me how to make it go away—I can't stand it anymore."

He frowned in a sympathetic way. "I'm sorry Aki, but since this is your test, neither Genrou nor I have the ability to interfere. After all, this illusion is in your mind—_your_ eyes, ya know?"

_Damn it all! _It was bad enough that Genrou had Kajou's features to begin with, and now he looked exactly like yet another person who the universe felt should be taken away from me. If or when I actually get out of this first trial, who's to say that the maze won't throw yet another painful memory in my face? Would I be able to endure it all? It was sad to think that I'd rather be taking on about fifty Shadow Maidens than deal with the kind of emotional agony that cuts deeper than any wound ever could.

As I was lost in thought, "Hikaru" stood up and yanked on my arm violently, forcing me to stand up as well. "You heard Chichiri," he said with a commanding voice, "you're the only one who can make this go away, so I suggest you do something before the both of us get even more pissed off."

Transforming my face into a scowl, I asked in a rather irritated tone, "And how do you suggest we do that?"

"Get over the fact that I look like this guy and try to see _me_."

"Get over it? _Get over it_?" I was yelling by this point, angry at how obtuse he was being. "How the hell do you think this whole thing works? I can't simply get over it 'cause—'cause it hurts! You can't just tell someone to get over it you insensitive jerk!" Still feeling uncomfortable with his appearance, I looked down and away, slightly turning my head, so that I wouldn't have to contribute to this illusionary deception.

Raising up his free arm, he cupped my cheek in his hand, pushing inward so that I had no choice but to look him in the eye. Even with the notions, his dominating tone didn't waiver. "It doesn't matter how much you yell and complain—this won't go away until you face it head on." On an impulse, my face instantly went warm as my body stopped tensing up—observing the traits of his that I was so used to put me into a certain peace with myself that made it difficult to argue back. "Hikaru" must have noticed the dreamy look on my face because he shouted, "Stop looking at me like that!"

The uproar kicked me out of the trance, reminding me that this guy wasn't who he looked like, and even if he were, I would have pounded him for giving _me_ orders like that. Moving my head in such a way to where his hand couldn't grasp onto my face anymore, I persisted on keeping a strict, minimal amount of eye contact. "Don't touch me like that. You have no idea what it's like, so don't pretend as if you think that you do and that you have all of the answers!"

This time he grabbed onto my shoulder, and brought me in closer so that I would have no choice but to see most of his features—even the golden eyes seemed to pierce through my peripheral vision enough to make me uneasy. I tried to struggle out of it, but he had a firm grip. "Look, I don't want to be going through any of this either—I want to just find that stupid plant and get on with my life. But since your dirty tricks caused us to be connected like this, I have no choice but to endure this crap with you. So just get over your trauma and look at me."

"Let go of me!" I strained—eyes closed tightly, Wind acting up all around us causing our hair to start flying all around. Through it all, I could tell that "Hikaru" was about to lose it, whereas my own power didn't seem to faze me at all. "You have no right to be telling me what to do—"

"Just shut up and look at me you damn witch!"

Eyes opening in an instant, the hated title went ringing through my ears and down into my being…breaking the very last straw. Concentrating, I directed the already surrounding Wind into my area, completely encircling my body like a mini tornado. Seeing the surprised expression on his face, I didn't hesitate in targeting the elemental force his way. Just as I released, I could hear Chichiri in the background yelling, "That's not a very good idea, ya know?" But it was too late, the moment I let him have it was the exact moment I realized that Chichiri warned me for a reason—it wasn't so that I wouldn't hurt Genrou, no, it was so that I wouldn't go flying away with him due to the fact that we were connected—a little tidbit that I had forgotten. So as the gust struck him, he was violently pushed backwards, along with little ol' me who failed to remember the important detail of magical bonding. Instantly losing my focus, Wind immediately ceased, allowing us the freedom from its grasp…

And straight into a huge puddle of mud.

_You have _**got**_ to be kidding me. _The wet and slimy substance was beginning to seep into my clothes and touch my skin, making me shudder slightly. _Who in the universe honestly thinks this is funny? It's not fair! _The urge to just start hitting the ground with my fists and feet in a repeated motion, similar to what little kids do whenever they're throwing a temper tantrum, was so strong. It didn't take long before Wind started up again, signaling that the controlled hold on my powers was crumbling due to all the emotional stress I had gone through in that one day.

"Aki, you have to calm down before you blow this whole forest away, ya know?" Chichiri came running up to the two of us. We must have looked ridiculous just lying there, the brown, mucky color dominating all others on our bodies. It looked like someone had literally shot mud canons at us, hitting the target every single time. There was so much mud all over us that if I were to somehow come down with serious amnesia at that moment, then I would have probably been convinced that the mud was my skin. I had never been so dirty in all my life, and there was no way in hell that I'd make it a habit because some moron induced me to use my powers against him/against me. When the monk reached us, he panted for only a split second before giving an amused smile. "Oh! You two look like you're having fun! Reverting back to your childhood days can be refreshing, ya know—"

"Don't even play Chichiri!" I sat up on my knees and pointed at him accusingly. "You should have said something _before_ I went and did that!"

Taking a step back as a precaution, a drop of sweat could be seen rolling down the side of his face. "I thought you knew, ya know?"

Grinding my teeth, my body was starting to become stiff as the mud dried in some places. "Of course I didn't know! If I did, I wouldn't have done it! Now I'm a mess!"

"Hikaru" grunted, leaning his head on one of his palms. "Leave it to a woman to get all bent out of shape because of a little bit of wet dirt. Don't be such a girl."

Turning my attention back to him, I extended my arm out and grabbed his collar. "Of course I'm 'bent out of shape', I'm soaked and dirty—all because you couldn't keep your mouth shut about calling me a witch!"

Surprisingly, I could see a smile forming on his lips. _Does he honestly think that this is funny?_ "Sheesh, if I knew you were gonna be that sensitive about it—"

"You did know I was gonna be sensitive about it! And wipe that stupid smirk off of your face, this isn't funny!"

"Actually," He chuckled a bit through a mud-covered face, "it kind of is." A full-out hearty laughter erupted from him as he pointed at me. "You should see how you look right now! You look like some kind of puny mud monster or something!" _Who's he calling puny? _

Seeing how much of a kick he was getting out of this only made me angrier. Realizing that I didn't quite have the power to prevent or heal idiocy, I ceased holding onto his collar and pushed him away. Growling, I changed my mind about my previous notion and resumed threatening him by grabbing his shirt again, this time getting in his face. When it came to making me considerably dirty, I didn't care if he looked like Hikaru—hell I probably would have knocked Hikaru's block off too for getting me this kind of filthy. "Do you see my clothes? This outfit was a gift! The mud is already setting in, and if I don't clean it soon, then these stains might become permanent!"

I could tell that he was about to say some snide comment about how women worry about their clothes too much when Chichiri interfered. "I'm sure it would be best if we just found a place for your two to wash up, ya know?" Taking out his kasa hat once again (and out of nowhere I might add), he said, "Be back in a few!"

"Wait, where are you—" Just as I was asking, the monk wore the hat on his head, only to have the hat completely fall to the floor, Chichiri's body seemingly vanishing inside of it. At this point, so many questions could have been asked considering "Hikaru" and I were just sitting there, staring at the hat without its monk, eyes bulging out almost as if we just received word that a three-year old took out a heavy-weight champ. It just didn't make any sense.

But instead of asking me to explain what just happened, "Hikaru" looked over at me with an irritated face saying, "Great. Now even more of our time is wasted because you can't control your temper."

Gasping in disbelief, I told him, "_Excuse_ _me_? It's your fault for an attempt at sexual harassment you jerk."

He seemed taken aback with that statement. "Sexual harassment? I wasn't doing anything _near_ those standards!"

"Putting your hands on my person in any kind of intimate way without the other parties consent could be considered sexual harassment." Realizing that his actions before _did_ unintentionally fall into that category, his face reddened a bit. "Moron."

"Tch. As if I would with you anyway."

"As if you _could_." For the remainder of the time Chichiri was away, "Hikaru" and I sat there giving each other the evil glare without any words being exchanged between us. Just because I was getting used to him looking like my ex didn't necessarily mean that I was okay with it—quite the opposite really. All I really wanted was for this whole thing to be over. By this point, I was pretty sure that any friendship that could have formed between Genrou and I was pretty much down the drain. I wouldn't have been surprised if he just got up and ran the moment Chichiri unbound us. Oh well. It wouldn't matter in the long run especially if I ended up leaving this world.

It didn't take very long for Chichiri to reappear from under his hat—crawling out as if what he was doing was perfectly normal. "There's a hot spring not too far from here, ya know? You two can just go wash up over there!" Clapping his hands, he said, "We should just all go take a bath, ya know?"

Giving him a blank face, I shuffled through his words. "We should…all…take a…bath?" The light bulb finally came on. "_What_? You want us to do _what_?"

His eyebrow cocked up. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? Have you forgotten that Genrou and I are bound together? If we go into a hot spring, then we'll have no choice but to be right next to each other!" _Not to mention that he looks exactly like someone I have feelings for—that, plus the fact that my hormones would pretty much explode would be a good enough reason to not go through with this._ "Bottom line is," I crossed my arms in an "X" shape, "I won't do it."

"It's bad enough that you connected me with a woman, there's no way in hell that I would bathe with her!" During that whole sentence, "Hikaru's" face was extremely red. I wouldn't have been surprised if mine was doing the same. The whole idea was ridiculous, didn't Chichiri understand the concept that I was still innocent? Of course I wouldn't do anything with Genrou even when given the opportunity…but that's beside the point. Seeing Kyo transform back into a human from being a cat was bad enough (well, it was good in that he's super-hot, but bad that my innocent eyes saw that without warning. Luckily, I have the ability to block out things in my head that shouldn't be there), being right next to a guy while washing up—both of us, for the most part, exposed, was out of the question.

"Do you prefer to be with a man than women in a bath? Because I don't judge, ya know?"

"Hikaru" instantly blew his top at the monk's assumption. "I _am not_ gay!" Even as I persisted on keeping my serious, disappointed expression, it was hard to refrain from laughing. Chichiri thought the exact same thing that I did when I first met Genrou. Could you really blame us? The dude almost always bagged on my gender and never his own. Suspicious much? Totally. In all realness though, I knew he wasn't—as much as I knew about him seemed to confirm that—but he made messing with him that much more fun.

That's right…

The more I thought about it, the more my brain came into light about how Genrou and Hikaru were dissimilar. I had separate adventure and experiences with both—feeling various emotions, learning different things, knowing completely that the two of them played different roles in my life. Sure, at the moment Genrou looked like Hikaru, but I knew in my heart that he wasn't. This whole illusion was a complete pain to me, but in a way it was an insult to Genrou. It was completely unfair to him that I was seeing someone else whenever I looked into his eyes. That was why he wanted me to just look at _him_ and not the trick. But of course it was much more complicated than that…I just hated that the illusion was getting to me so much. These emotions of mine recently seemed to be aimed at Hikaru and not Genrou. _Come on Aki…all you have to do is separate the deception from reality…_

If only it were that simple.

But returning to the issue at hand: bathing with a man was still bathing with a man and that was out of the question.

"Hey Aki," Chichiri turned to me, "You have elemental powers, right?" _No, I have cotton candy powers. _ "Why don't you just create some kind of wall between the two of you in the hot spring so that you two can't see each other, ya know?" I grimaced. That did make a lot of sense, that would take away the immediate danger of losing my innocence. But still…I didn't like it and the thought that he was right next to me without either of us having clothes on. To add to the uncomfortable-ness, he and I would still be holding hands along with the fact that he still looked like Hikaru. Damn it all.

The mud all over my body was hardening and it was beginning to feel really dry in places that I'd rather not mention.

* * *

><p>Dear Universe,<p>

What kind of f#&ing humor do you have? This is so f%&#ing messed up! Why the f%& are you making me do this? You did this on purpose you vast piece of shit! I can't believe this! Because of that damn mud, and that f&%$ing bond, I was backed into a stupid corner—forcing me to get into that damn hot spring…with Genrou. And what was the big idea with making him look like Hikaru? That's f&$ed up! I'm not even going to mention how the both of us managed to get our clothes off. That's a secret that I will take to the grave with me. I did what Chichiri said and made a wall using Earth between the two of us, but because of the physical bond, he and I were forced to sit near the edge in order for our connected arms to stay comfortable. But this whole f&%#ing situation is uncomfortable! I didn't understand why that damn monk couldn't just unbind us for this. I'm beginning to think that seeing auras isn't all that important. You've done some messed up things before: beating me up, sending me to different worlds without my consent, falling through the roof of a strangers house, making me wear one of the worse school uniforms ever—but this was really low…making me sit in a f#%$ing hot spring without clothes on next to a man! I loathe you so f&%ing much you f#$&ing bastard!

Love Always, with a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE amount of sarcasm,

Aki

P.S Did I mention that you suck? 'Cause you do.

* * *

><p>Ever since we stepped into the hot spring, Genrou and I hadn't said a word too each other—which was completely understandable considering the situation. Chichiri was sitting on some branch in a nearby tree. He promised that he wouldn't look at me and I trusted him—the guy didn't really seem like the type to be a peeping tom. This, of course, was the complete opposite of Miroku. Sango and I had to violently train the guy to not sneak a sinful peak at us. Even after all that he only got slightly better. If it weren't for Inuyasha pulling him away from us, the monk may have died due to me and Sango's lack of patience. Believe me, he was a good friend of mine and very focused for the most part, but when it came to being a lecher, he was "#1"!<p>

Manipulating Water, I used my free hand to form an off-sphere of the hot spring water about five feet above us that contained our dirty clothes. Without an actual washing machine, this was the second best thing. To be honest, it wasn't until after we got in that I realized that I could have used a combined power of Earth and Water in order to get all of that mud off of me. I was so upset and distracted that my brain didn't formulate that rational plan fast enough. Now I was stuck in one of the most awkward positions in my life.

At least I was finally starting to become clean after all of that.

A distasteful frown formed on my lips as the energy flowed from my hand to the water. _This is so awkward doing this with my left hand. Jeez Aki, you had to go and grab him with your right hand—your good hand. There are just so many things about this that I hate so damn much. _

As I swirled the our clothes plus the water around, I put in a bit more concentration to attempt at extracting the tougher mud from the fabrics to remove the stains. This whole thing proved difficult with just one hand—my untrained left hand. With any of the spells or manipulation of the elements that I perform, my hands are very crucial. The path they draw out, the specific flow and pattern they create directs my magic and the elements to perform whatever task I needed them to do. Sure, in some cases I used my feet and stomp on the ground to make something come up or form, but more often than not, it would be for using Earth. The only time I didn't really need any limbs was for using Wind. But since that element came naturally to me, it didn't surprise me very much that I was able to use it by barely batting an eye lash.

"Hey!" After such a long silence, Genrou in Hikaru's voice finally decided to call out a complaint. "You're cleaning it all wrong! Be careful before you mess it up!" Gritting my teeth, I tried my very best to not form a fist with my free hand, thus ruining my concentration. _How dare he order me around! Ungrateful chump. _The moment he took off his clothes, they reverted from Hikaru's clothes back into Genrou's trench-coat as well as the rest of his get-up. This only proved that the illusion was exclusive to his person—that and the fact that the illusion better go away soon before I completely lost it. He persisted on getting on my nerves. "I thought women were supposed to be good at these kinds of things?"

And that was when the metaphorical stick in my mind completely snapped in two. "Oh, _I'm_ _sorry_! Would you rather me hand them back to you so that _you_ can wash them with _your_ only free hand? Or maybe you would like to use _your_ Water powers to get them clean since you _so_ _obviously_ have them. Oh wait…you don't! So let me handle this however the hell I want you damn bastard! I don't have to be washing your f%&#ing clothes, wasting my f&%$ing time. If you're not going to be grateful, then take them back, or shut the hell up!"

I guessed that my sudden outburst sent Genrou into shock considering he didn't retort or say anything response. Normally, I wouldn't curse so much, but I was just so close to losing my mind from the insanity of everything that was happening. It was either I expressed my chaotic emotions through words or with a huge fireball, burning everything in my path. I figured that the first option was less destructive.

"Umm…Aki?" Chichiri's voice could be heard from behind, curiosity mixed with concern could be discerned from his tone. "Don't worry, I'm not looking, ya know? I just wanted to know if you were upset…"

I found myself growling from the rhetorical question. "Of course I'm upset! I'm traveling around with someone who doesn't give a damn about me—someone who naturally looks like my dead sister, and now he looks like me ex-boyfriend whom I will never see again. To top it all off, I have to be connected to him so that I can learn some stupid technique. And to make things worse, I'm in a hot springs with him. Nothing is going right!" My negative emotions were all over the place. The silver veins on my body containing my energy seemed to glow a bit more as the energy rushed through. A forceful wind stared to rustle the tree tops, probably making it hard for Chichiri to keep his balance. The water began to form small waves and whirlpools as Wind influenced it further. All of the training meant for the control of my emotional power using was steadily going down the drain as my mentality momentarily slipped. The inside of my mind was completely in disorder and all I could think about was how messed up things were for me. Why was it that even though the dark ring was gone, I felt as if my life was cursed to never know peace and happiness? Something always seemed to go wrong in every aspect of my life. Did the universe really hate me that much—enough to toy with me and bring me misery? Was it because I did something wrong in my life? That had to be why…I was being punished for something…

I hadn't realized it, but a steady stream of warm tears was trailing down my cheeks, and had been for a while. My cheeks felt sensitive and puffy as the salty liquid dripped into the hot spring below. Eyes stinging, I closed them to allow even more tears to come rushing out.

The short gasps from me crying started to become more apparent because Genrou spoke up. "Are—are you crying?" It didn't sound like he was angry or annoyed anymore, but more of confusion and sympathy.

Quickly remembering how I was in the presence of other people, I wiped away the tears with the back of my free hand, causing me to accidentally let the clothes fall into the hot spring. "No. Why would I be?...I'm not some kind of crybaby." After that, we just sat there without exchanging anymore words between the two of us. Using my energy, I put my free hand on the ground in back of me. With my power over Earth, I sent a torrent of energy flowing towards a nearby tree. In no time, a branch smoothly extended far out towards the hot spring and into the water. It lifted our clothes up and out, only to retract back to the tree whence it came. I did this so that our clothes had a place to dry since they were finally clean and I didn't feel like working on them anymore.

The awkward silence persisted on until Chichiri decided to start up a conversation. "Hey Genrou, I was wondering who you wanted the flower for, ya know?" His question made it obvious that he was trying to change the subject for the sake of peace being kept.

After a few seconds, Genrou (with Hikaru's voice) asked, "Huh?—What?" It sounded as if his head were somewhere else and wasn't exactly trying to focus on Chichiri.

"I was curious about who you wanted to heal, ya know?" Even though I was still pretty upset regarding previous topics, the monk had asked a question that I had been wondering myself.

"Oh, that. Well," he contemplated for a few seconds on whether to tell us, "it's for the Mt. Reikaku bandit leader—our leader—Hakurou. He came down with some sort of serious illness before some time ago and announced me the new leader. I refused to accept that some damn illness would do him in, so I left to find a cure."

"It's very admirable what you're doing," Chichiri told him, "but shouldn't you have stayed just in case? I mean, if you're the new leader, wouldn't it have been good for you to stand by if the worse did happen?"

"Nah. Hakurou's tough. He won't let this thing take him out so easily. All he needs to do is stay alive until I get back—he still has plenty of life left in him to keep leading the bandits for many years to come." The confidence in his voice lead us on to believe that he was no longer focusing on the negativity of the conversation between the two of us. _So that's why he's going through all this. He must really respect this Hakurou guy a lot._ "Don't get me wrong—I look forwards to taking over. But it's not the right time just yet." _Huh. And I thought that he was doing all this for a girl…_I didn't know why I automatically assumed that he was doing this for some girlfriend of his—which wouldn't have made much sense anyway since he claims that he hates women. But upon hearing that he was willing to go through all of these situations so that he could save the life of his leader was…commendable—he must have been a really loyal and devoted friend.

Who would have thought?

Still though, I said nothing to the guy or contributed in their conversation.

Until of course, it was directed at me. "Aki, I was wondering what this Host Club you mentioned before was. It seemed interesting, ya know?"

Bringing my head back up, I slightly turned my head in the direction of the monk's voice. "You want to know…about the Host Club?"

"Yeah!" He exclaimed cheerily. It wasn't often that someone wanted to know anything about my past. The only person I ever really told anything to was Hikaru—and even then I was hesitant to say some things. _But I suppose telling them about this wouldn't be too much harm. _

"Let me see…how to explain those guys…" Putting my finger under my chin, my eyes trailed up as I thought about what would be the best way to describe such a colorful bunch in just a few sentences. "To put it quite simply…The Host Club was a group of rich, spoiled, narcissist weirdoes with way too much time on their hands who get a kick out of being twisted and odd while at the same time swooning every female within a twenty mile radius."

"Wow…seems like the kind of people that wouldn't keep you bored, ya know?"

"You don't know the half of it." Taking in a deep breath, I furthered my explanation. "Try spending every day with a child-looking, insane martial-arts prodigy seventeen-year-old who for a fact knows he's cute yet acts innocent and has an unhealthy obsession with sweets and pastries, a tall, silent guy who pretty much babysits the first guy even though they're the same age and who also has short bursts of expression to get his point across in times when you least expect it, a conniving, glasses-wearing know-it-all who gets up in everyone's business just for a profit, a happy-go-lucky guy with a short attention-span as well as quite the ego who is an idiot that is completely ignorant to the lower to middle class life outside of his mansion, a cross-dressing girl who lacks motivation to do most things and, while she is smart, is pretty oblivious when it comes to matters of the heart, and a pair of mischievous twins who are pretty much willing to do anything for the sake of finding themselves some amusing entertainment as well as putting on this ridiculous twincest act to please customers." After taking a split second to breathe, I continued. "Yup, not even a block of wood would get bored with those guys around." Ha…I made a pun—unintentional of course.

"I—I didn't even think a group like that existed, ya know? I suppose a dull moment didn't even exist with them, did it?"

Scoffing, I told him, "Please. 'Dull' wasn't even in their vocabulary."

"And you knew all of them really well? I mean, you did say that you spent every day with them, ya know?"

"Of course I knew them well…I was a Host too."

"Really?" He seemed surprised. "From the things you told us about them, it doesn't exactly seem like something you'd do, ya know?"

"Yeah…well…" While closing my eyes, I sighed and scratched my cheek sheepishly. "I was sort of…forced to be in it." That whole blackmail thing wasn't exactly my proudest moment. "But after a while, they sort of grew on me. Yup…" Looking up to the sky, a wave of melancholy struck me. "They definitely were an interesting bunch…"

"You call _them_ interesting?" Genrou decided to add himself to our discussion. "They sound more like a group of psychopath's to me."

Feeling both annoyed and offended, I retorted, "Let me just inform you that in my eyes, you look _exactly_ like one of those 'psychopaths'."

"You—you mean that your _boyfriend_ was part of the Host Club?" He must have knew I was nodding since he asked, "Which one of those whack personalities was he?"

"He was…one of the twins that I mentioned…Hikaru…"

"_What_?" A tone of disbelief riddled on his tone. "The way you described them, those twins sounded like a couple of creeps!"

"…I used to think that…but…" It wasn't until I recalled all of those memories that I found myself smiling a little. They were a bunch of weirdoes, and at times seemed indeed like creeps, but they were my friends—the first real group that I felt I was a part of—the first real group to truly accept me as one of them. Sure, there was the small group I had with Inuyasha, as well as my friendship with the Sohma's, but those bonds didn't seem as legitimate as the ones I had with the Host Club—especially my previously unorthodox relationship with the twins. "…I suppose you don't come to appreciate things—or people—until you either lose them or find that you're about to lose them…" Then it seems like all the effort you even put into the friendship was for nothing…

Life is so unfair.

And with that pleasant statement, the three of us plummeted back into that awkward silence that we had all become so accustomed to.

After all of our clothes had dried, "Hikaru" and I got dressed (once again, don't ask me how we managed that without seeing anything 'cause that is also something that I'm going to take to the grave with me). With everything that had been exchanged between us in the hot spring, I found it difficult to even look at Genrou—not only was the illusion still there, but I had exhibited a sign of weakness, even if it was for only a few moments. The negative emotions that had violently whirled in my being compelled me to just break down and reveal so much of myself—how unstable I really was…then I had the nerve…the audacity to cry with others around. When I was a kid, I made sure never to show anyone how afraid and lonely I really was. I had to deal with vast isolation due to the dark ring along with cruel comments and bullying. Maintaining a strong outside character showed people that I could take care of myself and that I didn't care about what they thought or did. They came to fear me thinking that I had no emotions—that I could just go around hurting people without feeling. Their fear kept them away, and kept me safe.

But I hated that so much. I thought that starting a new life in America with a bunch of people who didn't know me would really make a difference—giving me the chance to start over with people and show that I was actually more than just a emotionless robot. No matter what I did though, I was never able to be one of them—the happy groups of people who confide in one another and share each other's feelings. I was just a monster who brought misery wherever I went. Somewhere along the way, someone in school asked if we thought whether people where born evil, or if they were born pure and grew evil due to negative influences in the world. Considering my circumstance with the dark ring, I couldn't really say since its abilities consisted of bringing out the negative intentions in people's hearts. Before being around me, they all seemed so happy and carefree…so for all I knew, people were indeed born pure, it was just negative catalysts—like myself—that sent them diving into sin and dread.

Ever since beginning my journey, though, things were different…in a refreshing way. My outside character, in many cases, wasn't needed as much. Expressing myself using means such as spells, sarcasm, and various reactions seemed to begin to release me from the curse of the dark ring…of only by a little bit. For reasons that I still couldn't understand, this journey had allowed me a small taste of emotional freedom. There was something there that allowed me to be who I was and not completely shut everything out. It was like…being myself was actually okay. In my heart I continued to fool myself in thinking that this time of momentary relaxation would last, but I knew more than anyone that things that made you happy never lasted forever.

But my thirst for happiness was so intense that I'd persist with the sad illusion. And besides, was there really any harm in opening up just a little? As long as I knew the pain would come along eventually, then it wouldn't hurt so bad once it did.

That was true strength…

…Right?

The three of us continued on in trying to navigate through the mysterious maze without a word being exchanged between us. Out of the blue, there was an empathy wave coming from "Hikaru".

Guilt.

You could imagine how uncomfortable a feeling like this would be—well it was even more so when you were feeling it from someone else. And it especially didn't help that we were still holding hands…his firm, warm hand that ensured a true sense of security. Whenever I closed my eyes, I realized how different his hand felt than Hikaru's. _Ugh._ His guilt was just adding the guilt I was having about mixing him up with my ex-boyfriend and cursing him out earlier.

This specific emotion certainly wasn't needed.

Stopping in my tracks caused him to stop as well. The lack of the faint sounds of following footsteps had Chichiri halting in confusion and taking a glance back at us.

"What's wrong Aki?" He asked.

"Yeah, you're holding us up by stopping like that—"

"Just say what you want to say," I interrupted .

"What?" "Hikaru" gave a puzzled look.

"Look, I know how you're feeling…and I know you know I do, so don't act as if you don't know what I'm talking about. Just come right out and say it!" I demanded.

With an expression of obvious uneasiness, he crossed his arms and tried to look away. "Fine." Letting out a heavy sigh, he spoke. "Back there…at the hot spring…the things I said…well, I'm…I'm…" Figuring out for a few moments about what he wanted to say resulted in an exaggerated groan. "I can't stand it! Why do women have to make such big deals out of such little things? And to add to it…the way they have to be so emotional about stuff…and you're just—"

"I'm _what_?" Fist clenching in my free hand, my voice roared out. "You are so impossible! In a time like this, you resort back to that crap about how women are 'so emotional' and how they 'make such big deals' out of stuff. Well, I'm not like most women! You're lucky that I even bother to show any emotions at all. Expressing them is already uncomfortable enough for me without a guy like you coming around to shoot me down—" Out of the corner of his golden eye, he inspected me—the same eyes as Hikaru's…same face…same everything. While clenching my fists even harder lead me to ferociously start pounding my head due to all of the bottled up frustration of it all. With every hit, I repeated, "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!..."

"Hey! What are you doing?" He shouted out.

Chichiri extended his hand out in concern. "Aki you must stop this, ya know?"

Ignoring both of their commands, I persisted, "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" The harsh impacts were quickly drawing the warm, red liquid to come trailing down the middle of my face, staining my knuckles in the process.

Forcefully grabbing my wrist, "Hikaru" prevented me from mutilating myself any further. "Stop it! You're hurting yourself and drawing blood! You can't keep doing that!"

"Don't tell me what to do!" Using as much strength as I could, I snatched my arm away. Body shaking from buried frustration, the energy on my silver veins began flowing vigorously once again.

"Aki, you have to calm down. You can get through this, ya know?"

"Argh! I'm so sick of this!" Concentrating my energy into my hand, a fierce sphere of heated flame formed, instantly lighting up the surrounding area in a tint of red. _"Source of all power, light which burns beyond crimson, let thy power gather in my hand!"_

"Wha—What are you doing?" Chichiri shakily asked.

"_Fireball!" _Releasing the attack onto some nearby bushes and trees, they instantly combusted into a vicious festival of flames, leaving nothing in that area to escape the wrath of the fire. The three of us just stood there marveling at the dancing combination of heated colors red, orange, and yellow. In a way, the flames calmed me down a bit.

"What the hell was the point of that?" "Hikaru" asked.

Showing him a rather relaxed look of indifference, I told him, "Tension release... I feel slightly better now."

Then, out of nowhere, a giant snake with dark green, rough-looking scales came rushing through the thick leafy walls of the maze, completely throwing us off guard. _What the hell? _With a swing of its spikey tail, Chichiri was separated from Genrou and me as we jumped out of the way.

"Where did this thing come from?"

When its tail whipped back around, I thought quickly on my feet. _"Seoshi!" _The yellow-tinted dome appeared around us just in time as the tail crashed into it, keeping us momentarily safe. "I'd bet anything that this snake is a special present from this twisted maze." Suddenly, the serpent hissed, bearing its sharp, and most likely venomous fangs. Head-butting the dome, it probably had the high hopes of actually being able to penetrate it.

Good luck with that.

From the side, a ball of light-blue energy came flying past, impacting the creature from the side, causing a small explosion. As it inspected where the attack came from, even more were shot out similarly to a machine gun. Chichiri was trying to get the monster off of our backs so that we could successfully evade its attacks. But this thing was looking a lot more annoyed than distracted. My focus was so fixated on that sight that I didn't noticed the ground shaking under us inside of the _Seoshi. _Just as the head of yet another snake peaked through, "Hikaru" pushed me out of the way, completely breaking my concentration on the spell. _Two snakes? _

That was when the unthinkable happened—they completely vanished.

"Hikaru" and I frantically looked around for the enemy. "Where did they go?"

"Behind you!" Chichiri yelled. We quickly turned around and saw absolutely nothing there. It wasn't until something huge brutally swatted us that we realized that the enemy was still there. The two of us went flying straight into the trunk of a sturdy tree. Before impact, I shifted so that "Hikaru" was in front of me, allowing the full force of the attack to be directed at me only. The moment my body hit the tree, a violent surge of pain drove through my body, temporarily feeling as if every bone in my body had been broken.

"Aki!" When my body finally decided to peel off the trunk, I painfully fell to the ground on my stomach before "Hikaru" had a chance to catch me. Teeth gritting, I tried my best to stifle the intense aching of my body, finding it difficult to support myself and sit up. Putting his hands on my shoulder, he tried to help me off of the ground. "Why the hell did you do that? A hit like that could have killed you, you idiot!"

"I—I wouldn't have died so easily…" Talking proved difficult through the intense pain I was experiencing.

While supporting my body, he added, "You're a woman, your body is more fragile and can break more easily." I shot him a dirty glare. "Don't give me that look. It's true whether or not you want to accept it. Look at yourself—you can't even keep yourself up! You shouldn't be so damn reckless!"

Scoffing at him, I said, "You're concern warms my heart, but I'll be fine."

"But…"

"Listen Genrou, we kind of have an issue right now, so I'd appreciate it if you focused on the task at hand." He looked kind of hurt when I said that, but I really couldn't focus on that at the moment. _How did that snake do that? Is it fast or…_

"You guys, look out!" Chichiri's voice warned again.

"Where?"

"It's right next to you—" The monk raised up his staff to defend himself from something that we couldn't see, his back arching back slightly from the weight of whatever it was.

But his words rang in my ears, allowing me to recall his warning. So with a sudden rush of adrenaline, I grabbed "Hikaru" and rolled to the side far enough to see a rather lengthy crater form in the ground beside us…in the shape of a snake's tail. _Wait a second…the snakes mysteriously vanished, and yet we're still being attacked by things that seem like they aren't even there. _That's when the epiphany hit me.

"Don't tell me that these things are invisible!" I shouted out loud.

"Are you kidding me?" "Hikaru" yelled as he observed the surrounding area. Then his head snapped back at me. "And what did I just say about making reckless maneuvers like that?"

"Save it!" I demanded. "Hey Chichiri! How are you able to tell us where they are?"

Forming a barrier with his staff, the snake he was facing off against was repelled for only a few seconds. The monk then fired some more of the blue energy sphere's from before, pushing the beast back long enough for him to jump onto the branch of a nearby tree. "They may be able to cloak themselves physically, but no living thing can mask their auras, ya know? They are as clear as day to me." _Well I'll be damned. _"It's trying to hit you guys again!" Taking my companion once more, we rolled and maneuvered more and more as multiple tail smashed came raining down in a lethal path. Each time we moved, by body cried out in pain from the impact on the tree. But if it weren't for Chichiri's direction, I'd have a lot more to worry about than superficial bodily injuries. I couldn't even really cast spells or manipulate the elements properly with just my untrained left hand. That and the fact that we were being constantly attack prevented me from going on the offense. To make matters worse, my emotions were still kind of all over the place—like a chaotic and untied ball of string—so doing anything too complicated at that moment would probably have done more harm than good.

"Dammit Aki! Cut it out already!" With every evasion, I continued to take the worst of it so that "Hikaru" wouldn't get hurt.

Suddenly, the tree that Chichiri was in completely shattered. But luckily, Chichiri instantly teleported to the ground a few yards away from it before it was destroyed. "We need to be careful, three more of them just showed up!"

"_Three_ more? You mean there are _five_ invisible snakes that we have to deal with?" I didn't exactly know why, but that statement of mine came off to me as something that that vampire on Sesame Street would say. _How are we going to do this when only one of us can see their auras? _Every time Chichiri dodged, he shot out another attack, but it didn't seem to be having much of an affect.

"I don't understand! They aren't even flinching from my attacks, ya know?"

"Are you sure?"

As he backed up, he accidentally tripped on some exposed root of a tree, causing him to fall backwards. Before he could even stand up and recover, he extended his staff out, rings jingling from the motion, summoning an electrical barrier between him and the serpent. "Yes, I am fairly certain, ya know?" With all the magic he was dishing out—and it looked like some wicked and strong badass stuff—you'd expect creatures like these to be defeated in no time. But if what he was saying was true, then we had a bigger problem on our hands than just the fact that they were invisible. "Not to alarm you two or anything, but if we don't come up with something soon, the ending of this battle won't be very favorable, ya know?" He gasped. "There are three of them surrounding you!"

"Crap!" Scanning all around, it frustrated me that I couldn't see anything at all. But they were there.

"The first one is attacking on your right!"

"Hikaru" stood in a fighting position and told the invisible foe, "Finally, now I get a chance at you—"

"Out of the way!" Without hesitation, I pushed him as best as I could to get a clear "view" of the monster. Going on blind faith, I summoned Wind to my free hand. Bringing my arm back, I shot it out yelling, _"Tornado Fist!" _Luckily, I felt my fist hit something, which probably sent it back quite a bit. It probably didn't go as far as I wanted considering my current energy dilemma mixed with the fact that I was using my left hand.

"The other two are rushing at you at your left. Their fangs are bared so be careful!"

Sending my power to my feet, a blast of Wind shot from beneath my shoe, sending us flying into a small clearing behind a thick group of bushes. The very apparent crash from behind signified that the two that had just attacked had missed their target.

"Look, you stupid girl—I had enough of you protecting me every goddamn time!" When we were supposed to be focused on our invisible adversaries, "Hikaru" here decided to stop and "chat". "Not only are you insulting my duty as a man, but you're going to end up killing yourself! If you just let me protect you instead, we could avoid all of this suffering you're putting yourself through!"

Growling, I told him, "I can't do that."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because I have to keep you safe Hika—" My eyes widened with what I was about to say. I almost called him Hikaru. Was that why I was so fixated on protecting him? _He's not Hikaru…_For a split second, the illusion faltered, allowing me to see Genrou's apprehensive expression, not Hikaru's. But then the trick was reinforced, putting my ex-boyfriend's face into view. Feeling distraught, I look to the ground to sort through my thoughts.

He was about to say something when some of the leaves in the bushes rustled. Not taking a chance on it, "Hikaru"—no, Genrou brought me close and started running as fast as he could. And just like my past experiences with him, this guy proved to be wicked fast—like superhuman speed worthy. In just a swift blow of wind through my hair, we were in a different spot around the battle area. Looking over to the spot we were just at, I discovered that the bushes were parted irregularly—almost as if something tore through it in an effort to get to some prey.

Genrou just saved our lives.

Showing me a confident smile with teeth and all, he told me, "See? I'm perfectly capable of being the protector on this team." This whole time I had been thinking of Genrou as Hikaru…this whole time I thought that I was protecting my ex-boyfriend, not the companion that I just recently met. They were two separate people and I had been allowing this maze to mess with my brain and tell me otherwise. Thanks to that stupid trial, I had been on such an undesirable emotional rollercoaster that things were becoming real screwed up—I was failing miserably.

But I was finally starting to see the light. Genrou and Hikaru were completely different people for so many different reasons, and no illusion would ever change that. Hikaru was a pretty strong-willed guy, but he wasn't a legitimate fighter skilled in defense and offense like Genrou was. The way they looked, the way they laughed, the way they acted, the feelings I had around them…their auras were so obviously on completely different wavelengths.

Their auras…

Taking a look at the battle area, I saw how Chichiri was starting to struggle with his opponents, he wouldn't have been able to keep it up much longer all by himself, especially since he was up against five seemingly immortal enemies. _Hang in there Chichiri. Just give me a few minutes and I'll be there to help. _I felt guilty abandoning him, even if it was only for a short time. If I didn't succeed in what I needed to do, then we were all doomed.

'_No problem Aki. I'll do the best I can, ya know?' _Chichiri's telepathic message came through to me loud and clear, making feel slightly less guilty about putting such a huge burden on him.

Closing my eyes, I focused my thoughts together. The moment I opened them, I let out a confident, "Okay."

Genrou cocked his eyebrow. "Hey. What're you—"

"_Seoshi." _Once again, the dome covered us in its protective essence. My plan consisted of not allowing those snakes to disturb us. I knew that he would start asking a bunch of questions, I so I moved fast. Positioning myself in front of him, I put my free hand on his shoulder, using my force to push him down to the ground, landing me directly on top of him.

His face started to turn a bright red as he noticed our position. "What are you doing?"

It was only natural that my face was flushed as well because ordinarily, I would never make such a bold move. "This isn't what you think it is—I promise you. But I do need you to trust me, okay?"

The color in his face didn't waiver. "We don't have time for whatever you're going to do Aki. Chichiri—"

"I already know about him. I'm doing this so that we can help him…as well as get out alive. So can you just be quiet? I…I need this…" Swinging my leg around for a better positioning, I slowly closed my eyes. If I just got a feel for his flow of energy—his as Genrou and not Hikaru—then I could break this illusion once and for all! With my free hand, I felt around his face, his chest, discerning the differences between the illusion and reality. The whole structure of his face was different that Hikaru's and their hair felt dissimilar—somehow, Genrou's was smoother and of course the parts were in different places altogether. I had kissed Hikaru, I've felt him in an embrace…there was no question that these two were different…

Speaking of which, I couldn't rule out what I had with Genrou either. The whole time I was on him, feeling him, the mysterious spark coursed through our bodies in the similarly pleasant way it had before. This spark was both natural and special somehow, unique in that I only felt it with him. When one thinks about being electrocuted, struck by lightning, or just shocked, they'd think excruciating pain and discomfort. But it was the complete opposite in this case. Every part of my being would tingle with joy and excitement, and actually feel as if I was waking up from some sort of bad dream and into one worth having. In all truthfulness, the sensation was difficult to explain. I couldn't say why this phenomenon happened and I didn't know what it meant, but the fact of the matter was that it was there, and I needed to accept and perhaps embrace it.

As I concentrated more, something began to manifest in the darkness. A border in the shape of Genrou, not Hikaru, was forming and it was connected to mine. When it came through even clearer, the border illuminated even more, this time in more of a distinct and brilliant golden color, its rays flaring from all around almost resembling the sun. Was this the combined aura that Chichiri mentioned? Was this the Aura Bond that I was meant to see? The fusion of our rays completely surrounded us in such a way that they almost seemed to be one.

Keeping my eyes closed, I brought my head up towards the direction of the battle. Through the darkness of the insides of my eyelids, I made out the auras of the five snakes and Chichiri. The serpents each had an eerie red border shaping them out, and Chichiri's aura was a soft-blue color. His so obviously stood out among the evil ones threatening him.

De-summoning the _Seoshi, _I yelled out, "Chichiri! Either duck or get out of the way!" With that, he nodded and instantly teleported to some place that I didn't have the time to focus on. Seeing that he was out of the way, the snakes now knew our positioning, so they came slithering our way. Knowing that I didn't have a whole bunch of time, I slid off of Genrou and concentrated my energy into a spell. _"Source of all power, crimson fire burning bright. East winds that blow, have you as their source into my hands. Ignite all their force!" _Five arrows made up of a bright orange energy manifested in the air in front of me, giving off waves of heat. Pointing to the quickly approaching serpents, I completed the spell, "_Flare Arrow!" _They instantly shot off like heat-seeking missiles locked onto their target, showing no mercy when they struck. Just as the attack hit spot-on, the monsters were immediately disintegrated.

Just as I let out a deep sigh of relief, Chichiri teleported right next to us, his blue aura shining rather brightly the moment he materialized. "How did you do that so effortlessly?"

Standing up on shaky knees, I shrugged. "Good question. I actually though that it would take a bit more than that to take them down. But get this: I can see auras now! I have to close my eyes in order to do it, but all in all, the skill has been learned." Just as the adrenaline was dying down, the excruciating aching from all of the "human shielding" I had performed earlier came rushing back, making standing prove to be rather difficult. When it seemed as if I'd fall to the ground, Chichiri took my free arm and wrapped it over his shoulders so that I could support myself on him. I nodded him my thanks to him. "It's quite amazing, really. Everything that has life seems to be giving off different colorful auras—almost as if they were a night sky full of stars…stars that were of every color on the spectrum." Even as I spoke, the throbbing from my head was becoming more apparent due to the self-mutilation I had inflicted on myself not too long before. I could feel the blood drying on my face.

He nodded. "I'm happy that you can see them now, ya know? It's a bit odd that you need to close your eyes in order to do that, but it's still good nonetheless, ya know?"

"Well ain't all this just nice and dandy?"

And speaking of auras…

Feeling a tug on my arm, I turned to face my bonded companion. Knowing that it was inevitable, I slowly opened my eyes to discover how things were in normal sight. I was happy to find that I was looking into the amber eyes of my flame-headed cohort. Stifling my urge to leap for joy, I kept my cool stature. "Hey, what's up?"

His face showed exhausted annoyance. "Please tell me that all that crap we just went through resulted in that damn illusion goin' away."

I chuckled. "Yeah, it's all gone. You look like yourself again in my eyes."

"Well that's a huge relief." _You're telling me._

Chichiri spoke up with a matter-of-fact voice as the two of us "reacquainted". "Everything that had happened, including the snakes, was probably all a part of this trial of yours Aki. You had to learn how to overcome the obstacle of not being able to see auras, and getting past the overwhelming emotional influence of the illusion ya know? Since this was for your learning experience, you had to be the one to defeat the serpents, no one else could do it—explaining why the snakes were able to turn invisible in the first place ya know? It would also explain why you were the only one who could defeat them."

Groaning, I asked a rhetorical question, "How would the maze possibly know what I needed?" _As if I don't know. _

He held up a finger in an explaining notion. "Considering the maze was formulated by the universe, it just knows, ya know?" If what Chichiri was saying was true, then it was almost guaranteed that the remainder of my time in this maze was not going to be a pleasant one. Yeah, it was sort of good to know that the universe was in a sense trying to help out—I just wished it wouldn't do it in such unconventional ways.

As I mildly lamented on my future, Genrou held up our hands to the monk. "Okay, she learned her technique, so can ya get this damn spell offa us?"

"Oh yeah!" Chichiri laughed. "I almost forgot ya know?"

"I know ya almost forgot that's why I reminded'ja!"

"I now unbind you two." With the snap of his fingers, our hands glowed for a split second before dimming back to its original lighting. I sort of expected him to immediately let go and jump around like an idiot shouting how much he hated being bound to me for so long. It wasn't like I was going to blame the guy—I knew the experience wasn't all the pleasant for either of us. Instead, he just stands there staring at our still held hands. Part of me thought that Chichiri didn't really unbind us…that is, until I let go myself and found that spell was indeed broken, yet he was still holding onto me.

Shifting uncomfortably in my spot, I told him, "You can let go ya know…"

Upon hearing my voice, he instantaneously threw my hand away, recoiling into a position with his arms crossed as he looked away. "Finally! You have no idea how much torture it was bein' connected to a woman fer so damn long. Havin' my body back to myself is like drinkin' a fresh bottle of sake—a huge relief and a good time." Him saying that sort of made me want to smack the guy upside the head in the most violent way possible, but I just ended up laughing instead.

He gave me a peculiar look. "What're ya laughin' fer?"

It felt pretty good to be hearing his voice again—even if it was bashing on women. Something told me that he didn't exactly mean what he said anyway. When I finally stopped laughing, I wipe away the joyful tears that were beginning to form. "I guess some things never change. Just know that the next time you make a negative comment towards my gender, I'll chop or smack you." I winked at him. "Push too hard and you'll end up charred like our snake friends." Just like he said how much of a relief it was, I was beginning to feel that way as well. Any and all stress or anxiety I was feeling had dimmed down considerably.

_Seeing an old friend is a blessing, not a curse. _

The mysterious male voice appeared in my head once more—speaking with a soothing and secure tone that made me feel warm and safe. He was right after all—I should have thought more of the good things about Hikaru rather than the things I regretted and was depressed about. If Dark's words had stuck to me better, then I wouldn't have tortured myself so much during this whole experience. The unfortunate thing is that it isn't always easy to remember the positive things in life…but for the sake of finding my happily ever after, I had to try my best. The conflicting forces inside of me (Light and Darkness) definitely made things more difficult. And if I ever ended up losing myself again, which was a pretty safe bet considering my unstable tendencies, I just hoped that I'd have someone there to put me back into perspective. This person was, after all, the one I was looking for on this journey, right?

_Just make sure you have room in your heart for new bonds—don't be afraid of new experiences and precious memories. For this is a sign of growth. And you are growing Akimoto, a little bit every day. Every step out of the darkness is one step closer to light._

Just then, I began to feel a sense of awkwardness coming from Genrou. Before I asked why he was feeling so uncomfortable, memories of the past few hours replayed in my head—holding hands, taking a bath with him, lying on top of him and feeling him…I immediately stopped supporting myself on Chichiri. Putting both hands on my cheeks, my face probably heated up at least ten more degrees with the sheer embarrassment of it all. I turned around to hide my face from the both of them, my mouth gaping open in disbelief. _OMFG_! _I can't believe that I did all that! _My body just refused to cool down so I took off my jacket and threw it to the ground in high hopes that I'd calm down. Even in my tube top, the world felt like a typical day in Death Valley. _Why is this happening? _

Chichiri's head poked by at my side as he said, "You're completely red, ya know? Even more red than before. Are you feeling alright?"

Quickly turning back to face them, I tried to play it cool. "Of course I am!" Clearing my throat, I put my hands on my hips still aware that my face was still flushed. "I am just going to set the record straight—we will _NEVER_ speak of this day ever again. It _never_ happened, understand?"

"I'm game," Genrou agreed—his face also tinted a slight red color. "This day has never happened."

"Aww…" Chichiri complained in a childish manner. "But it was so exciting and eventful, ya know?"

Giving him such a glare that made my eyes light up like a torch, I demanded in a harsh voice, "Chichiri!" Spurting fire from my mouth, I must have been quite the sight.

Shrinking down in comedic fear, he said, "Okay , okay! I agree as well!"

As I smirked in triumph, I caught Genrou rubbing the back of his head sheepishly—like he had something on his mind. Before I had a chance to ask what was up, he spoke in a low voice. "I'm sorry…" My eyes widened in surprise. _He's…apologizing? _The blush on his face was real apparent. "I'm sorry fer bein' such a jerk this whole time—it wasn't fair to you. I said some things that I didn't exactly mean. It's just that…travelin' around lookin' fer that cure kinda put me on a clock, and I kept thinkin' that I was runnin' outta time. It made it kinda hard to just stop an' enjoy stuff like I normally do. I jus' didn't wanna be distracted from my mission." He chuckled. "Truth is, you were an' still are kind of a distraction." I narrowed my eyes at him right before he added, "But as far as distractions go, you aren't all that bad. You and Chichiri are actually entertainin' company to have around." I found myself smiling a bit and looking away with a slight blush—pretending as if his words weren't affecting me in any way. Never did I think that he'd be so sincere about _anything_.

"Genrou…I—"

"We should just be friends already." _What? _"And not just that, instead of ya doin' somethin' stupid and reckless when you fight, we should just be partners in battle—ya know…fight together as equals…I guess…Watchin' each other's backs."

"Yup! You two definitely do better when you work together, ya know?" Chichiri chimed in with a wide smile. "Plus he was right in saying that things have been a lot of fun! There's never a dull moment with the three of us, is there?"

When the two of them look at me, I purposely make my faint smile go away, maintaining the hands on my hips as I looked away. "You two do know that things you're saying is sort of in violation of the 'forgetting everything' agreement we just had, right?"

"Oh come on!" Genrou walked up to me and put his fingers on the side of my lips, manually stretching them into a smile. "Lighten' up! You're gonna permanently be a wet blanket if ya go around actin' so damn nonchalant all the time." He gave a toothy smile that showed off his fangs.

Slapping his hand away I attempted at keeping my tough exterior. But knowing fully well that the atmosphere between the three of us had changed for the better, I gave a deep, seemingly exasperated sigh. Looking at them out of the corner of my eye, I gave a sideways smile. "Alright then, we can start over. I accept your friendship." Closing my eyes, I opened one of them back up and looked Genrou right in the eye, widening my smile to add to my next witty remark. "So now the 'over-emotional' woman is friends with the no-good bandit. Who woulda thought?"

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><p><strong>Well, how did you like it? ^_~<strong>

**PLEASE REVIEW**** cuz I really want to hear your opinions of how things are going so far (predictions, comments, humor me!)**

**Let me direct you to my new profile pic! It's a pic of Aki when she was 10 and her older sister Kajou when she was 15. I hope u all like it!**

**BTW I now have a DA account (see the link on my profile page) so that you can see other pix relating to the story.**

**C ya next chapter!**

**P.S There is a new poll up on my profile, so please vote! Here's what it is: You've now seen Aki take part in multiple trio's in the story. Which one is your favorite? VOTE NOW! (and dont forget to review! ;))**


	28. Real Confidence, True Strength

**Hey everyone! Thanx so much for continuing to keep up with this story (and reviewing) it REALLY means a lot to me. I'd like to also thank any new people who have come along and started to read this. You all inspire me to keep on going!**

**Sorry it took me so long to get this chapter out—I was resting up a bit and getting some college work done (so…much…work! OMG it was horrible). This week was completely stressful and I wish that I didn't have all that stuff to do to take away from writing this fic…but it did…and I'm sad =( But hey guess what? I'M 18 NOW! YESSS! FINALLY LEGAL! =D**

**So without further ado, here's Chapter 28! (THIS CHAPTER IS REAAAALLLLY LONG, SO PLEASE BEAR WITH ME!)**

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><p>After our experiences with the first trial, the three of us continued to wander the mysterious and confusing maze for about three days. No matter where we turned, it never seemed like we would get any closer to the end of this universe-formulated place. Even with the frustrations against the maze aside, our travels were significantly more pleasant with the atmosphere around the three being a lot less hostile. Ever since Genrou and I established our friendship (and having the spell broken between us), things had seemed to be going on a lot more smoothly. Let me tell you, it is was more easy to travel around with someone who you can trust (more or less) than someone you have to keep on high surveillance almost all the time—not to mention the hate-filled arguments we would engage in since the moment we met. The awkward silences completely dispersed as well, and that's always a good thing (however, we all know that they'll return eventually, so I was just enjoying the moment before they came back).<p>

Before we started back up on finding the Sacred Blood Lily, the self-inflicted wounds from the result of my previous breakdown had to be tended to. So, my head had to be bandaged up in order to allow the gash to heal (looking back on it, punching myself repeatedly on the forehead may have not been the most productive use of my energy). To add to the trouble, my whole body was completely sore and even bruised in some places due to my attempts at being a human shield. The fact that I hadn't broken any bones was truly a miracle if not dumb luck. Considering my whole body was aching something fierce, walking proved to be rather difficult, so both Genrou and Chichiri had to take turns supporting me in order for us to progress further. I hated that my body couldn't stand up on its own very properly, but even I had to admit that I was banged up pretty bad. If I weren't so physically fragile (something that I would _never_ admit out loud to anyone), it wouldn't have come down to them helping me out like that. One of the things I really couldn't stand was having to rely on someone for such a futile thing.

But once again, I had no choice.

Genrou even continued to scold me some more for doing something so stupid like that—which prompted me to remind him to not mention anything about that day (our agreement was still intact after all). Aside from my pain, though, things were alright.

During our third night (well, we couldn't really tell that it was in the evening considering it always seemed like it was as dark as night in there) we decided to take a rest and make camp. Chichiri had suggested that in order to pass the time, we should do something to help the three of us get to know each other a little better. And what better time to do that than around a campfire?

The other two couldn't quite find the right way to do that, so I ended up suggesting and explaining two popular ice-breaking games from my world: "Truth or Dare" and "Never have I Ever". To me, they were slightly lame games that teens in my world tended to have _way_ too much fun with by including drinking (Genrou may have approved of this one), stripping, violence, and humiliation, but I refrained from mentioning those things to my companions—leaving the combination of games to be completely clean.

The three of us went around in a circle, one by one, choosing whether we'd have someone do "Truth or Dare" or if the person did "Never Have I Ever" in order to get the other two to admit to things they have or haven't done.

After a few rounds, it came back around to the bangs-defying-gravity monk himself. Putting his finger on his chin, Chichiri pondered on his next action. "Hmm…I wonder what I should do, ya know?"

"Just pick somethin' already Chichiri!" The impatient Genrou yelled out. "I have a good one in mind and I don't wanna forget!"

My sigh ended in a smirk. "What's wrong? Is your brain so basic that it can't hold on to a simple thought? How sad."

Instead of lashing out at me, he growled a bit before placing a mischievous look on his face. "Ya better watch it before I change my mind about what I'm gonna do. I might have ya doin' somethin' _real_ embarrasin'."

Rolling my eyes, I pretended to ignore his threat. "Don't listen to him Chichiri—take as much time as you—"

"I got it, ya know!" _Well…okay then…_ He dabbed a fist in his other hand as an idea came to him. "Never have I ever been arrested, ya know?"

When what he had said had sunk in, I ended up raising my hand almost at the same time as Genrou. Narrowing my eyes slightly, I thought, _why am I notsurprised?_The moment he noticed my look, he gave a full, toothy smile. "What else do ya expect? It would be sorta insultin' if a bandit such as me never got arrested." Placing his hands on his sides, he turned away keeping the proud expression on his face. "O' course, they were never able to keep me long enough to keep me detained, but they sure did try!"

Splashing the smirk back on, I said, "A delinquent through and through, eh?"

He snapped his head back at me. "Damn straight!" Then he thought about my words for a second. The volume of his voiced increased as he caught onto the insult. "Hey, what a second!" I snickered in amusement at the late reaction. Pointing a finger at me, he spout out, "Well if yer so damn pure, then why the hell were _you_ arrested?"

Resting my head on my hand, my smugness died down. "It wasn't exactly my fault—my overly naïve friend took a guy's words way too literally and attempted to get jewels from the emperor."

"Whoa! This person tried ta steal from His Highness?" Genrou sounded impressed. "That's hardcore!"

I shook my head. "Not exactly. You see, she and I were trying to look for another friend of ours, and this guy we ran into said that he'd only help us if we managed to get one of the royal jewels for him." The memory almost immediately made me grimace. "I like her and all, but that dope of a friend of mine decided to run out in the middle of a royal procession—without thinking—to ask the emperor if she could have one of his jewels. At the time, I was trying to keep my powers a secret, so I couldn't exactly make a daring and flashy escape. So the guards arrested us."

"Is this how you met the emperor Aki?" Chichiri asked.

"Yeah!" I nodded enthusiastically. Of course I was quick to answer—after all, we were talking about the hottest looking ruler in the history of ever. Realizing that my actions were too eager, my face flushed a bit as I cleared my throat. "I-I mean…Yes, that is how we met. He's actually a really nice guy and let the three of us go. Because of certain circumstances, we all became friends and he invited us to stay in the palace as honored guests." Reaching into my personal space, the kunai Hotohori gave me materialized in a flash of light and dropped into my hands. "This weapon was given to me by him before I left so that I could better protect myself in close combat battles." _Since my physical abilities are so bad,I need some sort of edge whenever an enemy gets tooclose._I looked down at the weapon in my hand. _Taiitsukun warned me against the _Tornado Fist _and this is what I'm left with._

"Yer doin' it wrong."

Snapping me out of my thoughts, I realized that Genrou had said something. "What?"

Extending his arm out, he reached for the kunai in my hands. "Yer supposed ta hold it like this." He took the weapon from my hand only to replace it in a different position—palm facing inward as the blade pointed down. "Since yer probably goin' fer more of a defense position, this is more efficient. But if ya wanna go on the offensive, then ya need to know how to maneuver it back into the right position. Just remember that it's supposed ta be an extension of yer arm, that way it'll flow a bit more naturally."

I couldn't help but be impressed with his knowledge of weapons. But instead of showing my gratitude, I decided to go the more nonchalant route that Aki is so very used to. Putting on an irritated façade, I asked him, "What does it matter how I hold it? As long as I get the enemy then it's all good." _It's not reallylike I plan on using it often anyway._Hearing my reply prompted him to flick my forehead in a swift manner. The uncomfortable stinging sensation left me holding my head in utter irritation. "Dude!"

"It matters 'cause it could be a matter of life er death. Don't protect yourself properly, and you'll regret it."

I scoffed. "Overly-dramatic much?" Before he had the chance to shoot back with a rebuttal, I told him, "We're still playing a game remember? And it's _your_turn." To show that there were no hard feelings, I flashed him a friendly smile as I summoned the kunai away once more.

Seeing as how I diffused the situation, he calmed down after realizing that my real intention wasn't to start a fight…at least not this time. "Well…okay then. Never have I ever…umm…" He bit his tongue. "Dammit! I forgot what I was goin' to say!" Part of me wanted to shout out "just pick something!" but he quickly recovered from his moment of absentmindedness. "Never have I ever been across the ocean—I'm a man of the mountains all the way!"

His chosen subject compelled me to chuckle a bit. "After all that, the epic thing you chose to do was that you've never 'been across the ocean'?" As he shot a sharp look at me, I continued to show my amusement. "Fine, fine, it's acceptable!" Chichiri had already been raising his hand regarding the statement before I even had a chance to do so.

The monk spoke through his playful grin. "I did a lot of traveling, ya know? It's really relaxing to just go around and explore the way other people do things and how they live, ya know?" He did come off to me as a sort of free-spirit—his whole vibe just seems so…relaxed. But I knew more than anyone that outside characters can be deceiving.

Remembering that I had to explain myself as well, I told them, "For about twelve years, I lived in my home country of Japan. Then, about five years ago, I moved to another country called the United States. Since the two of them are completely different land masses separated by a huge body of water called the Pacific Ocean, I used a large transportation mechanism called an airplane to fly over the ocean and into the new country." It was sort of funny that I had to use such detail with these two—they didn't know the world I lived in—its geography, demographic, or even its advanced technology. This, of course, often led my explanations in this game to be a tad bit longer in order for them to really understand what I'm saying. Of course, I had never blatantly said that "I am from another world", but by this point, it may have been pretty obvious. I was just thankful that I didn't have to go through millions of questions from my companions about it. There was still always the chance that they never caught on though…

"How interesting!" Chichiri spoke in a cheerful voice, "you never fail in having fascinating things to say, ya know?" I almost told him that his life was probably more exciting since he did so much traveling, then I remembered that in the past year, I had been to five different worlds, meeting different people, seeing completely different things—makes me question exactly which trade school my travel agent attended. I may not have been to a plethora of countries around _one_ world, but it's probably safe to say that inter-dimensional travel counts as quite the expedition.

Instead of elaborating any further, I turned to my blue-haired friend. "Okay Chichiri: truth or dare?"

"Umm…I choose dare, ya know?"

Already having my dare in mind, I gave a wide, Cheshire Cat grin. "I dare you to pretend to be Genrou in any way you see fit."

"What?" Genrou's expression of shock was absolutely priceless.

Chichiri snapped his fingers as he thought of an efficient way to carry out the dare. "I hope that you guys get a kick out of this, ya know?" In a blink, the monk's body was shrouded in a poof of white smoke. Giddy from anticipation, I patiently waited for what would emerge from the cloud. When it finally dissipated, Genrou and I sat there in surprise to see a second Genrou standing in place of Chichiri. _Holy crap! I didn't know that Chichiri could transform intoother people!That's awesome! _As impressed as I was, I refused to allow myself to ask him to teach me how to do it. Past experiences told me that he wasn't exactly the best person to ask to be taught from when you were expecting a normal lesson. For all I knew, this technique would require me to sleep with all the people I wanted to transform into. While I _really_ doubted that that was the case, I wasn't willing to take any chances. I learned how to see auras and I'm already a Master Sorceress—it wouldn't be good to start becoming greedy.

Jumping out of my seat, I inspected Chichiri's new form from head to toe with increased interest. "Impressive! You've got his whole look down! Now that you can walk the walk, let's see if you can talk the talk." The real Genrou's scrunched up face signified that he wasn't too thrilled about this whole dare—I, on the other hand, found the situation to be rather comical.

"Everyone better watch out, 'cause the manliest man ta ever walk the face of the earth has arrived!" "Genrou" proclaimed as he perched one of his legs up on a giant rock and placed his hands on his sides. "I may not know much about nothin' else, but when it comes ta bein' a tough, ass kickin' mountain man, then who cares? I can't quite contemplate the complex bein' that is woman, so I refuse to like 'em!"

At this point, I was laughing. "That is totally what he's like!" Steam could practically be seen coming from Genrou as he sizzled in comical anger.

"Honestly," The fake Genrou continued with a confident, proud voice, "if I could repopulate the world with jus' men, then I'd be a happy camper! Women just make things too complicated and are contaminated with cooties!" The monk definitely earned some points on my "cool-o-meter" for his performance.

"Hey!" The real Genrou shoot up from his seat and pointed accusingly at his imposter. "First of all, I would never say 'cooties'! Second, I never said that I want the world to be just men. I may not like women, but they are necessary!" He must have sensed that I was going to say something because he quickly turned to me and demanded, "Don't'cha dare say it! I am not gay!"

Through my snickering, I managed to say, "Who are you tryin' to convince?" Clearing my throat, I held up a finger as if I were about to explain something, pretending to act serious. "Remember Genrou, we don't judge. But you can't fully accept who you are if you stay in d-e-n-i-a-l."

With an obvious blush starting to appear on his face, the flame-haired bandit turned his focus back onto the transformed monk. "I had enougha this! Chichiri, mock Aki why don't'cha?" As I opened my mouth to tell him that Chichiri wouldn't do that, my mind was taken for a loop when the familiar puff of white smoke consumed Chichiri's body once more. My smile was quickly starting to falter when I realized that he was taking Genrou up on his suggestion._What?_It wasn't a second later when I was face to face with myself—scarlet irises staring into scarlet irises. _Okay…this is weird._The imitation Aki had on the same sporty outfit that I did, short dark-brown hair off to the sides and back with long bangs falling past her eyes—her face wearing a smug expression on it. The first thing that came to mind wasn't "oh my gosh, I wonder what he's going to do!"—no, it was more like: _Is that honestly what my hair looks like fromthe front?_

"Hmph!" My clone stomped her foot in frustration and crossed "her" arms, breaking me away from my hair-issues. "Genrou may think he's all that, but in reality, my powers practically make me the queen of everything! Give me any monsters, demons, or bandits you can find and I'll take them down with just my pinky! However, if you get my clothes dirty, you can just forget about me joining in the fight! Unless you call me an unnecessary name or make me mad, then I might completely flip out and blow you away with my mystic powers!" "She" flipped "her" hair. "Oh, and if you start hearing me ramble on and on about things that make absolutely no sense—like say My Small Horses or the White Cabin—just ignore me because the explanation is too difficult for minds other than mine to comprehend."

With my face completely fallen, I sat there in disbelief in what I was hearing. Before I had a chance to defend myself, Genrou erupted with laughter, falling to the ground as he held his stomach. "Man Chichiri, ya got 'er down completely!" He flashed me a sharp look through his smile. "Not so great seein' his interpretation, is it? Bet'cha wish that ya never dared him, huh?"

Attempting very horribly to hide my extreme displeasure, I strained to maintain a fake smile, the corners of my lips twitching from the added effort. "Not at all! _I_ can admit my faults—unlike _some_ _people_." Standing up, I nonchalantly walked (stomped) over to Aki Number Two trying my very best to keep the bogus grin. "Aki" must have sensed my anger because she started to tremble and hold her hands up in passive defense. "And as for _you_…" Reaching out for "her" cheeks, I stretched them as far as they could go, making sure that it brought "her" pain. "If you're going to do a horrible impression of me, make sure you get the terminology right—it's My _Little_ _Ponies_ and the White _House_. Got it?"

"She" nodded quickly. "Yes, I got it, ya know?" Releasing "her" face from my grasp, I went back over to my seat with puffed up cheeks showing my irritation.

Genrou sat up from his laughing spot on the ground. "Oh come on Aki, it's not funny when it's about'cha but when it's directed at me, it's hilarious?" _? Now you're thinking!_ "Be a good sport."

Thinking of an idea, I spoke, mocking his accent. "Ya didn't think it was so funny when it was about you. Yer just bein' a hypocrite only laughin' at other people's expense 'cept yer own." Winking at him, I asked in my normal way, "Right?"

Hearing my voice coming from a place other than myself, the two of us faced the still transformed monk. "Hey guys, we're still in the game, ya know?" Genrou and I gave each other a knowing look signifying that at that moment, we had thought of the same course of action. We both took our long bangs with one of our hands to make them stand up on end—pretending that they were standing up by themselves—followed by closing our eyes and transforming our faces into a playful fox one similar to Chichiri's. It was our turn to mock him.

"It would be better if we could all just get along, ya know?" I decided to go with a cheery way of speaking.

Genrou played along as well. "I'm just goin' ta stay completely calm and flow with the wind—almost as if nothing bothers me at all, ya know?"

"I'm just going to use my trippy mystic powers—"

"ta make my friends mouths drop in confusion—"

Then we both said at the same time, "Ya know?" It wasn't a second later when the three of us burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. This was pretty much the first time that all of us really enjoyed each other's company—it definitely beat flying around by my lonesome while being completely bored out of my mind. Chichiri was laughing so hard that he lost focus in his spell and poofed back into himself (that was good because looking at me in that sense was getting sort of weird).

When we finally calmed down and wiped away our tears, the game resumed and our blue-haired monk decided to take his turn. After thinking it over for a few seconds, he leaned over to Genrou and suspiciously whispered in his ear. The bandit told him out loud, "Oh yeah, dare for sure!" Chichiri was speaking too softly for me to hear, so part of me was considering that he was up to no good. _What is he telling him?_

I figured that whatever message he was giving Fang-boy was over because Genrou started to snicker mischievously. Facing me, he looked at me straight on with his perceptive amber eyes, spiking my own curiosity.

"Wha—what?" I asked in an annoyed yet bewildered tone.

"Witch." The name brought out the mental fuse that becomes ignited the moment someone pisses me off. Eyes narrowing at him, I dared him to say that again. Ordinarily, someone would get the hint after calling me that the first time—but not this idiot. "Witch, witch, witch, witchy-witch, witch, witchier of all witches, witch-witchy, Aki the witch, you are a witch, just accept it, you have the powers and all, you are a witch—" In the blink of an eye, I brought out a much larger version of the red and yellow toy hammer that Taiitsukun had hit me with before (it was probably about six feet tall). Genrou never saw it coming when I jumped up in the air and comically smashed him straight to the ground with the overly-grown plastic toy. I decided to just keep the hammer there with its victim underneath, appendages twitching from the pain as a goofy smile was plastered on his face. With strained words, he sputtered, "Damn…you…Chichiri…"

Just as I was about to reassure him of the pain he'd really go through if he ever intentionally called me a witch again, Chichiri faced me with his playful expression. "At that brings me to my next question, ya know?" My eyebrow cocked up. "How come you don't like being called a witch?"

Hearing the perfectly reasonable question almost automatically made me lose my frustration towards my flame-headed companion. "Oh! Umm…well, whenever you hear the word 'witch', it's usually associated with a negative connotation. I don't know about this place, but where I come from, a witch has a stereotypical pointy black hat and broom, and people expect them to create diabolical potions with gross ingredient and curse people rather than work for the greater good. It's always, 'let's burn the witch!' or 'let's ban the witch!'. Almost always, a witch is thought of as a bad or evil individual." Not to mention that the word "witch" was dangerously close to bandits and jerks' uncreative nickname for me "wench". So you can imagine how fed up I was with hearing any of those words. Hikaru and Kaoru sure got a kick out of it back when I was with them and I refused to stand for it then as well. "In any case, you usually don't get any negative feedback with the title of sorceress, and it has more of a powerful tone to it, don't'cha think?" I gave Genrou the evil eye as he remained one with the ground. "And I'd appreciate it if people where to label to me with the preferred title thank you very much."

In an instant, Genrou threw away the hammer and got up completely back on his feet—a blazing fire could be seen in his eyes from his sudden, yet perfectly understandable, rage. He shouted out, "Aki! Truth er dare?"

Surprised that he wasn't grilling me for completely owning him with a toy hammer, I gave my response in a rather blasé tone to show that his newfound anger hadn't gotten to me. Hell, I should have been the one who was upset—he persisted on calling me an undesirable name and was punished for it. Justice had been served. Deciding to humor him, I replied with, "Dare."

Smirking evilly, he pointed at me. "I dare ya ta go a whole day without usin' yer powers! One. Whole. Day." Part of me wanted to laugh at his dare and ask if he was serious, but the unfaltering look in his eye told me that he was completely serious and expected me to forsake my well-deserved powers for twenty-four hours. I mean, does he know me? Like I was ever going to do something as stupid as that. Thinking that I could break him by glaring at him long enough, maybe I'd get him to change his mind and realize how much of a moronic dare he was expecting me to execute. His eyes read in bold letters the word "revenge", making it clear that he was really only doing this to get back at me for impaling him with a toy hammer (in my opinion, he's lucky that I used a toy and not the actual thing).

Sighing, I closed my eyes and thought to myself, _how petty is this?_Opening one of my eyes back up, I expressed my answer by saying, "No deal."

With his temper on the rise, he gritted his teeth as anger veins appeared where his temple was. "Ya don't have a choice—it's the rules of the game."

"When it's a matter of life or death, then the dare becomes null in void." Opening the other eye back up, I continued while still acting rather relaxed, "I can't not use my powers—you understand."

His stance shifted into a defensive one as he held up his fists with resentment. "Look, ya can't just go around bendin' the rules of the game fer yer own pleasure. Ya told us the rules and ya have to go by 'em just like we do. Besides that, ya shouldn't be so damn dependent on those powers of yers all the time!"

I chuckled as my own annoyance for the topic was starting to become apparent. "Yeah…Okay, first of all, you're only daring me to do this 'cause you're sour about getting a little boo-boo on your head for calling me a witch—which is _completely_ justified on my part. Second of all, you're not from where I come from and know nothing of my culture, for all you know, I could be holding out on a bunch of the rules 'n stuff and just giving you simple ones to follow. And lastly," by this point, I was up out of my seat wagging my finger in his face, "my powers are here for me to use and not disown—so I have every right to use them how I want and when I want without any confirmation from you _sir_." Seeing as how he was going to give a retort, I showed my palm in front of his face to prevent him from speaking. "After having my powers sealed for seventeen years, I have every liberty to use them and will not allow some punk bandit who thinks he knows better to tell me the most effective way that _he_ _thinks_ I should utilize my special abilities." Sitting back down in my seat I crossed my arms. "And so if you didn't get any of that, let me summarize it by saying that your dare is stupid and that I won't go through with it." Sure, some might say that I was getting upset over nothing, but I really wasn't. With all the crappy things that happened in my life, my powers have been the one good thing that has remained with me. Even as I was forced to leave friends behind and accept that I'd never see them again, I was at least certain that I had something good that would constantly be with me. For once I was in control of something—for once, I had the freedom to enjoy something that was my own and wouldn't fade away. So maybe to him it was just some meaningless dare, but to me, it meant turning my back on a precious gift—and that wasn't worth it, not even for a seemingly short twenty-four hours.

I had no desire to jeopardize our new friendship because of some insignificant game, but I needed him to understand just how important my powers were to me.

It didn't really seem like he was quite getting it though…

Recovering from my intentionally sharp speech, he retorted, "You attacked me with your goddamn mallet because o' this game, so you should be willin' ta make some sacrifices."

Starting to believe that he was a lost cause, I groaned in frustration as I pinched the space in between my eyes. "Look, you didn't have to go through with Chichiri's dare—and my assumption is probably right that Chichiri dared you to call me a witch or something along those lines. With games like this it's important for one to use some common sense. If someone dared you to jump off of a bridge into a pool of water containing deadly, man-eating piranha and sharks, would' ja do it?" _Knowing him, he probably would go through with a dare like that—thinking that he wouldn't be manly if he backed down. _Maybe a bit of this argument was unfair since I should have been partially mad at Chichiri for giving Genrou the dare. But once again, the subject of him being able to reject the dare was still in the air, so he could have chosen to not call me a witch. For all I knew, Chichiri could have been testing Genrou, wondering if he'd actually go through with it—or perhaps he just set up the situation simply to ask me why I didn't like being called a witch. Regardless of all that, Genrou went through with it and suffered the consequences.

In the background of our continuous bickering, I swore that I could hear Chichiri talking to himself or some invisible audience by saying, "Things were going so well…The two of them had been cooperating so nicely and now they've regressed and started fighting again, ya know?"

Neither of us acknowledged what he was saying considering the argument persisted. "You've seen the things that can pop out of this maze—it'd be suicide to give up my powers for that long."

"Well that's why you have Chichiri 'n I ta protect ya."

"Thanks for the offer and all, but the only protecting of Aki there's gonna be is by Aki herself." I huffed. "I don't want to have to depend on anyone else—I'd rather rescue myself." Which always suited me just fine. I really wasn't to sound like some kind of bitch, but I didn't want others to get hurt because of the danger I tended to attract way too often. As long as I was able to protect myself, then others wouldn't have to suffer in trying to make sure that I stayed safe. Even if my physical abilities weren't all that great, I wasn't some wounded animal on the side of the road that required a bunch of attention and TLC. No, I was strong and I made sure that people knew and respected that. But mostly I just wanted them to not worry about me so that they could focus on staying alive themselves…

He growled from hearing my words. "We're supposed ta be friends Aki. We agreed to watch each other's backs!"

"Exactly! So how the hell do you expect me to do that if you dare me to not use my freakin' powers?" At this point, you could practically see the line of static frustration being exchanged between the two of us—it seemed like that whole issue could have been volleyed back and forth for quite a while. The whole "Truth or Dare" game was definitely getting a bit too out of hand.

Before another set of "pleasantries" were exchanged, Chichiri finally decided to make a move by slamming both of his hands on our heads in order to get our attention. To my surprise, he used enough force to cause the both of us to twitch from discomfort. "I'm gonna settle this right here and now, ya know?" His sudden interruption obligated the two of us to shut up and listen up to what the rationally diplomatic monk had to say. First, he faced Genrou. "You can't ask Aki to do something like that since it's her only line of defense against enemies—magic _is_ her survival, ya know?" Feeling an uncharacteristically childish urge, I stuck my tongue out at the flame-headed bandit. He then faced me. "You don't have to stop using your powers, but considering our friends' words here—it would probably be a good idea to learn other ways to defend yourself _just_ _in_ _case_ something happens that makes you unable to use your powers, ya know?" Rustling the hair on both of our heads, he added with a cheery smile, "Does that make sense to you two?"

Still shooting daggers with our eyes, we both reluctantly said, "Yeah…"

"Well it's good that you two agree on something, ya know?"

As soon as he released our heads, the two of us sat back down in our seats with our arms crossed, refusing to look at each other.

"Stubborn," he spouted out.

I scoffed. "Impossible."

Chichiri let out a heavy sigh followed by a sweat drop—arms dangling down in hopelessness. "I thought you two were friends, ya know?"

Almost instantly, we both snapped our heads towards him and responded with a loud and confident, "We are!"

"Well you two have one of the most interesting friendships I've ever seen, ya know?"

All of a sudden, my head started to spin, the brief distortion of the world and light-headedness almost causing me to fall over. Something was off. Although the dizziness was short lived, I knew there had been an abrupt shift of energy in the air. The feeling was really eating at me—it felt like one of those high-pitched white noises were etched into my brain, inducing a headache and attempting to either screw with my senses or warn me of something. The more I thought about it, the more I had realized that my whole body was reacting to whatever this was. A subtle and compelling vibration was literally pulsating through my silver veins—almost like something was calling out to me and only my body was able to sense it.

"Do—do you guys feel that?" I asked after the initial shock had dispersed.

Genrou gave me a blank look. "Feel what?" Feverishly scanning the surrounding area, I wondered to myself whether or not he was bluffing about not being able to feel anything.

The blue-haired monk smoothly checked the air, attempting to investigate the phenomenon. "Yes, I do feel it, ya know? I wonder what it is…"

"What?" Genrou jumped out of his seat in irritated surprise. "How come you guys can sense somethin' and I'm completely in the dark?" _Huh, that is only magic users are more acute to things like this…_

With a calm tone, I said, "I'll go check it out…" Using my energy, I lifted my body up and unto the air, allowing the weightlessness to overtake me. Elevating to a high enough altitude (and for any of you asking why I didn't just fly in the first place to look for the exit to the maze, the place was surprisingly smart enough to change its topography whenever we thought that it was set one way…yeah that's right, it outsmarted us), I was able to spot a giant peculiar circular blood-red-glowing pattern edged into the ground. It looked like it was at least half a block in radius. The power emitting from it was so brilliant that it was drawing me in just by looking at it. _What is that? And why do I want to go to it so badly?_

Fighting the urge to just fly to it then and there, I hesitantly lowered back down to my two comrades.

"Well, what did you see?"

I shook my head. "Hard to say—it was some glowing circle, but it's kind of hard to explain the feeling that I'm getting from it…"

"Why're we waitin' around fer then?" The bandit started to march confidently in the direction of the alluring anomaly. "Let's go an' see what this thing is so that we can get on with our treasure hunt!" _Treasure hunt? Is that what looking for the Sacred Blood Lily has turned into?_

"I agree—we should definitely go investigate, ya know?" Even though he wasn't showing it, I could tell that Chichiri really wanted to get to that circle just as much as I did. It seemed to be pulling us in and neither of us seemed like we'd be satisfied until we reached it.

After about fifteen minutes, we finally reached our destination—the edge of the mysteriously glowing pattern. At that close proximity, my whole being was just itching to step inside—I knew that I should have been more concerned about it, but for some reason, any and all of the formulated possible consequences just floated out of my brain.

"What is it? Seems like some kinda magic thing." Genrou faces Chichiri and I who continued to stare at the glowing brilliance. "Right up yer guys' alley, right?" His question had processed, but neither Chichiri nor I acknowledged it. All we wanted to do was step closer into its center.

"Perhaps…we should… go inside, ya know?" Chichiri's voice seemed distant almost like his voice was playing on automatic without any emotion.

I spoke with a similarly sleepy tone. "Yes…that would seem like the smartest thing to do…" Simultaneously, the two of us stepped inside, causing the circle's red radiance to flare slightly before returning back to its original luminosity.

As we both walked in parallel rhythm, Genrou's almost muffled voice rang out from behind. "Wait! What're you guys doin'? Ya can't just walk in there without knowin' what yer dealin' with! Hey!"

My response to him was monotone and brief. "It's fine…nothing bad will happen…"

"Aki!" Attempting to reach us, he ran full-speed towards the mysterious abnormality only to be violently repelled back by some electromagnetic barrier. The moment the painful electrocution surged through his body, his sudden sense of alarm broke through to me, automatically breaking me out of the trance._What…happened?_

Blinking a few times in panic, I turned around to face my now sizzling friend who was on the ground, struggling to get up only when he was moments away from passing out. "Genrou!" I shouted out. Just as I was about to race to his side, the circle reacted to my outburst, realizing that it no longer had me under its hypnotism. Chichiri, however, still seemed unfazed. Crackling bolts of red electricity raced through the glowing formation, keeping our feet magnetized to the ground trapping the two of us inside. For some reason, it felt like my energy was being attacked directly, causing me to instantly feel both restrained and physically drained at the same time. My energy seemed to be flowing further and further away from my very being, almost to a point where I felt cold and empty. _Wha—what is this feeling?What's happening to me?_

The ground underneath us started to suck inwards towards the center, emulating a black hole. With the ominous circle collapsing in on itself there seemed to be no escape in sight. Chichiri was still stuck in the trance, Genrou was pretty much out of commission, and I couldn't move my body—making the whole situation seem pointless to even try and fight it. After that, the rest just seemed like a rapid blur. I wasn't prepared to be sucked in like a vacuum, but, as with fate (or the universe) it didn't wait until I was even remotely ready. The only part of the situation that was able to register with my brain was that I had been sucked into the black hole—being able to see the light of the outside realm for only a few seconds longer until my whole world went black.

* * *

><p>Realizing that all of the commotion had finally settled, I sat there, completely mesmerized from all of the events that had just happened—I still couldn't quite grasp onto everything. How was it that something that had occurred so fast could be that impactful? It didn't seem like I was in the maze anymore. Instead, I was in some dark, rocky space and the only natural light I had to guide me was the silver veins that branched along the surface of my body. But, for some unexplainable reason, the brightness had dimmed considerably allowing me to only see a couple feet in front of me somewhat clearly. In fact, the light seemed to be lacking in life altogether, reminding me of a candle that was about to fizzle out (oh gosh, I <em>really<em> hoped it wouldn't fizzle out).

Nonetheless, it was my only source of light and it was the only way that I could tell that Chichiri was on the ground next to me, unconscious. There was a smaller, glowing, scarlet circle reflecting the giant one from before on his forehead. And before the questions about that had arisen, I realized that the same sign was on my forehead too—characterized by a warm and tingly feeling that sent a slight static shock to my hand whenever I tried to touch it. But this peculiar labeling wasn't what shocked me the most—it was the fact that his face looked completely different as he slept. And I don't mean something like how much more innocent or whatever he looked—no, I mean he looked _really_ different. The whole structure of his face seemed to have changed. It was more angular and looked less childish and fox-like—he actually looked his age (which, once again I was assuming was around early twenties…most likely). His most prominent feature seemed to be a rather harsh looking scar than ran across and over his left eye. I couldn't help but wonder if he could even use that eye…by the severity of it, probably not…_Why does he look so different now? Is this the same Chichiri? Or is the maze playing another trick on me?_

It was time that I tried waking him up again.

"Chichiri…Chichiri! Wake up!" Attempting to use the shake-down method, I was convinced that I saw his eye flutter a few times as I persisted with breaking him of his unconsciousness. In the middle of my efforts, something caught my eye. Reaching down to the other side of his body, I picked up what seemed like some sort of mask. Investigating further, my eyes widened at the face that was plastered on it. It was…Chichiri's face! I mean, the one Genrou and I were used to—his fox-like one that was almost constantly cheery looking. _But why is it here? _Thinking on it a bit longer, a realization suddenly hit me: _whatif…this whole time, he had been wearing this mask, using magic to make it realistic, hiding his real face? That would be the only plausible explanation. If that'strue…_I looked down at the sleeping companion of mine—the one I thought that I had pretty much all figured out. And now, he added a whole new level of complicated and confusing into the mix. _Why would he hide himself like this?_

Shaking my head, I knew that I had to focus on what I was trying to do before. Setting the mask aside, I resumed with trying to wake him up. I was tempted to touch his scar, but resisted since I didn't want him to get mad or overly sensitive about it (not to mention that that would have been a violation of personal space. Him being asleep would have made that even worse). If anyone knew about scars of the past, it was me—so I knew that he probably didn't want to talk about it. Otherwise, he wouldn't go through such lengths to hide it from everyone. So, I'd respect his wishes and focus on the task at hand.

"Chichiri! C'mon! Please wake up! Chichiri!" Feeling his body stir, a wave of relief coursed through me as he opened his eye (it seemed like I was right about him only being able to use one eye)—wait…he opened his eye? It had just occurred to me that I had never seen his eyes—er, eye—before. I was finally getting my chance. "You're okay...that's good. And I hope that you're out of the trance?"

"Aki?" Holding his head, he replied with a groggy tone. "Yeah, I'm fine, ya know? How about you?" Turning to face me, my heart did a little flip with his real (and not masked) features. The drastic increase in maturity without the mask was absolutely astounding—who would have thought that he was actually _good_-looking? I could actually take him a bit more seriously now! To add to all of the new findings, the small amount of light allowed me to notice that he had deep, red-brown eyes.

I guess you learn something new every day…

"Of course I'm fine." I flashed a confident smile. "In fact, I've been awake for a while now trying to get you to wake up. You were really out of it…" With every word that I had spoken, a huge chunk of me just wanted to point out his "real" face and just bombard him with questions. Bur since I hated it when people did that to me, I figured that he probably would have just wanted me to leave it alone.

"Huh, well I—" he stopped mid-sentence when I extended the mask out to give back to him. With his eye widening, he paused to see if I would probe him for answers. Instead, I silently held out my hand so that he could take back him property—it wasn't exactly my place to start diving into his past and personal life. "Oh…thank you…." Slowly taking the mask back, he stared at it a bit with a so solemn look on his face. The Chichiri that I had come to know so bubbly and cheery most of the time, and now he was surrounded by an intense atmosphere of dread. Something real bad must have happened in order to inspire him to hide behind a happy mask all the time—he must have been in pain. But all I could do was sit there and watch him sort through his thoughts. A good friend would have asked what was up with him, but that would probably get us closer than I was comfortable with. Not only that, but I might have felt compelled to give him personal information about myself since he was trusting enough to tell me his problems. Considering my situation, though, perhaps getting that close to someone wasn't all that smart—especially when I could potentially leave at any time…

So I decided to change the subject. "A lot of weird things happened back in that circle. And now we're in some dark place and I didn't want to look around until you finally came to."

When he realized that I wasn't interesting in invading his privacy, he inserted the mask back onto his face. And not a second later, some magical force fused it to his face to make it seem like the mask _was_ his face—even the red glowing symbol burned through onto his faux forehead. Just like before, he wore the cheery, fox-like expression that never gave off any kind of depressing vibe. In fact, if I were still in the dark about this whole subject, I would have still been convinced that that really was his face. But now I know that there was more to this monk than meets the eye.

"I see. So I'm guessing that Genrou got left behind at the spot we were at last?" He asked, accepting the subject change. Eyes widening slightly, I was surprised that the status of Genrou's state didn't even occur in my mind. It kind of made me feel like a jerk… "That must be it, ya know? Then we can assume that he's fine!" He showed that cheery smile that I was so used to. Did he only feel comfortable flashing a smile with his mask? "Hey Aki, were you aware that you had a glowing seal on your head?" He pointed to my forehead.

"Huh? Oh, yeah…" When his words processed through my brain, I quickly added, "Wait—did you just say 'seal'?" That word meant that something was being restricted, but what?

Nodding, he crossed his arms and legs. "Yup. Now that I can see it more clearly, I'm pretty sure that I came across this seal in my magical studies, ya know? This is quite troublesome—"

"Stop leaving me hanging and just tell me what it's sealing!" Oh boy did I hope that it wasn't sealing what I thought it was sealing.

"Well…Your powers…" He sighed. "Your powers have been sealed, ya know? And I'm also going to assume that I have the exact same seal on me. Which means…" A sudden burst of perkiness hit him. "That we're probably in huge danger, ya know?"

My whole body froze and I could feel my throat getting choked up. In a low tone, my denial became apparent. "No way…" _There's just no way! _Trying to gather my energy together, I knew that something was wrong since there was no rush of adrenaline and ecstasy or even an empowering sensation that I felt whenever I controlled the elements or used a spell. I still had to try though! "_Light of life, brighter than flame, let thy power gather in my hand. Lighting!"_When there wasn't even a spark emerging in my palm, I tried again. "_Lighting!" _Still nothing. "No, no, no, no, _no_! This _cannot_ be happening!" There was absolutely no way in hell that this was happening. How was this happening? That had to be why the silver veins on me were dimmed so considerably—why I felt completely drained while we were in the middle of the circle. How could the universe be that cruel—not to mention ironic? It knew I was saying all that stuff before about how important my powers were to me when I was arguing with Genrou, and then it goes off and does something like this. What. The. F&%#ing. Hell.

Facing the monk, I was a bit irritated by how relaxed he was about the whole thing. "Umm…I don't know if you've realized this, but we're kind of screwed. How can you be so calm?"

Tilting his head to the side, he answered with, "Well, I think about it like this: we're both safe, ya know? All we need to do is look for our way out and everything will be fine, ya know?" Completely collapsing to the ground, I groaned.

"I don't quite think that you grasp onto the severity of the situation Chichiri…" Reviewing my luck, I knew that it wouldn't be long until something popped out of nowhere and tried to kill me. Without my powers and in a new state of vulnerability that bet was pretty much certain. Almost every five seconds, my head would snap around in a paranoid manner thinking that something was lurking in the shadows.

He chuckled. "Oh come on, what's the worst that can happen?"

_Oh God._

Even with my energy blocked away from my use, there was nothing to stop the weak, yet familiar chilling sensation that ran down my spine. It was really, really slight, but the feeling was still there. I could feel all of the blood draining from my face when the horrific thought of Shadow Maidens being nearby entered my consciousness.

It was then that about ten pairs of glowing yellow eyes surrounded the two of us completely. The sudden attack of extreme paranoia was causing me to panic and hyperventilate—silent yet rapid gasps of air were all that I was capable of manifesting from my lungs. _This can't be happening! _Just as my fears were about to get the best of me, I looked closer at our adversaries. They were much, much shorter than Shadow Maidens or Shadow Kissed—which were human sized. These things were more like the size of medium-sized dogs. Perhaps I was freaking out over nothing. _But I can still feel the chill of their darkness. _Sure, I was curious about what they were, but not curious enough to want to stick around and see what they could do.

But I had no choice. According to Taiitsukun and the male voice, it was my job to deal with any kinds of manifestations of Darkness—and I couldn't turn my back on this. Otherwise…I'd just seem weak…

"What do you think that those things are?" Chichiri asked.

Silently gulping, I told him, "A threat" then I faced him with a grimace. "Chichiri, do me a favor and _never_ ask 'what's the worst that can happen' whenever you're around me, okay?" We couldn't exactly see what they were but thanks to the little light that my veins were able to give off, we'd know when the creatures got too close.

Before another thought could race through my head, the eyes suddenly rushed at us.

I had to stop this before it erupted into something bad—scratch that—before it erupted into something horrible.

Bringing my hands out in front of me, I thought of what kind of spell would have the biggest affect. Chichiri then bolted in front of me with his staff extended out, a mysterious force repelling the beasts back.

Looking back at me, he said, "We lost our powers, ya know? It would be best that you don't forget that." _Dammit, he's right. And I almost attempted a spell._Every time something came at us, Chichiri would flip around his staff to push them out of our way with some kind of barrier consisting of light blue electricity._How can he do that without magic? _I understood how he was hitting them with such precision—he was looking at their eerie, dark violet auras that traced out their odd, raggedy shape. If I never acquired the ability to see them, then I'd _really_ have some issues.

Without warning, Chichiri turned around, grabbed my hand, and bolted the hell out of there.

"Don't stop Aki!" Without even looking back, the two of us went deeper and deeper into the cave-like place we had been suddenly thrust into. The thing that ate at me the most was that I had to be saved. Having to rely on someone just felt so damn low. Even though it was stupid of me to forget our predicament, I never asked him to save me.

With my lungs burning and legs giving out, the two of us finally stopped when we thought we were far enough. He released my hand as I found a rocky wall to support my body up against to pant vigorously attempting to find my breath. Coughing violently, I held my arm up to grab my chest, doing my best to calm myself down before I developed some type of attack. Oh, and if I didn't mention it before, I have mild asthma (or at least I think I do, my neglectful parents never took me to a doctor to find out) which would definitely contribute to my weaker physical stature. Sliding down to the ground my breathing finally slowed.

"Are you alright?" Chichiri looked down at me with concern.

Through gasps, I reassured him. "Yeah…" Getting the feeling that he would keep on asking about my health, I asked him, "How were you able to do all that stuff you did back there without your powers—your chi?"

"Oh…that." Holding up his golden staff, the rings on it jingled a bit. "This staff was enchanted with sacred abilities, ya know? And since it's detached from my person, it's not affected by the seal. Anything unholy that comes into contact with it is instantly repelled, ya know?" His face fell a bit. "Unfortunately, it wouldn't have been enough to defeat those creatures back there, ya know?" Well that's never good news… "We really need to find a way out of here so that we can get our powers back, ya know? Looking closer at where we're at, it seems like we're underground somewhere. So all we have to do is make it back to the surface, ya know?" _He wants us to just…run away?_

Still coughing a bit, I showed him a serious expression. "Those Shadow Minions (yes I know, it's a creative name) are still in here with us. If we don't take them out now, they'll just get worse." Taking a few more seconds to painfully cough, I continued with, "It's my job to deal with them and leaving them alone could be disastrous."

"Look Aki, it's admirable that you want to do that, but you need to remember that we're still in the maze, ya know? This whole thing is probably one of the trials that we have to go through." I failed to see how knowing that we were still in the maze was significant to taking down Shadow Minions. As if reading my thoughts he told me, "You say that it's your job to take our those creatures, but what if these specific creatures were formulated by the maze and aren't actually the things that you have to defeat? That is most likely what's going on, ya know?"

I shook my head. _No, that chill was all too real. _Even if we were still in that twisted, universe-formulated maze, nothing could mistake that feeling I had whenever my enemies of darkness showed up. "Those creatures are capable of horrible things…" Gradually standing up, I deeply breathed in and out to make sure that my lungs were back to normal. "I'm the only one who has what it takes to win against them, so I have to—"

"No you don't!" His voice had suddenly become very demanding with response to my words. Backing off a bit, he added, "At the moment, I'm sorry, but you can't face them, ya know? The smartest way to go at it would be to make our way out of here so that we can break the seal, ya know?" With an even more understanding tone, a small smile played on his lips. "And if you really want, you can come back down here and deal with them _after_ we get our powers back, ya know?" I absolutely couldn't stand it, but there was no choice but to agree with him. All I could do was hope that the damage caused by them wouldn't get too bad—luckily no communities of people lived underground. But other than that…_When the hell did Chichiri become so serious and calculating?_Ever since his mask came off, his personality seems to have changed a bit.

Or maybe it was just me.

For what seemed like hours the two of us wandered around the dark, eerie cave wishing to navigate our way out. I'd be more hopeful about our little trek if I actually thought that we were getting closer to the exit. But something told me that we may have been getting farther into the caverns rather than finding our way out. I couldn't help but wonder how this whole thing was working. Before, we were in a leafy maze under a constant night sky. And now, Chichiri and I seemed to be in some cave—probably underground since we were sucked downwards back in the circle. So does that mean that the mazes twistedness still applied? Did being under the maze still mean that we were in it? And since we were progressively making our way to who knows where, did that mean that we were getting farther from the spot in the world above that sucked is in? Or is this whole trail we're walking on just a sub-dimension that is still in the same place? So many questions—confusing ones at that—and there was no one there to answer. So we had to hope that answers would come into light for us. Until then…we were lost.

_If only I still had my powers—then I'd be able to blast a hole somewhere so that we could get the hell out of here!_

Every now and then, we were forced to hide from some Shadow Minions that happened to be passing by. Lucky for us, these particular creatures of darkness didn't seem to have all that great of eyesight. So whenever the familiar, yet weak chill hit me, we had to halt in our tracks and breathe very lightly so that they wouldn't find us. If we felt that they were too close, we had to quickly drop to the ground and not make a sound. Because my veins were a dead giveaway (even though they were dimmed, they still emitted some light), Chichiri veiled me with his cloak to make sure that I wouldn't be the cause of our detection.

That whole routine pretty much went down pretty much for the whole day—and I hated every minute of it. Having to hide from my enemies—it was cowardly and disgraceful. _Damn this stupid seal! If only I had my powers I could put an end to all this!_

"If you didn't dwell on what you didn't have for so long, then it wouldn't make you feel so bad, ya know?"

Blinking a few times, I brought my head up. "Huh?"

"Weren't you just thinking about what you'd be able to do if you had your powers?"

"Umm…yeah…" My eyes trailed off to the side in annoyance. _Man I'm starting to hate it when he does that._

He chuckled. "I'm sorry, but your thoughts tend to be really entertaining, ya know? I found that it lightens my mood to hear your commentary on things, ya know?"

I grimaced. "I'm not sure if I should be flattered or offended."

"Don't worry. I don't do it all the time, ya know? If I did, that would be an invasion of privacy! I really only do it when strategy is required or if I'm bored, ya know!" _Which could honestly be at any time._

The conversation was cut short when an even stronger chilling sensation overcame me. My more apparent and irritably, newly formed paranoia was beginning to let me believe that this time it was actually the more deadly Shadow Maidens. But upon further inspection, I realized that the feeling wasn't quite drastic enough to reach the intensity that _those_ dark souls brought along. But this was different than the puny, yet increasingly harmful Shadow Minions (or maybe Heartless would be a better name for them. If I gave the base name "Shadow" to every manifestation of darkness I came across, then my expression of creativity may have been threatened).

Frightening and ferocious howls mixed with roars could be heard—a crescendo of horror from behind our present location. Chichiri didn't need to ask me if I sensed them because he could hear our assassins loud and clear. Their stampeding footsteps were getting closer as larger yellow eyes attempted to track us down. Closing my eyes, I could tell by the shape of their auras that they looked like giant demonic lion-dogs with sharp, flesh tearing teeth. And if they really were dogs then they probably relied on their sense of smell rather than their eyes to find their prey.

Crap.

Chichiri grabbed my wrist and dashed further into the unknown so that we could escape. I still hadn't completely recovered from all the running of the day, so I wasn't sure if I could sprint at that moment. Chichiri wouldn't' have let me stop though—even if I tried to slow down, I didn't completely doubt that he would just drag me on the ground. Okay, I knew he wouldn't do that, but still…

It didn't take long before Chichiri spotted a tight opening in the walls beside us. Immediately halting, he urged me inside first, uncomfortably squeezing me through the crack. On the other side was a tiny enclosed area that was only as big as a small closet. When he forced himself through, he didn't hesitate to take back his cloak and droop it over his staff. Then he perched it in the cracked opening to hide us from our adversaries.

For about ten minutes we sat in the small space, extremely quiet to wait for the hounds and Heartless to pass by. I was truly fascinated by the amazing light-green glowing rocks that made up the smaller cave. Never before had I seen rocks glow and if this had been at any other time with a special person, this could have been a really romantic spot. If it weren't for the cloak hiding the light from the radiant rocks and the staff to ward away anything "unholy", we would have been in deep trouble.

This whole situation was so ridiculous. Me, Akimoto Tsubaki hiding from a bunch of demonic jerks—boy did that piss me off. I just wasn't use to not being able to protect myself—and the only person I ever allowed to take care of me had been my older sister Kajou. Even after she died still had the dark ring to protect me, so I was never, ever defenseless. And more recently, my powers had been awakened, ensuring that my enemies wouldn't be able to harm me without a violent struggle in return. Nothing had been able to seriously harm me—my advantages guaranteed that my life would be preserved, so I never really knew what it was like to be afraid…or it was more accurate to say that I wasn't _used_ to fear. Not being able to take action against things that threatened me was also a completely foreign concept. The reason that I had such a confident outward personality was because one, I didn't want people to think that I was a hesitant weakling, and two, I knew that I would always be able to take care of myself.

Kajou had told me to be strong and never show weakness to anyone except her—saying that I could only rely on _her_ for safety and comfort. But without her around, I only had myself. And that was just fine—as long as people knew that I wasn't someone to mess with. I had promised her after she died that I would never be weak or admit defeat or show anyone that I lacked strength. It was against who I was…

To be helpless was completely unbearable, unnatural, and humiliating. Call me conceited or whatever, but a while ago, I figured that I developed something called an "immortality complex" where I believe that I would always have the advantage and never die. Sure, I might have been really arrogant to think in that manner, but I couldn't doubt that part of my consciousness was in fact stuck in that state of mind—especially since the complex proved true more often than not. It was probably because of my over-confidence that the universe loved to toy with me as much as it did—it was trying to test how much it would take until I finally broke.

The only real time that I experienced true fear was when it came to being submerged in water. That one time when I was a kid and those horrible boys tried to drown me was the only moment in my life where Kajou almost got there too late and my dark ring only made things worse. Water was the substance that defied my immortality complex and almost took my life. So whenever I was underneath it, I freaked out and recalled that awful memory…

As we sat in that cave, backed into a corner, Kajou wasn't there, the dark ring was gone, and my powers were once again sealed. Usually what I lacked in physical strength (and boy did I lack), I made up for in special abilities. And without those, I had absolutely nothing to protect myself. I hated being the damsel—I mean…_I_ saved the damsels, _and_ everyone else! It was I who rescued other people and got myself out of serious situations. _I don't rely on people to save me—I don't do helpless!_

When you're Akimoto Tsubaki, the worst thing you could possibly be is weak and defenseless. There were creatures out there that were hell-bent on killing me, or worse, make me one of them. In the worst case scenario, I'd end up losing the life I thought was just starting or I'd be consumed in eternal darkness—eternally wishing for a death that would never come. Now, I couldn't stop them from coming, I couldn't call forth light or any of the elements. Those creatures were close enough before, but now, I was free game.

My body started to shake feverishly as fear overwhelmed me. _I'm not immortal at all! Genrou was probably right about me finding another means to protect myself. _Where was my surge of confidence? Being powerless and vulnerable had brought me closer to death and I wasn't even hurt yet.

_I'm sorry Kajou…_

Fear is a horrible feeling. My confidence in my powers—my strength—has kept me safe all my life in the form of multiple, indestructible, metaphorical shells that protected the fragile being I truly was.

I didn't expect it when Chichiri's arm unexpectedly wrapped around my shoulders, causing me to instantly tense up with his touch. "Everything will be okay, ya know? I'll keep you safe, and I'm sure that if Genrou were here, he'd do the same thing, ya know? So don't worry!" _But! I don't need you to keep me safe...I shouldn't need anyone..._ He flashed me a cheery smile, and with that mask, the atmosphere could have easily lightened up. But…

_It doesn't feel right having to depend on someone other than Kajou._

"I can imagine how weird it feels to become the one who has to depend on others, ya know? But you have to realize that sometimes it's necessary and accepting it is just fine, ya know? There are those out there who care about you and want to keep you safe." Avoiding his gaze, I couldn't quite believe what he had said. _No one's willing to put their lives on the line for mine—there would be no benefit to it…not for them. _That was why I never trusted my life in the hands of someone else…there was just no guarantee that they'd come through to me. I had to be strong since others couldn't do it for me. And I never blamed them or expected them to—it wouldn't have been fair to hate people for wanting to protect themselves instead of me. Most people do want to stay alive after all. That's just the way things are.

Bringing me closer to him, he gave my shoulder a slight squeeze as a means of comfort. "You know, it's okay to be scared."

Giving an unconvincing scoff, I told him, "I'm not scared…Once I get my powers back," My fists clenched. "I'm going to go medieval on those shadow bastards." Confident words. _So why can't I stop shaking? Even if I am afraid, I'll never admit it._

When he found that I wouldn't say anymore, he suggested something. "Hey, why don't you sing for me? Back at that lake when you sang, I knew you had real talent, ya know?" His sudden recommendation threw my head for a loop, causing me to look at him skeptically. "C'mon! It'll make you feel better, ya know?"

Cocking my eyebrow up, I looked at him in disbelief for proposing something like that in such a serious moment. "I don't really want to…"

Rocking me back and forth, he urged me on playfully. "C'mon! We have nothing else to pass the time with, ya know?"

Turning away, I couldn't help but grin, thus raising his hope up. But then my expression turned smug, "Sorry dude, but no free concerts." Then I proceeded to pretend as if I were disappointed in him. "Taking advantage of the situation like that. How sneaky for someone who is supposed to be a monk~"

His head dropped in shame with a small sheepish smile I noticed on his lips. "You think I was trying to be sneaky? That really wasn't my intentions, ya know?" A chuckle escaped from me, even in our situation there were still ways of me appearing to be stronger than I was. And Chichiri made that easy sometimes. In fact, I felt better with him around—even more so while knowing that he was doing his best to cheer me up. It made traveling through the fact that we were sitting ducks a little easier on me. Although not so much easier as to totally distract me from the reality of _we were freakin'. Sitting. Ducks. _

Just as my fear was starting to calm down, the sound of rustling rocks and dirt could be heard from in back of us. The two of us turned around in alarm to discover that something was trying to dig its way through. It was probably those Hellhound things from before! _How did they find us? Both of us talked as quietly as possible! Unless they knew where we were the whole time. _After all, all they had to do was avoid the sacred staff's abilities. So of course they went around. And now they were trying to dig their way through.

Dammit.

With those dogs focusing on us from behind, their buddies must have gotten the hint since they were starting to ram their heads into the opening with the staff there. If they managed to knock the staff over, we were toast. Chichiri tried to hold his staff up, but both he and I were distracted by the cracks that were forming under is. Not a second later, the two of us fell straight through the ground. Landing straight on my butt (as I always seem to do when I freefell), Chichiri however, landed nimbly on his feet, cloak and staff in hand. It looked like we ended up in a huge cave of similarly glowing rocks from before. There was no time to marvel in the beauty of it since the Hellhounds decided to make their hasty appearances.

Backed up against a wall, Chichiri placed himself a few feet in front of me to fend them off. From all sides, both Heartless and Hellhounds charged at him—claws extended and fangs bared. It didn't take long for them to recover from the staff's swings. A few times, the dogs managed to bite down on the weapon, but gave up when the holy power was too much. The only means of defense/offense the monk had was his staff that was enchanted with sacred abilities. But like he said before, he wouldn't be able to hold them off for very long, much less defeat them.

Why was he doing that? Things shouldn't have been that way. It shouldn't have been me being the one protected!

With one hand, he proceeded with using his staff to defend himself. But why only one hand? He'd never be able to keep them away unless he put all of his force into it! And you could tell he was struggling, with how his body jolted whenever one of the beasts impacted his weapon and repelled off. With his free hand, Chichiri brought it up to his chest and formed some sort of sign. _What's he doing? _

Glancing back at me for only a moment, he gave me a reassuring smile. "I'm gonna get us out of this, so just sit tight!"

What? "But...how? We can't use our magic!"

He turned his attention back to our enemies. "There is _always_ a way out of a spell, ya know? It's just that sometimes, you have to be a bit more resourceful and creative in order to figure out what it is. Plus..." Then he paused for dramatic effect, leaving me hanging in suspense. _Plus?_ "Plus, magic is part of who we are. Nothing and no one can really take it away. If we stay in the mindset that we can't do anything about it, we're only giving into what they want, ya know?"

Even through all he was doing, the monk stood firm and didn't allow what was happening to ruin his concentration. Chichiri...even though his powers were sealed, as well as mine, was actually trying to break whatever was on us. I hadn't even thought of trying that—believing that with the access to our magic blocked, it was a lost cause. He...really was more advanced than me. And he was better at staying calm in these types of situations. I may have looked tough on the outside but...what good was that if I couldn't handle situations like this?

_Stop it Aki! This is no time to be feeling self-pity! _I heard another me telling myself in my mind. _Chichiri isn't alone in this! He's counting on you too! _

A sudden rush of memories began to play through my brain, but they were so clear and vivid…like a movie…The events of my life not only since beginning this journey, but also of my experiences as a kid, it was imperative that I never backed out, that I never showed a hint of fear. But...I had felt fear, even if I didn't show it, I still had human emotions. Even so, I had fought through different levels of fear, and I made it through them. As far as I was concerned this was just another test.

Another test...

That's right!

_You are still Akimoto Tsubaki! Are you really going to let some shadow creatures and some maze ruin the image you have built for yourself over the years?_

_Hell no. _

Something finally snapped in my brain.

_What was I thinking?_

My powers, if nothing else, was truly the one thing that I was both proud and confident in. I could always count on them and they made me that much more confident about the things I was able to do. Those memories reminded me of how even when things seemed rough, I showed my enemies no fear and no mercy. And even before my powers were awakened, there was no doubt that I had the strength to get through anything. I may have been insecure when it came to relationships with other people and may even have some trust issues, but one thing was certain:

_I Am. Not. Weak._

Aside from the fact that the universe enjoyed playing with me too much to allow my demise to be so quick and easy, I refused to accept that after everything I had been through, something as personal and highly developed as my powers could just be taken away. They were mine to command and no two-bit seal was strong enough to take what was rightfully mine. Kajou may have been lost to me, and the disappearance of the dark ring was a complete mystery, but my powers belonged to me and there was no way in Hell that something as evolved as them could be tamed by anyone else but me.

As I stood there watching Chichiri dissect through every nook and cranny of this spell on us, his fatigue was beginning to show.

Closing my eyes, I concentrated real hard to find the core of my energy. _Wind…you're supposed to be _my_ element—_my_ greatest ally against all those who oppose me. You're not allowed to leave me. You belong to me and I demand that you do what I say—only I can command you._

Taiitsukun's words from when my journey began rang through my head.

_**"Foolish girl! One of the basic rules of magic is that you have to control it, don't let it control you. If you want something to happen, don't hesitate! There should be no question as to what comes out of that wand. You should never be surprised. Know what you want, then make it happen."**_

It didn't take much more thinking for me to make up my mind. Without another thought, I dashed in front of Chichiri just as another wave of Hellhounds and Heartless were about to charge. He was hard at work trying to break the seal, I couldn't allow him to get hit any more.

"A-Aki—" _'I still need a few more moments!' _He telepathically told me.

I nodded back at him, then faced forward. "I'd just like to point something out to you guys…I'm not helpless…" Bringing my hands to my heart and closing my eyes, I searched for the epicenter of my power. "…and I'm not a damsel…So…" According to their auras, they leaped towards me with their teeth and claws aimed at my person.

Just then, my whole body pulsated strongly only once, followed by a quick, blinding red flash. The burning effect of the seal centered on my forehead literally peeled off, relieving me of the uncomfortable sensation as the actual, tiny seal itself proceeded to float directly in front of my line of sight. And as if someone snapped their fingers as to switch off a light, the pesky little thing disappeared without a trace.

_He...he did it! Chichiri broke the seal! _A rush of adrenaline suddenly coursed through my being—I was finally beginning to feel empowered, feeling similarly to the way I felt when I first awakened my powers and how I felt in every new stage in my magical development. It was a pleasant sensation that flowed through my veins—literally. The silver lines on my body brightened gradually until their illumination was so brilliant that it was almost blinding. Even my aura—which was the same silver color as the veins on me—had so much of an energetic boost that it started to manifest into plain view, for everyone to see.

Chichiri then shouted out. "Aki, if you're going to do something, do it now!"

With a sudden burst of energy, I stretched my arms out wide, and then yelled, "Back off! _Gigano Saisu!_" Swiftly bringing my arms towards each other and crossing them like scissors, a larger, orange-tinted version of the Wind-blast crescent-shaped attack shot out and attacked the monsters head-on, knocking them all clear across the cave and into the wall of the other side. I didn't give them a chance to recover since another spell came to mind. _"Wind that blows across eternity, gather in my hands and become my strength!" Like I know it always will be…_Emulating a cross-bow, a powerful collection of Wind gathered around my arm and manifested as a single arrow, the tip followed the contour of my arm. Finishing the spell, I yelled, _"Bram Gush!" _Releasing the arrow, it flew straight towards the already wounded creatures with incredible speed. The moment it reached them, it burst open on contact, shredding all of them to pieces.

Panting vigorously, my body sank to the ground on my knees. The silver veins on my body dimmed back to their original glow—a smile of relief wiped across my face. _Thank God it's over!  
><em>

Chichiri appeared from behind, and placed a hand on my shoulder (somehow, his mask was already back on his face. Sneaky one, isn't he?). "You did good Aki."

Talking through short bursts of breath, I told him, "Yeah, well...you did better." Then, with a slight blush on my cheeks, I said in almost a whisper, "Thank you for being my rock Chichiri..." Of course, with that mask, he couldn't help but look cheerful from what I told him. But I knew, almost for a fact, that Chichiri's real lips were smiling as well. Taking a deep breath in, I let it out in exasperation. Then I shook off the tender moment and ascended from my spot on the ground, dusting myself off. "So, are we finally ready to leave this Hell-hole?"

Nodding, he returned with a separate question. "Do you think that Genrou's still up there? I mean, there's always the chance that he went on ahead, ya know?"

Looking upwards, I tried to focus on our bandit friend. Then I gave a confident answer. "Yeah, he's still up there…" I could feel his presence—the mysterious bond we shared still allowed me to find him even though we were in some maze-formulated sub-space. He was worried and anxious about us, not to mention exhausted from trying to dig his way down to us (but never making any progress). A part of me couldn't help but feel real warm on the inside knowing that he was such a dedicated friend to work tirelessly to get us back.

Chichiri's smile never faltered. "I think that he's up there too, ya know?" I really appreciated the comfort that he gave me back in the cave—even if I didn't accept it for the majority of the time. He really was a kind person and a really great friend. If I had a big brother, would he be just like Chichiri? Was that what it was like to have an older male sibling? Well that was how he was starting to look to me…like an older brother who actually wanted to look out for me and guide me in the right direction. Kajou would have scolded me against feeling that way, but I couldn't help it. I knew that I still couldn't completely trust him—forming that kind of bond too quickly would end up disastrous in the end. But just like I did in the past, I fooled my brain into thinking that this was a genuine friendship that would last. There were still some mysteries surrounding him, but I respected them since he respected me so much. After all, everyone has their secrets and things that they aren't proud of. _Hell, I know that I do._

"Hey Aki? Do you mind keeping the whole issue with the mask a secret? It's just that—"

Holding my hand up to him, I interrupted his sentence. "No need to explain yourself, I understand. And I'll gladly keep it a secret. But enough of that," looking around, I added, "I'm ready to get out of here." Taking a deep breath in, I shouted, "Hey maze! We passed your damn test! So release us already!"

"Umm…Aki? I don't think that will—" A portal suddenly appeared above us, showing the night sky of the maze that we were surprisingly beginning to miss. Giving him an "I told ya so" look, Chichiri scratched the side of his cheek. "Well I'll be damned, ya know?" In the blink of an eye, we were standing in the field where the giant glowing red circle was—the one that took us down to that deathly underground world.

The seal instantly broke with our release, the tingle from the sign on our foreheads fading away. Reaching up to touch the spot, I was delighted to know that there was no static shock repelling me away.

"Chichiri! Aki!" Genrou's apprehensive voice came up from behind us, causing us to instinctively turn around and face him. Running up to us, I thought that he was going to give us a warm welcome back with open arms. It wasn't a complete shock to me when he decided to roar at us instead. "Where the hell were you two? Do you have any idea how worried I was? I thought you two were dead or—or worse!"

Chichiri held up his hands in defense. "We apologize, ya know? It's not like we had a choice though."

Chuckling assuredly, I told him, "You should've known better than to be worried about us. Besides, you should have more faith in my fantastical magical powers."

"Will you get serious about this?" Apparently my little remark didn't compel him to lighten up. "I know how you were feelin' when you were away. You were scared, I don't know why, but ya were." He growled. "I might not have the whole story, but if _you_ were afraid, then I know that somethin' real bad musta happened to make ya feel _that_ horrible. What _happened_?" _He really sounds like was worried about me…_I shook my head in disbelief. _But that's not possible…_Either way, I couldn't tell him about my moment of weakness. Sure the bond allowed him to feel what I felt, but as long as he was in the dark I didn't have to mention my disgraceful vulnerability.

Chichiri decided to answer instead. "It wasn't anything she couldn't handle, ya know?" Flashing him a smile, I sent a message to him, and I wasn't sure if he read it or not. _Thank you._

Smirking mischievously I said, "You know, it's not really like you to care so much Genrou. What's with the sudden change of heart?" When his face went a slight red instead of an answer, my face softened into a warm smile. "Whatever. But really, I'm fine. Oh, and one more thing," Returning him the favor from earlier, I flicked his forehead in a similar force as his.

Grabbing his head, he shouted out, "Hey! What the hell?"

"You were wrong before."

"About what?"

"My powers are completely reliable and it's not necessary for me to learn other means of defending myself. The elements are on my side and they won't let me down." Smiling confidently, I held my wand up. "I'll keep using magic 'til my heart's content. After all, it is my birthright." In a flash of light, my wand broke up into an uncountable amount of tiny silver fragments. Circling my body a few times, each one of them managed to make their way back into my body. _It was good seeing you again old friend. Thank you. _Guessing that Genrou was about to give a rebuttal, I finished by telling him, "However, I will consider taking your advice about broadening my defensive and offensive horizons." I summoned the kunai that Hotohori gave me. "This was given to me so that I could better protect myself. I guess it would be rude to make it go to waste, right?" _I'm up for anything as long as it will make me even stronger._

_So that I can never be afraid like that again._

_So that I can always defeat my enemies._

_So that I can get my wish._

So that I can be the protector…and not the protected.

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><p>After everything was said and done, we all agreed that that day had been both physically and emotionally draining, so we all went to sleep around yet another campfire. Only…I had pretended to go to sleep. When I was sure that they were out, I sneaked off and went behind some bushes. Summoning Water from the moisture in the air, I froze a puddle of it and created a makeshift mirror.<p>

Pulling my tube top down past my bra, I revealed once again the deep, drastic scar that was placed between my breasts.

_Things that I'm not proud of…huh?_

I wished that I had the ability to erase or even change the past—or even better, I wished that I could forget everything that happened almost eight years ago. Those things… should have never…_never_ happened. That was when I started to truly hate the universe. Sure, life was bad for me before those events unfolded, but after Kajou went and killed herself…everything that was good that was left in the world shattered into a million tiny pieces that could never be put back together. My whole world had changed—it completely crumbled. Life got painfully worse, and I'd always remember my pain because of that scar that would always be on my chest. When the doctors stitched it up, they said that it was too deep to heal completely and that a scar would always be there.

_I'll never be that weak again…and I'll never fall that deep into despair. I have to stay strong, just like Kajou told me to do._

_I won't be responsible for the world falling into darkness._

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><p><strong>Yes, before anyone asks, I did base my Heartless on the really basic ones that you fight in the beginner levels of Kingdom Hearts. The other "Shadow" creatures in this story are mine though and weren't based on something that already exists.<strong>

**Well, that's the end of that chapter! How did u like it? PLEASE REVIEW! And don't forget to vote on the poll on my profile, I really want to kno ur opinions and/or predictions!**

**Well, until next time! C ya! ^_^**

**P.S Sorry if updates take a few weeks!**


	29. The Show of The Century Part 1

**Hey everyone! I'm sooooooo sorry about how long it's taking nowadays to get chapters out. School is really getting hectic now and I'm finding less and less time to work on this (but I still manage to make time for u guys ^_^)**

**Well…let's see…I'm minoring in Creative Writing now and I hope that will be a great benefit to my writing ability. I'm that much closer from being a successful novelist! =D**

**Thank you all sooooooo much for your reviews last chapter as well as to everyone who's reading. You all make me so happy and inspired. Even if updates take long, I won't abandon this story. So just please be patient with me ^^"**

**I wish you all a Happy November and I hope that you all had a great Halloween filled with lots of candy. The holidays are comin' up (I'm counting Thanksgiving in there too) and hope that you all will make wonderful new memories for the season. **

**Well, enough about that—cuz I could honestly keep talking forever—here's chapter 29!**

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><p><em><strong>~*Part 1*~<strong>_

"Ya gotta do a little better than that if ya wanna get me!"

I growled in frustration. "Really? 'Cause you know if I put my full effort into it, I might end up stabbing you." For about a week or so after Chichiri and I escaped the mysterious place that sealed our magic-using abilities, Genrou had been teaching me to use the kunai Hotohori gave me so that I could actually have some skill with it should I ever need to use it. Just as luck would have it, the bandit turned out to be pretty savvy when it came to weapon wielding. After he gave me that whole lecture about finding other means of protecting myself, he better have had some skill to back it up, otherwise he'd be a hypocrite (and then would be punished by the Hammer of Justice (yes, that's what I named it. Got a problem with it? Take it with the hammer)).

Unlike with my natural ability to use magic (even when I was training as a Witchling, it seemed to come naturally to me (well, except for Fire at the time)), my skills with weapons and close combat fighting were pretty much nonexistent. Sure, I was able to get in a few good hits with the _Tornado_ _Fist_ in the past, but when you boil down to it, that was still considered magic usage. Even with that, my energy drained too quickly from me that following the attack up with something effort required more effort than it should have. At least with using the kunai, I wouldn't be using two kinds of energy at once—I'd just have to rely on my physical abilities and not worry about wasting my valuable magic.

Of course the problem still remains that I suck at attacks that were just physical. In the way that Genrou was teaching me, using the kunai might as well have been like practicing some kind of martial art. That wasn't particularly my forte since my upper-hand in battle relied on me keeping a well-enough distance between me and my enemies. If they managed to get close to me, I had to either rely on the _Tornado __Fist_—which Taiitsukun told me not to use except as a last resort—or on really quick thinking and basic manipulation of the elements without having the proper time to actually cast anything. Whichever way you sliced it, I was better off attacking from a distance. This was particularly why the old woman told Nuriko, Tamahome, and Hotohori to fight in the front-lines during a battle so that I could prepare and execute a spell properly. The bottom line was that I needed a considerable amount of work if I ever hoped to protect myself when (not "if" 'cause I know it's coming sooner or later) the situation called for it.

He chuckled, bearing his fangs, avoiding yet another one of my swings. "Yeah…fer some reason, I don't think that that will be much of an issue." As much as I didn't want to admit it, he had me outmatched. I jumped and stumbled along in my attempts to get a blow on him (not a real one mind you. We weren't trying to kill each other…this time). Assuming from his swift movements and ability to predict my every move, I was clearly a novice…and it was embarrassing. Here was the girl who could dish out badass spells, but couldn't wield a weapon well enough to even tap an opponent with it. Talk about a stab to the ego.

For our practices, Chichiri had been allowing Genrou to borrow his staff so that he would have something to protect himself with just in case I actually managed to scratch him. The guy wasn't dumb (well…not when it came to this anyway) and he knew the proper safety precautions that went with this kind of training. Not only that, but he said that we'd be killing two birds with one stone if I managed to learn to defend myself against someone who had a longer weapon than mine.

Gripping on tight to the handle, I launch my arm out straight for his chest, thinking that I finally had him pinned. Without any effort, he shifted to the side and swing the bottom half of the golden staff at my legs. In a sudden sweep, my feet involuntarily lifted off the ground, falling me straight on my back.

"Dammit…" Wincing from the pain, I decided to just lie there and look at the dark, velvety "night" sky—not a star could be seen. They wouldn't have been real stars anyway—after all, we were still stuck in that stupid maze. It just looked like I was staring up at an endless, dark, and vast nothingness. Somehow, it was quite soothing.

Crouching down and looking straight at me with his sharp yet mischievous amber eyes, my flame-haired companion blocked my vision of the mazes compelling ceiling. "How many times do I hafta say it? Ya gotta make more precise attacks especially with such a puny weapon like that. Missin' with that weapon could be fatal."

Sighing, I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah…" Every time we sparred, he always managed to take me out so easily. Don't get me wrong, I had improved considerably since the first day of this training, but I still wasn't good enough to start bragging about it. Not even close. The moment I actually manage to catch him and make him admit it, _then_ there will be something to smile about.

Never wiping the smug smile off of his face, he said, "Yup. Ya definitely have a long way ta go before ya go out an' try ta use that weapon o' yers." Trailing my eyes to the side, I thought bitterly, _don__'__t __you __think __I __know __that? __It__'__s __not __necessary __to __say __that __out __loud __you __moron._

My thoughts were immediately broken when a sudden surge of pain erupted from my arm. It only lasted for a minute and it wasn't anything serious, but that didn't stop the pain from being any less unpleasant. Yelling out in discomfort, my upper body immediately shot up and held my arm. "Owww!" Facing Genrou, a look of mild fury appeared on my featured. "Why the hell did you go and squeeze my arm like that you jerk? You know how sore I am!"

Grinning like a Cheshire cat, he moved back a few inches and rested his arms behind his head. "I know—It's just sorta funny how unbelievably dainty you are. I never woulda guessed if it weren't for all of this trainin' we've been doin'." I cringed at the word "dainty". It just seemed like such a wimpy and girly adjective to use—and those two characteristics were not on my resume. My various bruises and areas of soreness (that were caused quite easily) could make it seem like I was fragile…okay. But did he really have to say "dainty"?

Scowling at him, I maintained my tough exterior. "I _am __not_ dainty." Translation: keep your mouth shut and observations to yourself. I didn't need the rest of the world knowing something like that about me. With my irritation levels rising steadily, the wind around us started to pick up and swirl zealously—knocking Chichiri, who was sitting under a nearby tree, completely over.

"Whoa! You need to calm down Aki," He told me as he sat back up. "Genrou is trust trying to help you out, ya know? Besides, what he says is all in good fun, ya know?" _Sticking __that __staff __up __his __ass __would __be __all __in __good __fun __as __well._

"Plus," Genrou stood up and held his hand down to me to assist my getting up. "Yer not supposed ta be usin' magic durin' our sessions, remember?" Looking away, I initially refused to allow him to help me up. "C'mon don't be stubborn." Sighing again, I put my hand in his and he pulled my weight up from the ground. The two of us walked over to yet another one of our famous campfires we had made whenever we stopped to rest.

The moment we had first stepped into the maze seemed as if it were so long ago—years even. In reality, I knew it had only been about three weeks. But for a place like this, staying for just two days had been _too_ long. Now I'm sure that the bonding time between the three of us was essential and all, but I couldn't quite see how we couldn't become friendlier with each other on the outside—you know, anywhere else other than that damn maze.

This place was in no way a luxury or a vacation. As if the first two trials weren't bad enough, the universe felt the initiative to throw a bunch of other kinds of crap at us. Aside from the various creatures that charged in ready to kill us, the onslaught of trials flung at us never failed to irritate me further. One trial we had to overcome was having our voices taken away, not being able to communicate with each other verbally. Of course, this was extremely troublesome especially when you have to go up against some monsters who didn't give a damn whether we could talk or not. Luckily, we could "speak" to each other via Chichiri's telepathy, so the trial didn't prove to be all the bad. The next one we endured was being turned into little kids allowing our powers to naturally be diminished a bit. Other than being _extremely_ annoying (however, seeing Chichiri and Genrou as little boys was rather adorable), we did our best and passed. The last thing we just got finished with a few days before consisted of fighting off enemies without being able to touch the ground—otherwise, we'd be barbequed from an intense electric shock charged through the ground. How unpleasant as that was, if I didn't have the ability to levitate, it would have been even worse. After a while, you start to forget that the maze tries to kill you and focus on the sheer fact that it's just trying to trip you up more than anything else. This place was starting to remind me more and more of high school: it may seem scary at first with the drama, potential bullies and other teenage worries, as well as piles homework, but when it drags on too long, those things become so stale and tedious that you just want it to be over already.

_I swear, if we don't find that flower soon, I'm going to use the strongest spell in my arsenal and completely nuke the place. And then…I'll torch the ashes until there's nothing left._

Considering this whole trek had been lasting for so long, I started to get worried that Miaka had already come back from our world and is back at the palace, wondering where I was at. I was supposed to be the one watching out for her. And where was I? Trapped in some stupid, annoyingly homicidal maze. Before I knew it, I found myself asking Suzaku to give me a sign as to when Miaka would return—she was his priestess after all. At that point, all I could do was just hope that the phoenix heard me as I wandered somewhat aimlessly through the maze.

Looking down at the knife-like weapon decorated with the countries' metallic colors of red and gold, thoughts of how much I had improved with Hotohori's gift flew through my mind. Sure, if I were to go up against someone who was stupid and/or perhaps didn't have a weapon as well, I could probably win. But I had to be realistic: In a fight against an enemy who was a weapon expert and had been training for years, I'd surely get my ass handed back to me (it was hypothetical situations like that that make me thankful that I have awesome magical powers). Should my powers actually be limited again (as if I'd allow that to happen), forcing me to only use the kunai as a means of defense, then I had to come up with some sort of advantage or edge over my enemies. The question is…what?

Off to the side, I could hear Genrou snickering to himself. Puffing my cheeks in irritation, I turned to him and asked, "What's so darn funny?"

"What else? I've been completely ownin' you ever since ya asked me to help ya with yer weapon usin'!" Putting no effort into hiding his amusement, he turned to me with a wide smile. "Don't get me wrong, when ya use yer powers, you and I are pretty much evenly matched—" Almost immediately, I gave him a skeptical look regarding his past statement. Chuckling, he waved his hand around. "Okay, _maybe_ you could beat me if ya were to go and use yer most powerful spells. But the point is, anyone who comes along and see's ya usin' that kunai-thing o' yers will automatically know that yer an amateur." He crossed his arms with a triumphant smile as he closed his eyes—probably trying to block out the dirty look I was shooting at him. "Just promise me that ya won't go an' switch yer sorceress profession too soon, 'kay?"

Not even realizing that my face was flushed, I lashed out at him. "Will you just give it a rest already? Besides, I'm only learning to use this thing for emergencies. And…and…" I tried to come up with a good enough excuse for my lack of weapon abilities. "I'm sure I'd be a lot better if all this hair wasn't in my face!" It wasn't up until that sentence that I realized just how long my hair had become. My bangs had managed to grow past my nose, making it so that my vision was limited to the skinny parts in between locks. My hair in the back—which, just a few weeks earlier, used to be about three inches of my shoulder—was now not only resting _on_ my shoulder, but was long enough to curl up at the ends due to the contour of my shoulders. My hair naturally grew fast, but not _that_ fast. I suppose that I didn't notice sooner because of all the hectic things that were going on.

It still shouldn't have been possible.

"How could my hair be this long already?" Reaching for the sleek locks of dark brown hair—that were much more accessible to me than before—I faced my companions. "We were only here for a few weeks!" Both Genrou and Chichiri had longish hair already, not to mention that their hair probably grew at a slower rate than hers, so any accelerated growth that was happening must not have been that noticeable on them.

Pondering on my observation, Chichiri answered, "Now that you mention it…that is quite peculiar, ya know? Perhaps..."

"Perhaps what?"

"Perhaps time is going by faster than we thought, ya know?" Upon hearing that, I didn't exactly need him to explain further since it was painfully obvious regarding the meaning of his words. But he continued anyway. "Even though only a few weeks had seemingly gone by to us, the world on the outside is progressing faster, and our bodies are aging along with it, ya know?" _Oh __gosh,_I groaned. If that were the case, then it was even more likely that Miaka had already come back. _Who __knows __how __much __time __has __gone __by __already?_

Seeing as how I could barely see past my bangs, I figured that I should at least tackle one problem at a time (how I was able to successfully walk ten yards this whole time without walking into a tree or off a cliff was beyond me). Positioning the kunai in my hands in a proper way, I planned on shearing a few inches off of my bangs at a manageable amount. Ordinarily, I preferred long bangs since they seemed to be a barrier between me and the rest of the world, but since my vision was being limited in such a way to where it was a hazard, they had to be shortened.

Bringing the sharp edge closer to my face, I paused, realizing that without a mirror, I'd no doubt cut my hair unevenly and it would look as if I had gotten in a fight with a pair of scissors and lost (I was no hairstylist). Not only that…but I'd never cut my hair with anything that resembled a knife before.

With a grimace on my face (and as stupid as it sounds), the kunai shook in my hands as ideas shot around in my mind as to how I was supposed to go about this feat.

It didn't take long for Genrou to react to my obvious distress. Sighing, he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly and stood up and walked over to my spot, snatching the kunai out of my hands without even asking. "H-Hey!" I complained.

"Yer gonna end up slicin' yer whole face up if ya do it that way. Just let me handle it." _Huh?_Without another word exchanged between us, he carefully took strands of my bangs and started to cut them off—stray threads and soon skinny groups of hair fell gracefully into my lap as he persisted further. As my vision was becoming clearer, I couldn't ignore how much my face was burning—my eyes couldn't help but stare straight at the ground. My fists were clenching onto my pants, cooperating along with the awkwardness of the whole situation. Never before did I think that this guy and I would become so comfortable around each other that I'd allow him to do something like this for me. When I had first met Genrou, I never would have allowed him to even get near me, much less with a sharpened object. Now I knew for a fact that he wouldn't hurt me intentionally (at least I was mostly sure).

"Ya know…" when he started to speak, my eyes shyly trailed back up towards him. Not to my surprise, his face also had a slight pinkish tint to it. "I had to take care of my hair a while back as well, so I guess it makes sense that yers would catch back up with ya as well." His bangs had also fallen in front of his eyes slightly, but not in such an extent to where his vision was limited. The rest of his flaming top was still unruly in a neat sort of way—complimenting the part of longer hair in the back that fell a couple inches past his neck. Looking over at Chichiri, his light blue bangs were outrageously long, but they defied gravity, so it was okay. His ponytail in the back was also pretty long, so it would make sense that his hair wouldn't have been a problem.

Once my bangs had been cut to their preferred length, it was sort of a relief to have my peripheral vision (as well as my initial vision) to be accessible once more (again, I couldn't believe how long it took for me to realize that my hair length had gotten _that_ out of control).

"Umm…the rest of yer hair was shorter before," Said Genrou in a rather uneasy tone, "do ya want it back to…uh…how it was?" Perking up a bit, he added, "It actually looks pretty nice this way!" Thinking about it, I recalled the reason as to why I even had short hair to begin with. When I was younger, I always kept my hair long. It wasn't until Kajou's death eight years prior that I decided to cut it short—and keep it that way—in mourning. Ever since then, I never allowed my hair to grow any longer. Initially, I liked having long hair—I even preferred it that way over having it short. Kajou's brilliant orange hair was always so perfect and luscious as it flowed perfectly to her sides and in the back. Even though I couldn't possibly match up to her flawlessness, I wanted to be just like her. She even said that she loved my hair the way it was—sort of made me curious as to what she would say to how I decided to wear my hair after she passed. What if she knew that her death still affected me so much to this day?

With Genrou's question still up in the air, I had finally decided that this would probably be a good time to allow my hair to start growing out again. "Nah, it's okay—just leave it the way it is. Thank you." Kajou would still always be on my thoughts, so it didn't really matter what my hairstyle was.

Right as he finished, he handed me back the kunai just for me to summon it away once more. Guessing that neither of us wanted to discuss what had just happened, I focused back on the issue at hand. "Okay, we've been in this maze for honestly who knows how long, so I say that we should just wrap this whole thing up and find that flower already." _As __if __we __weren't __trying __already, __but __so __far, __there __hasn'__t __been __any __clue __as __to __whether __we__'__re __any __closer __to __it __than __when __we __first __started._

With a troubled look on his face, the blue-haired monk replied, "Unfortunately, the maze probably doesn't care whether or not we're on a schedule, ya know? Until it deems us worthy of the Sacred Blood Lily, it will keep us as long as it sees fit, ya know?" I grimaced. _You __know, __I__'__m _really _starting __to __wish __that __I __didn__'__t __get __caught __up __in __all __this._

Holding up a threatening fist towards Chichiri, Genrou suddenly got fired up. "Look, monk, ya know way more about this place than either of us, so ya have to have some sorta idea as ta how ta get outta here. I need that cure…"

A drop of sweat sliding down the side of his face, Chichiri scratched his cheek. "I'm really sorry, ya know? But I told ya what I know and if you recall, I did sort of warn you that this maze was tricky and might last a while, ya know?"

Dropping his arm back to his side, the bandit fell back into his seat, seemingly defeated. "Great."

"Now that I think about it," Giving a heavy sigh, my head hung over, "he did tell us something like that before we walked in." But at the time, I honestly believed that the combined effort of the three of us would make the journey not last so long. In my mind, we should have been done a _long_ time ago. The time duration was honestly becoming ridiculous.

Just as my rationale was pointing me into the direction of the maze's ultimate destruction, a violent shaking from underneath started to rattle the earth, instantly putting the three of us on high alert. Extra effort had to be put in in order for me to even sit tight in my seat—standing up wasn't even an option. The whole world seemed to move back and forth in such a way that we were like some sort of rattle that a toddler was given after eating too much sugar. It was too hard to focus to even think of something that could stop this phenomenon from happening. All we could do was wait until it subsided.

When things started to calm down, I ended up having to open my eyes back up (I didn't even realize that I had closed them) to investigate what had happened. No trees had fallen over, the fire was still dancing, there wasn't even a crack in the ground—on another note, was it even possible for this place to have an earthquake? It just didn't seem likely with the maze's geographical features. Nonetheless, something was up, and we all just felt the beginning of it.

"What the hell was that?" Genrou shouted out in frustration.

Trying to get the shaking out of my system, I responded with, "I want to say that it was just a simple earthquake, but considering it's us, we would only be so lucky." Remembering that there was something more important, I asked, "Are you guys alright?"

Genrou nodded. "Sure—not exactly happy 'bout landin' on my face, but sure."

"Yeah, I'm okay…but," Chichiri pointed to the leafy wall of the maze to the side of us, about seven yards away, "how long has that path been there?"

"Path?" Following his finger, the remaining two of us discovered that a tunnel of some sort had been carved into the wall, going down to some unknown space. _Huh. __How __long _has _that __been __there? _Feeling a wave of curiosity overwhelm our little group, we all got up and peeked inside of the mysterious doorway. Squinting through the darkness, I was disappointed to find that the path only went about a few yards in, ending at yet another leafy wall—sort of reminding me of a mini cul-de-sac. "Well…this was anti-climactic," I said out loud.

"No kiddin'," the flame-haired bandit agreed. "If this is supposed ta be a trial o' some sort, then I don't get it."

Chichiri added his input into the conversation. "Hmm…maybe it's some kind of distraction?" It didn't take long for a sudden tremor from the earthquake before knocked us out of balance, sending us tumbling through the seemingly harmless hole in the wall.

Managing to get back on my feet, the texture of the new ground below immediately set up red flags in my mind. Unlike a few seconds ago with the grassy floor, it was made of some kind of rock. Hoping that my hypothesis was wrong, I scanned the area all around for signs of familiarity. I was almost horrified to find that I might have very well ended up back in that underground place from before that had sealed my powers. There was a dim-lighted torch perched up on a wall behind, helping me identify my recovering companions beside me with the help of its yellow and orange flames.

"Where the hell did we end up this time?" Genrou complained. Ignoring his question, I turned immediately to Chichiri to inspect his forehead, extending my arms out and bringing his head closer to my vision.

"A-Aki?" The monk yelped.

Sighing with relief, I was delighted to find that that glowing scarlet seal from before was not present on his head—probably meaning that it was absent from mine as well. Letting go of his head, a small, ignorant smile appeared on my face as relief swept through my system. _Thank __God__—__I __don__'__t __have __to __go __through __all __that __crap __again._

"O…kay…" With Genrou staring at me peculiarly by this point, he slowly turned his head away in an effort to make it seem that he was scanning as well. "So, what's up with this place?"

"Obviously, that path we saw had more to it than meets the eye, ya know?" _No __freakin__' __duh._

"We still have our powers, and yet we ended up back _here_ again." Falling back onto my bottom, I tried to figure stuff out. "I officially admit that I am stumped you guys." As that was said, a whole line of torches began to brillantly ignite on both sides of a long corridor, leading ultimately up to what was a…a…_what __the __hell?_

_A circus tent? _

There before us was a large—no, huge—tent painted in yellow and red interchangeable stripes that fell from its tip all the way to the bottom. The opening in front was where the drapes lifted up, inviting its spectators—more like victims—inside.

With my mind going in all different directions regarding why or how a circus tent could even be there, the lit up torches made an obvious path, revealing to us that the tent was our expected destination. No cracks, doors, or passageways really gave us a choice to head anywhere else.

No surprise to me, Genrou spoke up first. "Does anyone wanna tell me what the hell that jumbo thing is?"

Without thinking about it, I immediately shot at him. "It's called a tent, dodo brain."

Lashing out at me, he bared his fangs and made a scene. "I know it's a tent—I have eyes! I meant what's it doin' there and why it looks so funny. And don't call me a 'dodo brain'!"

Holding up my hands in defense, I tried to calm him down. "Relax. I apologize for calling you that—it was a reflex." See? I can be nice—I don't _have_ to argue.

To my amusement, he seemed taken aback with my apology. "Oh…well…uh…okay then."

Shaking my head to avoid from reveling in the moment any longer, I looked forward onto the path the maze had set for us. "Well I guess that we're supposed to go inside." Searching for conformation, I turned to Chichiri. "Should we?"

"We might have no choice, ya know?"

Genrou took a few steps forward. "Well, there's no point in waitin' around. Let's go!" A burning flame could practically be seen in his eyes, emulating his fired up determination. "I gotta feelin' that we're closer than ever to the Lily! I can practically taste it!" Before I could even blink, he broke out in a sprint towards the opening of the tent. Not too long later, Chichiri decided to join him.

_I __understand __being __excited __for __wanting __to __get __out __of __here, __but __I__'__m __not__ "__running__" __excited. _Instead of tiring myself out with running, I took a brisk walk to reach my companions. Every time I passed a pair of torches on both sides of the trail, I felt a peculiar sensation from behind me. Looking back at where I've walked so far, all I could see was pitch darkness, the starting point from where we fell could no longer be seen. It would seem that every time I passed the torches, some force would blow them out, signifying that there was no turning back. This truly was the point of no return.

Once inside, we found that there wasn't particularly anything to brag about. The inside of the tent simply looked like the inside of a _very_ large tent—except there was a really large ring in the middle, the same one you would expect from any kind of circus. But unlike a circus, there was no crowds, no applause, no performers, nothing. So why couldn't I shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen?

The glow from the last pair of torches on the outside finally went out—the cue causing the opening to the tent to immediately drop down, enclosing us on the inside.

On a reactive impulse, I casted a spell where the opening used to be, _"__Zakeruga!__" _From my palm emerged a straight beam of concentrated electricity, immediately blasting a particular target on the wall. Releasing the flow of energy, I ceased the spell, surprise inflicting me for two reasons. The first was that there wasn't anyone there to hit, at least not physically. Some sort of force or invisible hand must have allowed the drapes to fall back down (but you've got to admit that my reaction time was spot on. Am I right?). But the thing that really surprised me was the fact that my spell had absolutely no effect on the walls of the tent. It was almost as if the electricity was just absorbed by some type of barrier that was probably preventing us from attempting to escape.

"Well _someone_ is trying to keep us in here, ya know?" Chichiri observed.

"Who the hell cares about who's tryin' to keep us in? As long as the bastard shows 'imself it won't matter much 'cause we'll just kick their ass." Adrenaline practically emitting from his body, Genrou looked as if he were prepared for any kind of battle that would be thrown at him. That must have been his "I'm sick of this stupid maze so just hit me with everything you got all in one wave" face.

"Yes, that would be a _lovely_ thing to do," I said with a hint of a sarcastic tone, "But it would sort of help if said enemy would actually be here for their ass to kick." _Being __hasty __obviously __won__'__t __get __us __anywhere __in __this __place. __There__'__s __practically __no __point __since __the __maze __goes __at __whatever __pace __it __pleases. _Inspecting the bland circus layout, my suspicions started to rise even further. _I __can__'__t __help __but __wonder __what __kind __of __crap __we__'__re __in __for __next._

Grunting, the flame-haired bandit took a point position ahead of us and crossed his arms. "Well if that's the case, then why don't we just force 'em out?"

For a second, I pondered on his idea. "Hmm…interesting theory…" But for some reason, I didn't think that throwing a tantrum in whatever shape or form would make the universes' maze yield to us. If that were the case, then I would have been unleashing a barrage of _Dragon __Slaves _and other trѐs grandѐ spells without even another bat of the eyelash.

Out of nowhere, the kind of initial screeching feedback you would hear from a microphone that's volume was up too high. Bringing my hands up to my ears, I tried to block out the piercing sound. _Wait__…__a __microphone? __WTF?_

A loud, deep male voice rang out with the help of what seemed like surround-sound speakers. (_Again, __WTF?)_"Hurry, hurry, hurry! It's the greatest show of the century right, here, right now folks! The best spectacles from all the lands have gathered in one spot to put on the most entertaining showcase possible!"

The three of us got into defense position, backing up into a pod and putting our backs against each-others to make sure that we could see all around as we tried to locate the source of the voice. I may have been imagining things, but all around us, I could hear the roaring and excitement of a crowd that I knew wasn't there. But the sound was so loud and the excited applauses and anticipated shouts seemed so real, it was almost as if an actual show was going on.

Looking out the corner of my eye to my comrades, I asked, "Okay, so to confirm that I'm not crazy, you guys hear all those people too, right?"

They both nodded as Genrou spoke up first. "Yup, but I don't see nobody. Do ya think that we have to fight all of 'em—whoever they are?"

"No…something isn't right, ya know?" Chichiri's head trailed from left to right, trying to ratify something. "If there were people, then I should be able to see all of their aura's, ya know?"

"Oh yeah!" I thought out loud. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on finding the multiple shapes and colors of emitting energy that's shone off of every living thing like a full-body halo. But the monk was right, there was no one there.

Someone was messing with us.

The mysterious voice roared out once more, making me snap my eyes back open. "So sit tight folks 'cause the show is about to begin!"

In the blink of an eye, blinding lights turned on in the form of floating orbs at the top of the large tent. Their ominous objects were so distracting that we didn't even realize that someone had teleported us from the edge of the tent, to the very center of the ring.

"What the—" Just as our bandit friend was about to mildly spaz out in confusion, several clowns—yes, clowns, white make-up and poofy clothes wearing, big red nose and shoes sporting, colorful, dens-haired clowns—dropped from above, completely surrounding us. Before we could even think of a plan, the clowns closed in on us with creepy painted smiles on their faces. Knowing that we were pretty much sitting ducks in the little pod we were in, the three of us spread out to take care of our own areas.

Genrou was throwing kicks and punches all over the place, fending off the numerous enemies as if it were some kind of knock-out video game. Every other clown that tried to sneak up on him, he would spin around almost as if he planned their moves, flipping them to the side and over his head.

"These goofy punks weigh practically nothin'!" He yelled out as he worked through his brutal process multiple more times. "It's not even a fight!" You could clearly see that the high of being in a fight was really getting to him since he had a real apparent grin on his face from beating the crap out of those poor circus freaks. Even Chichiri seemed to be having no trouble with them. With every swing of his staff, a whole group of clowns went flying a good several yards the moment it made contact with their apparently light and frail bodies. He didn't even need to use magic to assist him with this issue.

And yet I didn't feel as if we were winning.

Observing the other two in their fight, I noticed that instead of the clowns they defeated staying down, it seemed like a multiple amount would appear out of the space above and onto the ground in front of us. The most peculiar thing being that the clowns that went down and potentially went unconscious seemed to have disappeared altogether. Now I know what you're thinking: perhaps they just got up and started fighting again? Nope. They would dissolve through the ground just as they were being replaced with a dozen others.

And how did I know all this? You would think that I'd be busy with my own onslaught of creepy carnies as well, right? Wrong!

They were completely leaving me out! _The __nerve __of __some __people!_

A wave of annoyance and fury flowed through my veins, made apparent by the silver lines branched all around my body glowing something fierce. Teeth gritting and face flushing, I clenched my fists at my sides and stood on my toes as I yelled out, "How dare you chumps ignore _me_! I'm a bigger threat than _they_ are!" Okay, I know that sounded a bit conceited, but that was the anger talking—I didn't mean it, I was just trying to bait them on. After losing to Genrou for so long with the kunai, I really needed the satisfaction of defeating someone. But seriously, if you're going to attack a group of fighters, you'd think that you'd attack someone who could dish out badass spells!

Settling back on the flat of my foot, I calmed down and crossed my arms in fake indifference as the others commences as if they had never heard me. _Fine __then!_

After a few seconds, I immediately mentally punched myself for how I had been acting. This was definitely no time to start acting like a brat (that wasn't exactly a road to travel down anyhow), I had been given an opportunity to take action from afar—which was my specialty. Usually enemies come charging at me, but these clowns were either both brainless and _complete_ morons, or no one clued them in about who their opponents were. Whichever way you slice it, they'd end up experiencing the consequence of underestimating me.

But there was a problem. With so many of those guys spawning around Chichiri and Genrou, I couldn't exactly cast a drastic spell targeted at them without hitting those two. And considering the ring was becoming more and more crowded, they wouldn't have been able to easily jump out of the way. So what could I do?

With the constant pile-on's of the clowns, it was starting to be difficult to throw a proper punch or kick, so Genrou was reduced to just throwing them off and into each other, causing a few successful domino effects. "This is fun an' all, but this is draggin' on way too long!" He grunted.

"Not only that," Chichiri jumped up in the air and spun with his staff sticking out, emulating a spinning top that was in a battle to knock down anything in its way. But just as the hydra in the legends—take some out and more come at you—this seemed to be getting nowhere fast. "but their numbers don't seem to be getting any smaller, ya know?" He must have been holding back on spells too in order to keep us safe. _At __the __rate __this __is __going __though__…_

What I didn't expect was to be dog-piled by a bunch of homicidal clowns that fell from the space above me, instantly knocking me to the ground with a thud (as if my concentration was bad enough at that moment). They weren't even grabbing at me or pulling anything, they were just adding themselves. _Well__…__in __a __way __I __sort __of __asked __for __it__…_

"Aki!"

"Oh no, Aki!" Both of them tore their eyes from their fights and focused on my trivial dilemma.

Trying not to focus on how they had fallen on me with my neck in an awkward position, I shouted out, "Don't worry about me! Just do what you have to do! I can handle it."

Struggling to get back up, I found that Genrou was right before when he said how light they were. However, when the riddle of "which is heavier, a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers" comes to mind, I realized that the situation was pretty similar. These guys could be as light as twigs, but if there were a trillion of them, the weight would start to add up. And with more and more clowns coming, it wouldn't be long until I'd be either crushed or suffocate.

Summoning Wind to me, a violent whirlwind manifested with the assistance of my energy. I sort of expected them to instantly fly away, but they were clinging enough to each other to prevent themselves from moving. I'd have to end up concentrating a bit more if I wanted to get anywhere. Creating a small sphere of concentrated Wind just in my area, spinning in all directions all around us at speeds beyond imaginable, I was forced to hold my breath to make sure that the lack of oxygen from the circling winds wouldn't make me pass out. With every sharp slash of wind that zipped through, another layer of clowns were instantly shaved off, progressively lightening the load on top of me. At the point where I thought my lungs would burst from the intense burning, I invested a whole bunch of force into my back and legs in order to throw the rest off with the assistance of the ferocious currents.

Leaning over with my hands on my knees, I released huge exhales and gulped in bucket-fulls of inhales as relief washed over my whole body. It didn't take long for me to become light-headed, making the world seem completely in balance through my eyes. _This __is __ridiculous! _Bringing my head up, my eyes widened from gazing upon the vast numbers of generic circus clowns that had initially started out as just a few. _They __could __just __be__coming __back __at __us __forever!_ Some of them were starting to eye me in a funny way inducing uneasiness at the pit of my stomach.

"Hey Aki!" Genrou yelled out at me through punches. He was starting to pant at this point showing that the enemy was starting to wear him down—he definitely didn't show it with the vigor in his actions though. "Comin' up with any idea's fer this situation?"

"Oh _yeah_," Even in a semi-serious situation, I managed to slather sarcasm onto my tone. "I've come up with a _brilliant_ idea ages ago. I'm just waiting it out until they _kill __us_!"

In a split second of peace, he gave me a blank look as he scratched his cheek. "So what I'm hearin' is that ya have a plan—"

"No I don't have a plan you idiot! If I did, we wouldn't still be in this mess!" I roared, fire practically spewing from my mouth.

"Hey!" Stomping his foot forward, he threatened me with a fist. "Don't'cha call me an idiot ya psycho woman!"

Chichiri intervened from afar as he fended off some more creeps. "C'mon guys, it's not the time for that, ya know?"

Ceasing the intense scare-down forming between my bandit friend and I, I sighed, resting my hands on my hips. "Look, I'm sorry about calling you an idiot. It's just…I get hostile whenever anything becomes monotonous—things like that drive me absolutely insane. We have to end this."

"Yeah well, individual attacks aren't workin'."

"There—" The blue-haired monk kicked away a group of about ten clowns that were rushing towards him. "There needs to be a way to attack them all at once without getting any of us hurt, ya know?" _This __really __does __seem __like __a __hydra __thing. __Attack __them __all __at __once, __huh?_

Then an idea hit me.

Gathering up energy all throughout my body, I stomped on the ground, followed by dragging one of my legs as I did a complete 360⁰, tracing a circle around me. Stomping on the ground once more with increased strength, similar circles appeared around Genrou and Chichiri. Using the power of Earth, I crouched down and felt the light, straw sprinkled ground with my fingertips, sending my power out throughout the whole ring. In no time flat, our individual circles served as platforms that had risen us up above the height of the clowns onto a safe elevation—almost close enough to the top of the tent.

"Whoa!" Genrou gazed down at our spectators in awe. "Man are _we_ high up!"

"Clever escape route and strategy, now we can see everything, ya know?" Chichiri stroke his chin, "But do you think they could climb?"

"They'll never get the chance." Feeling the power of Fire and Earth combine in my overall flow of energy, I casted a spell as my hands extended downward, palms straight to the ground. _"__Infinite __Earth, __mother __who __nurtures __all __life, __let __thy __power __gather __in __my __hand.__" _The temperature of the tent practically sky-rocketed up what seemed like one hundred degrees (probably more—I don't study the way atmospheric temperature works), making just standing around and being there extremely uncomfortable. With sweat running down the sides of my face, I hurried through the rest of the spell. "_Vlave __Howl!__" _The ground under us instantly transformed into a pool of searing magma. And with a bunch of magma came a bunch of creepy clowns being tormented and melting away almost reminding me of Alka-Seltzer tablets slowly dissolving in water. Yup, if you want to get rid of things all at once, this was the way to do it. I didn't quite get the satiating screams of agony that I wanted, but at least we were being rid of those pests.

With the updraft of the heat rising up, I felt my hair and light jacket being lifted up a bit as the warmth caressed my skin. I couldn't help but allow a satisfying smile from being drawn onto my lips.

"Damn Aki…" Genrou peered down, holding onto his personal platform probably thinking that one false move would sending him plummeting straight into the pool of magma (well, technically it would if I couldn't act fast enough). "Ya know you can be _real_ scary sometimes…" _I__'__ll __take __that __as __a __compliment._

"Yes, this was very efficient, ya know!" Chichiri praised.

Right as I was about to play the modest act, a flash of light appeared in front of my eyes, causing me to close them on a reflex.

As I opened them back up, I gasped at what I saw—all of the magma was gone (like, seriously?), we were back on the ground, and we were once again being surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of clowns (I mean, come on, _seriously_?).

Feeling my knees become weak and shaky, I sank down to the ground, continuing to stare at our assassins. "You have _got_to be kidding me." _I __hate __this __stupid __maze! _It was almost as if someone pushed the reset button on the remote control to this place, placing us back into our initial situation.

"Okay, I think that this has gone on long enough, ya know?" Chichiri vertically lifted up his staff only to force it back down. The moment the tip at the end impacted the ground, a wave of invisible energy surged through the ground, expanding outwards to the whole area of the circle. As the wave hit the clowns, they fizzled away into thin air, almost as if they were never there in the first place.

I blinked a few times in bewilderment. "Umm…what just happened?"

"Well it turns out," The monk turned to face us with his hand rested behind his head as he chuckled nervously, "that they were never there in the first place, ya know?" Letting the information settle in my brain a bit, I tried to process it all. _What?...never__…__really__…__there?..._My brain seemed to be traveling in all sorts of directions when I heard this.

Tears of exhaustion and frustration formed in my eyes just as I bolted straight to him, hand grabbing at his collar, Genrou had the same idea since his hand wasn't far from mine as we both grabbed on.

"What d'ya mean 'they were never there in the first place'?" Genrou spat.

My grasp tightened. "You allowed us to go through all of that, and you knew that they weren't really there? WHAT THE HELL CHICHIRI?"

He ducked down in cowardice at the dominance of his two friends—the "pacifist" sign in his hand opposite his staff. "I really only figured it out when Aki did that magma spell, ya know? I was curious as to why they never spoke or why they never complained or screamed out when they were getting defeated. You know something has to be wrong when someone doesn't at least complain about being melted, ya know?"

Following his story, I reluctantly said, "Uh…huh…"

"So I finally decided to check on their auras when they were going down. Turns out that they had no auras at all, ya know? And the only way that could happen was if they didn't exist!" Genrou and I ended up falling to the ground in a comedic manner. _We __couldn__'__t __find __this __out __earlier?_

"Man this place is messed up!" Genrou sat up and sat cross-legged with his arms crossed as well. "It's enough ta give a guy a serious head-ache."

Sitting up with my arms balancing me up from behind, I asked cynically, "You only got a headache from all of this?" _You __lucky __bastard. _I just couldn't tell where the maze was going with all of this. It was obviously a trial by this point, but this particular one seemed somewhat different from the ones before—somehow it seemed more…intricate. I mean, come on! They went through the trouble of producing a full-on circus tent filled with fake hydra clowns—I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that it wasn't through yet with its irritating antics. If only we could just find that Sacred Blood Lily, then this whole messed up crap would be over.

Unfortunately, our troubles weren't over, not even for a few seconds. The ground under us immediately disappeared, causing us to, of course, fall straight through. Instead of falling through some black abyss, the three of us landed on what seemed like smooth, multicolored slides—like something you'd see at a carnival or amusement park. Through twists, turns, and loops the slide took us further and further into nothingness—no end seemed to be in sight. Wind seemed to be rustling past my hair and body as we picked up speed. At this point, Genrou was yelling out from being on this ride—his voice echoing more and more as we progressed (sort of made me wonder how he'd like amusement parks with all of the rollercoasters and other attractions). My pure Aki-ness was tempted to say something cheeky at that moment, but the increasing G-forces were kind of making talking a bit difficult.

Right when we were beginning to think that things weren't going to get any more exciting, there was a sudden upwards slope that happened to cut off right at the last moment.

Damn.

We were immediately launched off of the slide, flying through the black void not knowing where we were headed or if we were going to hit something. I didn't like the odds either way. The sucky thing was that I couldn't come up with any kind of spell that could potentially get us out of this mess—we were totally in the maze's will.

Closing my eyes, I ended up trying my best to not just submit to whatever fate the maze would throw at me. Idea after idea ran through my mind, none of them being what we needed in order to survive. I hated not knowing what would become of us, and I hated even more that I couldn't intervene with the nefarious plans in any way.

Suddenly, my whole body seemed to just slow down completely…and then just stop, making it so that I was floating in mid-air. But I wasn't the one making me float. Hanging upside down, I opened my eyes to see what was going on—even though the exhilaration had ceased, my heart was still pounding in such a way that it could just beat its way out of my chest at any time, a sense of nausea was kicking in at the pit of my stomach. Both Genrou and Chichiri had stopped too—we weren't being thrown through the air anymore, however we were still in some black oblivion.

Chichiri looked completely content and was in an upward standing position, like he was expecting to land perfectly upright at any given time. Genrou was "lying" on his back, looking around frantically, just as I was doing. "What the hell? How did we stop?" The bandit looked over at me. I shook my head, showing that this wasn't the result of anything that I did.

Whistling in a fashion of relief, Chichiri said, "It's a good thing that I thought of something at the last minute, ya know?"

Trying to keep my heart beat at bay, I stumbled through my words. "Wha—what did you—" I didn't have the time to finish my sentence since our bodies ceased their suspended animation as we fell through a circular portal which had revealed light of some kind. Landing on my back with a thud, I looked up at the blank world which we were just liberated from. The black portal quickly shrank and rotated a few times, revealing Chichiri's kasa hat. _What __the? __Did __we __just__—__?_

Closing my eyes, I let out a huge sigh. _I __am __so __confused._

A deep, ferocious, un-human roaring echoed around our new space, prompting me to open my eyes. Underneath me, the ground was vibrating violently, each vibration becoming closer together and making its way towards me. Then the world seemed to be going in slow motion as I sat up and a well-known beast appeared in my vision. It's large golden feline body, wild mane, sharp, deadly eyes, and lethal fangs and claws were enough to install fear into any person's soul—even more so when a person knew that that would be the last sight they saw before their life ended, being painfully torn limb from limb as your flesh was being ripped from your body by the outrageous, threatening paws. The frightening images flashed through my mind as the ferocious creature made its way to me. There was no time to react, it was too fast. My body sat there frozen, not knowing how to avoid my horrible demise.

"Aki!" A familiar voice screeched out to me with a panicked tone. A figure ran in front of me with lightning speed, their shadow covering my whole body as droplets of warm liquid splashed onto my face.

When the world sped up again, I blinked a few times to put things into focus. My eyes widened in shock. There was the lion with its jaws clenched onto Genrou's arm, his blood dripping past its teeth and onto the ground below, creating a dark, crimson puddle.

"Genrou…" I whispered still in disbelief. Shaking my head, I blinked hard, only to open them back up and shout out in concern and anger. "Genrou you idiot! Why would you do something like that? Now you're…you're…"

"Will you stop yappin' already and move outta the way? I can't hold 'im fer very long!" With his other hand, he was pushing the beasts' face away from him to avoid from it ripping his arm off. But he was still losing a lot of blood. "Get movin' Aki!" I couldn't just get away and let him get hurt further—I had to get that lion away from him. But it wouldn't be easy, one false move and Genrou's arm was history. I didn't know what to do! _A __spell! __A __spell! __I __don__'__t __know __what __spell __to __use!_

Looking around, I desperately tried to find Chichiri—I knew he'd be able to help out somehow. I was horrified to find that his hands were also pretty tied up with a lioness that had slashed his side, but it wasn't deep enough to be fatal, it was just a surface flesh wound. He must have jumped away fast enough to avoid getting hit too bad. In any case, he was probably better off that Genrou was going to be if I didn't do something quickly.

But why lions?

Becoming more aware of our surrounding, I gasped when I had found that we were in a large, metal cage. _Filled __with __lions__… __that__'__s __it! _The epiphany hit me as the variables came together. _We__'__re __supposed __to __be __at __a __circus, __and __circuses __usually __have __animals, __lions __being __one __of __the __main __ones! _I groaned in frustration. _Damn __this __maze __for __being __so __freakin__' __particular!_

Genrou's arm started to shake as his physical strength dwindled. The creature had sensed his depleting power and progressed with bringing his jaw closer together, bringing my friend even more agony. He yelled out in pain. "Argh! Dammit!"

I had to help somehow! _"__Ray __Freeze!__" _The moment the spell was cast, the beast's body immediately froze in place—it was still very much alive, but unable to move as long as I kept my concentration. Standing up as quickly as I could, I grabbed the lion's mouth—one hand on the bottom half and the other on the top—and tried to open its jaws to free Genrou. Its teeth had really dug into the bandits flesh, making it even harder to force its mouth open.

Genrou continuously shook and winced as the teeth were being relieved form his arm. "Aki…"

Continuing to struggle, I worked through my obstacle with an irritable lack of ease. "Just bite through it…I'm gonna get this thing off of you…" Using this much physical energy was really causing me to take a toll on my magic a lot faster than desired—I had to make sure that I conserved myself as much as I could. The _Vlave __Howl _spell that I used earlier was only meant to create a small pool of magma, but I might have over done it when I practically transformed the tent's grounds into the inside of a volcano. Not to mention the intense concentration that was required to make such a dense dome of Wind in order to get those clowns off of me. I knew that I still had quite a few uses of magic to go before I hit my critical zone—the point where my body starts to destroy itself the more I push to use my energy for spell usage, resulting in a not-so-pleasant death—but I still had to watch myself before things went too far.

"Come…on…!" Putting everything I could into my arm muscles, a sudden surge of adrenaline allowed me the one faithful pull that opened up its mouth wide enough for Genrou to go free. Snatching his arm back, the flame-haired bandit allowed it to drop free as blood trickled down his limb and continued to drip onto the cold, metal floor.

"Damn cat!' He said through clenched teeth. Stepping away from the lion, I ran up to Genrou to inspect his arm.

"This doesn't look good…you probably won't be able to use it for a while…" _I__'__m __so __sorry__…_If I had just reacted faster—if I had been more on alert—that wouldn't have happened.

Looking away from the frozen feline, he gave me a reassuring smile. "Don't sweat it, I'll be able to use it when I need it—but I probably won't need it—it's not as bad as it looks. Leave it to a woman ta get all panicky 'bout somethin' so small—"

Our conversation was cut short when a loud banging came from Chichiri's and his animal's tussle. He was holding it off with his staff, and it didn't particularly seem like he was losing, but the lioness' strength was obviously stronger than any man (well, except Nuriko), and he was getting pushed back in submission. In a bright blue flash, the lioness went flying to the other side of the cage, but it didn't take long for it to easily recover and recoil.

"We sure got our hands full with this one, ya know?" He immediately resumed a defensive stance as the beast came roaring back.

Genrou took a step forward towards Chichiri's opponent. "Might as well get this over with. C'mon Aki, let's tame this cat!"

Shying away a bit, I told him, "Sorry, I can't…"

Gasping in surprise, he looked back at me with comedic wide eyes. "What'dya mean ya 'can't'?"

Blushing a bit, I trailed my eye away from his. "Well…ya see…I don't like hurting animals…"

"You _what_?" He shouted. "That thing tried ta eat the both of us and ya wanna show 'em mercy?"

With an irritated voice, I rebutted, "_Excuse_ _me_ for thinking that all creature's lives are precious. They're not like demons, or spirits, or Shadow creatures…they're _animals_!" I didn't allow him to say anything more before I said, "Besides, you are in no condition to go head to head with a lion. I don't care how macho you think you are."

Even Chichiri felt the need to talk before Genrou did. "While I do commend your respect for nature Aki, I think that when it comes down to who I could like to survive, I choose us, ya know?" Glancing at the still frozen lion whose teeth was stained with Genrou's blood an epiphany struck me with the help of recollected past experience.

"I see what you guys are saying, but there's something else that we have to consider here—" The lioness pounced onto the monk, knocking him straight to the ground as it bared its fangs. "Chichiri!"

"I'm f-fine, ya know? Just go on with what you were saying!" _Leave __it __to __him __to __want __to __carry __on __a __conversation __while __a __deadly __cat __is __trying __to __maim __him._

With uneasiness evident in my voice, I went on. "Well…um…like I was saying, we have to consider the fact that we are still in the maze here—as odd as it seems right now."

"Yeah, so what?" Genrou stood next to me holding onto his wounded arm.

"_So_, are you forgetting about the dilemma we _just_ got out of? If we take out these lions, we might end up having to fight their multiple spawns that manifest out of absolutely nowhere. I don't know about you, but I don't really wanna fight a bunch of man-eating beasts at this present moment."

"Not to mention that these animals are actually here, ya know? Not like before when we were being tricked," Chichiri added as he got up on his knees to force his opponent away (I got to say, this guy is a real trooper for dealing with this animal so nonchalantly).

I nodded. "Yeah. So if this trial is going to be consistent, then I don't really want to stick around and find out. This cage isn't as big as that ring before either…"

"So what'dya expect we do then?" Genrou's tone was showing a hint of irritability.

Trying to find an answer to his demand, I noticed that the frozen lion's body was beginning to vibrate—my hold on it was becoming weaker. If I invested any more power into the spell, I might end up killing my energy faster than desired. I virtually had no choice but to let the lion go free soon. Searching all around, my eyes eventually trailed upwards to the ceiling of the cage. "We escape."

Genrou must have caught the faint movement of his foe out of the corner of his eye since he faced me with alarm. "I wouldn't feel right just runnin' out like that—if I had things my way, I wouldn't mind havin' this cat pay for him thinkin' that he could have his way with me. But…" He growled, knowing fully well that we couldn't really afford to stick around much longer. "Just do what'cha gotta do Aki. If ya can't hold it anymore, I'll hold 'im as long as I can."

Giving him a small, confident smile, I gave a remark. "So there _is_ some common sense in that flame-head of yours, eh Fang-Boy?"

Grunting before showing an amused smile, he waved me off. "Just get on with it." Heading in front of the almost-free lion, he crouched over and stood ready just in case the spell broke for whatever reason.

Not wasting any more time, I levitated my off of the ground, and brought myself closer to the unusually high ceiling, away from all of the madness going on below me. Reciting a new spell would probably, most definitely, cause me to lose concentration with my _Ray __Freeze _spell, giving my two companions a bit more troubled for only a few more seconds. I had to take the risk. Spreading my arms to the side, I focused on the power of Wind and Fire. _"__Raza __Klouva!__" _Hundreds of shard-like bits of energy surrounded my body like a mist, and in the blink of an eye, continuously shot out like a straight blast of wind combined with fragments of burning glass. Focusing on one spot on the ceiling, the attack was concentrated enough to make the attachments at the four corners unstable.

Glancing downwards, I saw both Genrou and Chichiri's backs to each other as both lions (the male one being obviously free at this point) circled them as they observed their prey. It wouldn't be long until things got uglier than they already were.

Turning my attention back onto my ongoing spell, I gave my flow of energy a boost causing a noticeable pulsation to shoot out—which was just the boost I needed to make the roof blow completely off (the maze should probably check with the manufacturer of the cage 'cause for some reason, that seemed too easy), resulting in a loud banging sound as it finally landed somewhere outside of the circumference of the cage. Not taking another thought about it—and putting my suspicions aside—I flew back down to my comrades and told them to wrap their arms around my shoulders (the arm that worked anyway with Genrou's case). Wrapping my arms around their waists, I put extra effort into levitating the added weight up and out of the horrible cage…

And back into the black nothingness…_ugh_…

Out of nowhere, an unexpected, circular, glowing white platform appeared out of nowhere and I didn't question it since I decided to land, releasing my passengers before setting my own feet down myself.

Sighing heavily, exhaustion was starting to take its toll on me (don't call me a wimp—thousands of creepy, killer clowns and threatening lions tend to wear a person out if experienced all in one day). _But __at __least __we__'__re __safe__—__we__'__re __all __safe._

"So, is anyone else gettin' sick of all this?" Genrou complained, still holding his arm, blood running down past his sleeves. "I wish I could just take out the sorry bastard who's creatin' this place!"

"Jeez…" Walking up to him, I held out the inside of my jacket and used Wind in order to cut a strip out from it. "If you insist on being an idiot and walking into the face of danger, than you can at least put the effort out to stop your bleeding. Take off your trench coat."

His face instantly went red. "What?"

"Just do it!" Instead of arguing further, he complied, dropping his black and aqua-lined trench coat down to the ground. Taking the long strip that I cut from my jacket (which was, as a recap, a gift from Miss Emiko), I wrapped it around his hurt arm like a bandage, making sure that it was tied tightly to stop the bleeding. "Hopefully this will be of some use to you…" In movies, whenever someone got hurt like that, someone would wrap their wound with someone to make sure that they wouldn't lose too much blood. I figured that the same thing applied with this case.

"Umm…thanks," he said without giving eye contact, "and thanks for savin' my ass back there. If it weren't fer that spell o' yers, I probably wouldn't have an arm anymore!"

My face softened a bit. _If __you __didn__'__t __run __in __front __of __me __for __my __safety, __I __probably __wouldn__'__t __be __alive __anymore. _I wanted to do more for him…there were two healing spells that I could use…but…it wasn't the right time to use either of them. Both of them had prices to them that we couldn't afford to pay at that present moment.

"Yeah Aki, you're quick thinking really got us out of that bind, ya know?" Chichiri complimented.

"_My_ quick thinking? Chichiri, if it weren't for that quirky hat of yours, we'd probably be a flat and bloody mess from flying off of that slide." _Not __to __mention __the __fact __that __you __handled __that __lion__… __like __a __boss._

He laughed, his playful fox like features assisting his cheeriness. "I don't know about all of that, ya know? I just did what I thought needed to be done, ya know?"

"Ditto," I told them.

"Same here," Genrou added in as he attempted to get through his trench coat with one working arm.

The white platform we were standing on began to stretch out several yards, eventually branching out into three different paths—the end of each path was a door lined in neon colors of turquoise, gold, and magenta. We all looked in awe at the spectacle, not knowing what to think of it. Right as things couldn't get any weirder, a different picture blinked on and off above every door in the same neon color that correlated with that door. Above the turquoise door on the left was a chibi picture of Genrou, above the magenta door on the right was a chibi picture of Chichiri, and above the gold door in the middle had a chibi picture of me—whoever came up with the blue-prints of this whole circus-ruse must have _really_ been having fun with it.

"So I suppose that we each have to go through our respective doors?" Chichiri asked as we all continued to stare.

"Seems that way…" My face fell into a grimace. "You do know that it's most likely a trap."

Genrou scoffed. "Even if it is, one o' those paths might lead ta that flower." Seeing my uncertainty, he perked up a bit. "We're all tough, right? So nothin' too bad should happen. We can handle this twisted place!" _Aren't _you _optimistic?_

If we went through with this, then we'd end up being apart for who knows how long. Communication would prove to be rather difficult…well, I supposed that we could use Chichiri's telepathy if things got too bad, and it did help that Genrou and I were bonded to each other (the phenomenon that was still pretty odd and mysterious to us, but at this late in the game, no point in questioning), so we would probably know when one of us were in trouble. In theory, going through separate paths would be no big deal—we should all be fine when looking at our individual skills—I knew that I could handle myself in most situations. But being apart in such a messed up place could really be dangerous since we honestly didn't know what that circus-like place would throw at us—not to mention that Genrou's arm was still messed up.

"I suppose if we want to get anything done, then we have no choice…" I reluctantly answered. Don't you just _love_ those moments when you're being backed into a corner?

The three of us steadily made our way down our paths and up to our doors without another word being exchanged about whether or not we should go through with it, each of us stopping short before heading on through into the unknown.

"Hey Aki," Genrou called for me with a mischievous smile on his face. "Promise me that'cha won't use that kunai o' yers just yet. Stick with the magic to avoid from embarrassin' yerself."

Giving a distasteful smirk, I told him, "You better watch it before you get the hard edge of that hammer again." He instantly stiffened up and felt the back of his head for the bump I might have left from the giant toy hammer (aka The Hammer of Justice), after he called me a "witch" multiple times at our campfire a while ago. I rolled my eyes. _Please, __that __bump __isn__'__t __even __there __anymore __you __drama __queen. _Feeling all tensions lift up and dissipate, my smile became more genuine. "You just be careful, okay? Try not to get banged up too bad." Switching my head to the other side, I faced Chichiri. "You too—stay safe and don't let anything fool you or throw you for a loop."

"Please don't overdo it yourself Aki. We wouldn't want you burning out, ya know?" He held up a finger. "We should also consider that we might not even fight, ya know? Why are we all assuming that we're going into combat?" Genrou and I both gave him a sharp, skeptical look that screamed, "have you _met_ us?". "Yes, I know it's very likely, but not one hundred percent, ya know?"

Boy did I hope that he was right.

"Either way, standin' around won't get the job done!" The flame-headed bandit announced with the same atmosphere of anxiety and excitement that he displayed when he and I first engaged in battle right after we met.

We all nodded in unison.

"Well, see you guys on the other side." _No __point __in __stalling._ As I took a step forward, my senses were completely on high alert for whatever came my way.

_Okay universe, let's see what warped thing you have planned out for me now…_

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><p><strong>Well there ya go! I hoped you liked it. Chapter 30 (Part 2) will be the exciting climax of the Maze and Blood Lily Arc of the story (yup, I'm relieved too XD now we can move things along~)<strong>

**Please, please, PLEASE don't forget to REVIEW! I would love to hear your thoughts on the events that are unfolding as well as any predictions you may have. **

**Until next time!**

**P.S. Keep checking in on my DA account every now and then for new pictures regarding the story.**

**C ya! ^_~ **


	30. The Show of The Century Part 2

**Hey everyone! Thanx once again for all the reviews last chapter! And srry again for uploads taking a while—it's been a hectic week filled with unwanted essays and exams. I might be getting a job soon as well, so updating might be even harder o_o…yeah…not looking forward to that…But whatever! It means more money so that's always good.**

**BTW Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! Even if you don't celebrate it, I still want to wish you a nice day! =)**

**I'm thankful for the motivation for continuing to write this story and for the readers who stop by and say they like it X3 As well as for good health for me and my family as well as good grades!**

**What are you thankful for?**

**Anyway, I want to keep the author's note (somewhat) short since this is the second part to "The Show of the Century" and I kno u all want to just get to it!**

**So…here ya go! Chapter 30!**

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><p><strong>~*Part 2*~<strong>

My nerves increasingly stood on edge the further I went in past my personal door. The opening behind me had already closed itself so any ideas of turning back and regrouping went completely down the drain. I didn't plan on turning back anyway—as much of a pain as it was, something told me that we were getting closer to our goal (there was a good chance that I was off on this theory, but better to be more on the optimistic side when it came to things like this), so why would I cower out now?

There was no way for me to know what was coming, and I didn't particularly care. I mean, I knew it was going to suck and that it might end up almost killing me or driving me insane, so since I knew the basic outlines of what was going to happen to me, there's no point in fighting it considering the universe would manage to torture me anyway—in one way or another. I say just get it over with already.

It only took a few minutes before something manifested in the black nothingness. Stopping in my tracks as a precaution, I look beyond to identify the objects ahead of me. Standing tall and reflective, a semi-circular area of mirrors stood before me, each lined up against each other to form a really long mirror with obvious borders. With confusion settling in on my brain, I stepped closer, taking things slowly just in case inanimate objects decided to come alive and attack me (oh come on, like it couldn't happen, especially in this wacky place). But they seemed pretty benign, so I quickened my pace to investigate.

Realizing the whole circus/festival theme that the trial was sporting, I figured that this must have been the "House of Mirrors" portion of the test. Honestly anything was possibly going to happen, so I had to be ready for the worst. Coming to a halt, I noticed that the mirror in the center was the most defined—it was a few feet taller and longer than the rest and its smooth, thick border was crafted in some sort of swirly gold design, unlike the rest had just plain, black, rectangular edges.

Looking upon it with suspicion, I thought, _okay, __you__'__re __obviously __the __more __significant __ring-leader __to __the __rest __of __these __mirrors. __So __what __can __you __do?_

My thoughts were immediately interrupted when I caught sight of my own reflection. The more feminine side of my instincts prompted me to examine my new hairstyle.

With my burnt-brown colored hair curling up at the ends in response to my shoulders, I found it somewhat weird to be looking at myself with somewhat long hair once again. It had been so long…

Adjusting my still long, yet not outrageously long bangs with my fingers, I smiled a bit in approval. "Huh, Genrou didn't do too badly of a job. I guess if that whole bandit thing doesn't work out, he could always put in an application to be a beautician." The silly thought compelled me to giggle silently to myself. I soon found it kind of funny how, not too long ago, it was my goal to make sure that I'd take Genrou down and make sure that he stayed there—I mean, I _really_ couldn't stand that guy. There were still times that made me want to smack him because of his announced superiority and wise cracks that were geared toward my humiliation and rivalry—not to mention the disrespectful and chauvinistic cracks he tended to make about women. But there was a lot less hate in there—friendship was finally settling in. A person wouldn't risk losing something as valuable as an arm if they didn't consider you something to them…but my better judgment allowed me to believe that he really only did that because it was the right thing to do—not necessarily because I was worth saving. Perhaps that lion should have gotten me and tossed me around a bit—that would definitely have reinforced my self-induced law of being not too comfortable around others and relying on them in times of trouble. Trusting people would mean lowering my barriers and opening myself up for more un-repairable emotional damage. I was already messed up enough as it was—could I really let myself get trapped in that same painful web again? Okay, so Genrou saved my life, Chichiri did as well, but that didn't necessarily mean that we needed to be close—after all, I'd only know them for a short while until I headed back for the palace to help out Miaka. I knew that separation was coming, and soon, so there was virtually no point in setting anything into stone.

_Just __focus __on __their __bad __qualities __Aki__—__just __keep __telling __yourself __that __they __are __not __worth __the __imminent __pain __and __torture. __You __can __avoid __all __of __that__—__you __can __be __in __control. _I had to convince myself to not fall into that pit again.

But then a thought rang in my head. _He __saved __your __life __and __risked __his __own. _There was so much blood and Genrou must have been in so much pain—he could have gotten himself killed. I just couldn't understand why. Sure, humans were usually born with the need to help others out, but even more than that, there was an instinct that made people want to protect themselves at all cost and overlook the pain of the next person—yeah, you could call it a bit selfish, but really, it was human nature, so I didn't blame people for not giving a damn about me. Most people would hesitate when it came to putting their life on the line for another. _But __he __didn__'__t__…_

"Dammit! I can't keep doing this to myself!" If I had the dark ring with me, it would have repelled people away from me by now so that it wouldn't even be possible for me to even think about forming any kind of relationship with anyone. It really did protect me from myself since my self-control and discipline were just so weak from the human desire of wanting to feel wanted and loved. The dark ring knocked some sense into me—and now I didn't have it. I always focused on the negative aspects of it and how it made my life worse, but it was starting to become apparent to me that perhaps it was there for a reason. However way things went, I was lost and confused about what to do with the rush of emotions I was experiencing.

The dark ring wasn't even there and I was still experiencing feelings of doubt and worry—why was my life so messed up?

"Wow Aki, is that _you_?" Said a familiar voice. I blinked a few times, thinking that I was hearing things. Shaking my head, I thought to myself, _nah. __I __must __be __hearing __things. _But then the voice started up again. "I could hardly recognize you with your new _sexy_ hairstyle!" The voice was rather playful, the familiarity of it causing my heart to skip a beat. It brought back with it a ton of memories that I was probably better off not reminiscing about.

Pinching the space in between my eyes, I muttered drearily, "Not again." _It__'__s __just __an __illusion __Aki, __don__'__t __let __the __universe __fool __you __again! _Taking a look into the main mirror, a figure began to form in the glass. The shape was becoming more defined as its color came more into light. I didn't even need to look to know what was happening, but I just couldn't turn away. The beating in my chest was becoming more apparent like the loud ticking of a large clock—no matter how much you want to ignore it, it just keeps eating at you and eating at you until it drives you insane. But this particular ticking was pumping out locked up emotions that I was certain never needed to be released again. As fate would have it, my old boyfriend Hikaru Hitachiin became clearer and clearer into view—his smiling face poking holes at my heart like sharp needles. "Damn the universe, I can't believe that it's pulling this crap again." _Okay,__I __miss __him, __but __you __don__'__t __have __to __keep __throwing __it __in __my __face __like __this!_

Hikaru looked at me with peculiarly wide eyes. "Hey, what's up with you? You seem kind of out of it..." Sighing, I turned around and started to walk away, a look of indifference on my face. _I __know __that __the __universe __is __trying __to __trip __me __up __here, __but __its __sense __of __creativity __is __really __lacking __nowadays._ He immediately called out, "Wait a second, where are you going?"

Refusing to look straight at him, I responded with, "You're not real, and I don't particularly feel like dealing with you at this moment."

"Why sure we are!" Another voice came into the conversation, my curiosity leading me to turn my head a bit to validate my guess. Almost immediately, another figure leaned itself on Hikaru's shoulder. It didn't take too long before another Hikaru was revealed—only this wasn't Hikaru, it was his twin brother, Kaoru, who looked virtually the same—playful golden eyes and strawberry blond hair—except for the two of them having opposite parts in their hair to help distinguish themselves to others. Even though I had technically seen Hikaru more recently with the whole Genrou and I being stuck together fiasco that had happened a few weeks back, it was kind of nice to be seeing Kaoru as well. They may have been twins, but I had grown to know the two of them as separate individuals—even when they tried to fool others by mixing each other up. Kaoru was much more mild-mannered than his brother as well as slightly more mature. Hikaru had more of an edge to him and didn't always know how to deal with stuff the right way—so says the situation with putting a secret tracking device on me just so that I wouldn't get away. All in all, I wouldn't have gotten so far with my training if it weren't for those two, and I wouldn't have gotten to know or even be in the Host Club if I hadn't passed out on their front door that one day.

It all seemed so long ago…

"You have no idea how much we've missed you Aki!"

"Yeah! And the Host Club hasn't been quite as exciting without you around."

"Don't get us wrong—"

"—we always manage to shake things up somehow, whacky adventured and all,"

"But it's just never quite the same without our favorite witch spicing things up!" As annoying as it may have been, I sort of couldn't help but admit that I missed that whole finishing sentences thing they often did. The two of them then applied their trademark smirk to their face, a look that definitely helped them play the part of the "Little Devils" type in the club.

Just like whenever someone called me a "witch" in the past I was tempted to lash out at them, but I knew that I couldn't afford to fall for this little game the universe had formulated for me. So I just held it in and kept my head turned, only looking at them from the corner of my eye. _This __has __to __be __an __illusion__—__no __matter __how __real __it __may __seem, __it__'__s __just __the __universe __messing __with __me._

_Right?_

"I see that you still have the bracelet I gave you," Hikaru pointed out with a smile hanging on his voice. While almost completely facing them, I looked down at my wrist to the beautiful, specially designed diamond bracelet with a gold, diamond crested flower on it—the one he gave me after we started going out. I cherished the piece of jewelry like it were the most precious thing in the world—before Hikaru, no one had ever given me something that conveyed their positive feelings towards me. It was something made just for me, something that reflected how he felt about me. Even though we weren't together anymore, it was still the best gift anyone had ever given me—every time I look at it, a pleasant and warm feeling would completely cover my body, so much so that I could just stay there and lie in it forever. Nothing would make me want to part from it. "It's nice to see that you haven't forgotten about us."

"Then again, it's a bit difficult to forget anything about the Host Club, less likely the two of us," Kaoru chimed in.

Having my full body face them, I held up the wrist with the bracelet on it, and held it with my other hand. Eyes gazing more at the floor than in their eyes, I calmly told them, "I could never forget about you guys—it's just not possible. But…" My eyes trailed to the bottom left. "You guys should have forgotten about me—I don't exist in your lives anymore."

"Of course you still exist with us Aki-chan!" Mitsukuni (otherwise known as Honey) Haninozuka jumped out from the side of the mirror and into view. The seventeen—perhaps eighteen—year old still looked like he should be in elementary school—middle school if I wanted to be more generous. His adorableness with those big caramel eyes complimented with his small stature and the fact that he still carried around that light-pink stuffed bunny, always made me want to scoop him up and cuddle him. But to protect myself from becoming another one of the many generic fan-girls, I allow my tough, indifferent outside character to dominate, making it so that I didn't leap and squeal at Mitsukuni's cuteness (anyone on the outside would have never guess that he was actually a weapon of destruction, with his intense martial arts and outrageous strength). Smiling brightly, he continued on by saying, "And we could never forget how cool you are and those awesome songs you sang for us!" The tall, normally soft-spoken Takashi drifted in behind his "little" cousin, having the straight, consisted face that he normally wore. "Hika-chan, Kao-chan, and I weren't the only ones to miss you—Takashi did too!" Mitsukuni looked up at the big teen as he hugged his arm. "Didn't you?"

With his lips curling up into a small, gentle smile, Takashi looked me straight in the eye, a small blush painted on his face. "Yeah." _That__'__s_ _Takashi __Morinozuka __folks__—__the __man __of __many __words._ It would have been hard for me to forget—and no one would have guessed—that it was Takashi here who made me realize my then feelings for Hikaru after I had been mad at the twins for tracking me. Too bad our relationship had to have been cut short by the universe's agenda. It's like…we went through all that, just to have me be taken away at the end. Seriously, the universe is a bitch.

"Aki~! How I missed you~!" A familiar, sing-song voice rang my name all around the area, tempting me to jump out of the way before that person came along and tackled me in a hug. In an instant, the "elegant" Tamaki Suoh came flying through the air behind the forming group, a wide smile on his already glowing face. To my little surprise as well as relief, he smashed right into the inside of the mirror, then sliding down with a pitiful look on his face. "Ak…i…" A comical grimace formed on my face as he regained his posture and jumped back up—pretending like the crash didn't affect him. _Yup__…__that__'__s __Tamaki. __If __this __is __an __illusion __of __some __type, __then __I __applause __the __universe __for__getting __this __guy__'__s __personality __and __mannerisms __down __to __a __point. _Feeling his side of the glass, he started to mildly complain, "Kyouya, I can't seem to get to dear Aki and hug her, expressing how much she has been missed. How can I, your king, overcome this perilous obstacle? She _needs_ to know how _loved_ she is!"

Rubbing the back of my neck, I tried to refrain from laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. "I think I got the message Tamaki…" He always had a way of always being too overly-dramatic, energetic, and optimistic with anything he says or does. I'd understand it if it were for the clients of the Host Club, but, for the most part, this was just his personality. Well at least he was a sweet guy, a bit out-there, but sweet.

Walking in as he pushed up his glasses, the somewhat attractive, more-often-than-not conniving and "I always have a hidden agenda" Kyouya Ootori came into the scene. "Of course there's something preventing you from getting through—we're not in the same dimension as her," he said with an uninterested tone.

From the side, the cross-dressing girl named Haruhi Fujioka popped her head in, looked at Tamaki with her big chocolate-colored eyes, and sighed (something her and I did quite often when it came to that boy). Switching her attention to me, she smiles and talks with her signature stoic tone, "Hi Senpai, it's good to see you again." Inspecting me for a second, she then adds with a small smile and a slightly more positive voice, "You look nice with longer hair, you should keep it that way."

Still feeling that this whole thing was a trick, I knew that it would have probably been bad of me to get involved with them as much as I knew I was starting to do. Despite the little voice in my head saying "don't fall for it", I returned a smile to Haruhi. "Thanks. And, um…It's good to see you again too."

When she realized that I chose to talk to her, she brought her whole body into view, still wearing the light-blue blazer that the boys of Ouran Academy were required to wear. Because of a debt that she owed to the Host Club, they forced her to join them quite a while ago, just like I had been forced when I first came to their world. She's not the type of girl to care if others see her as a boy or not, but by time the Club realized she was a girl, she had already been accidentally registered into the school as a boy (even though she clearly looks like a girl to me—despite her more-so flat chest—most people are fooled into thinking otherwise). "It's been kind of lonely not having anyone to talk to about something's," she told me. Haruhi and I, unlike the vast majority of the Host Club, were actually pretty sane and aware of the whacky antics that the Host Club always managed to get in one way or another, making us the ones to be reluctant to participate in some of the stupid, embarrassing, or degrading things they did. Back when I was still pretty much "Anti-Host Club" she was a good person to talk to who didn't want to pressure me into anything.

"My dear daughter Haruhi," Tamaki often looked at Haruhi as his daughter for reasons that I never really cared to look into. Either he had a crush on her and was just trying to mask it with fatherly love, or he was just weird—maybe both. "You know that you can talk to me about _anything_! A father always wants his child to come forth with their problems, so that he may help steer them in the right direction!" There was that overly-dramatic thing again…

"I don't think so," She immediately answered without even facing him.

Tamaki, with his signature reaction of dealing with anything hurtful, retreated into a dark corner somewhere in the mirror world that they were at, where he crouched down, backs to us, and sulked. "You can be so hurtful sometimes Haruhi…"

"Isn't it great to have everyone back together, Aki-chan?" Mitsukuni chimed in as everyone ignored the apparent sadness of their king.

As much as I didn't want to admit it, it was really good to see them all again—the more they continued to talk and act like themselves, the more I was beginning to think that they were the real thing, the real Host Club that I had come to know, that this wasn't an illusion and that all of this was actually legit. Was it possible that the universe was breaking its own rules, allowing me to speak once more with the friends that I left behind?

I didn't even realize the genuine smile I had on my face.

These were my friends—the first real group to accept me into their lives, the ones who wanted to help me open up to the world and make the most out of life. Out of all the other worlds I stayed in along with the people I've stayed with, I had been with these guys the longest and together we shared unique experiences and adventures. Of course I still that the lot of them, except Haruhi, were a bunch of narcissist weirdoes with way too much time on their hands, but I preferred them that way. Talking to them again—after thinking that I would never see them again—just seemed so surreal. It also seemed…too good to be true…

So of course I was still skeptical.

"You know, Akimoto," breaking me out of my thoughts, Kyouya looked at me with a calculating expression. "Business had been a real downer when you left—all of our clients were so depressed. It took too long to cheer them all up again." _What?_

Feeling a dab of annoyance, I rebutted with, "_You__'__re_ the one being a downer. Everyone else is treating this like a reunion and you're speaking to me as if I was a business associate." Shaking my head, I chuckled a bit and said, "Classic Kyouya." He never was good at having a friendly conversation unless it was beneficial to him—you knew he wanted to be, he just wasn't.

"Of course, it is important after all. How do you think it looks when all of the ladies aren't happy?" I sort of missed these back-and-forth's we used to have. They weren't nearly as fun as the ones I had with Genrou, but it was still pretty satisfying.

"It wasn't exactly my fault you know—I didn't want to leave." Seeing that he was about to open his mouth to say something, I quickly went on, "Of course, in the beginning I did—'cause let's face it, you guys drove me insane. But I didn't at the end. Leaving you guys was hard…" But I had to do it.

"Well…" Mitsukuni broke the more serious atmosphere and perked everything up. "Let's make it easy on you! Just come back with us Aki-chan!" My eyes grew wide upon hearing his words. _Can __I__…__do __that?_

"Yeah Aki! You should come be with us again—we'd love to have you back!" Kaoru urged on.

"It would be just like before, only better!" Hikaru looked at me in a knowing way, _we__'__d __be __together __again__…_

Tamaki sprung out of his emo-corner and wiped any residue of negativity from his being, plastering on his charming attributes. "The family just wouldn't be complete without you! To have my dear sister back would be absolutely marvelous. Of course we would have to throw you a welcome home party—price won't even be an issue! Then we would have to invite all of the ladies since we know that they missed you as well…" Tamaki continued on with his list of things to do for when/if I returned with them. But one thing stuck out to me out of all the things he had said. _**"**__**Of **__**course **__**we **__**should **__**throw **__**you **__**a **__**welcome **__**home **__**party**__**…" **__A__ "__welcome __home__" __party, __huh?_

_Home…_

_Where is that exactly?_

* * *

><p><strong>Genrou's 3rd POV<strong>

In a similar room filled with mirrors, Genrou stared at the particular one in the center—the one that contained a girl from his past—a girl who had died because he couldn't reach her in time—because he was so careless.

"Omigosh! Genrou, what happened to your arm? You were being reckless again, weren't you?" The bandits amber eyes slowly trailed to the left as he chuckled nervously at her observation, rubbing the back of his head—while at the same time feeling very unsettled about the whole situation. The girl, who was aged around thirteen or fourteen, had sleek, dark evergreen hair that was wrapped up into two buns, similarly to Miaka's, but her longer bangs on the side flowed down past her collar bone and were wrapped with a ribbon in one spot near the top. Her bright orange-ish pink eyes looked into Genrou's with optimism. "You remember what we promised, right? You and Kouji both said that I would be a part of the Mt. Reikaku bandits as well, remember?" Normally, he would never even consider a female to be a part of his group of vagabonds, but she had proven herself with her quick-thinking and bravery in the past. If it weren't for her courage and sacrifice, he and his best bud Kouji wouldn't have taken out that demon. But was the price worth it? She didn't deserve to die, but when she did, she was in his arms…showing them her best smile—she didn't regret what she did.

And now here she was, almost as if nothing had ever happened.

Genrou didn't know whether he should be happy or cautious about the whole ordeal.

"Reirei," he spoke to her, "how…how are ya doin' this? I mean…you…" It was hard for him to even assess the situation properly—he was just so overwhelmed by seeing his once dead friend standing there, seemingly alive.

Doing a cheerful spin, Reirei giggled and said, "That's just like you to ignore your own wound. Oh well. As for your question, I have absolutely no idea how, but," she giggled sweetly again, "I don't particularly care!" Softening up, she looked at her flame-headed friend in a sympathetic way. "I really missed you…Genrou…"

He didn't know how to respond to her…or how to respond to anything that was happening. Feeling in the pit of his stomach that something was wrong, the vast majority of his being wanted to embrace what the universe had supplied him. The more he thought about it, the stupider he felt about how skeptical he was being. His friend had come back somehow so he should just be thankful.

If only that little, irritating voice in the back of his head would go away and leave him be.

"Don't start gettin' all sappy on me—ya know that's not how I do things," Genrou put his hands on his hips and turned his head, a confident grin played on his features.

"Oh come on, we all know that you're a big softie on the inside," she snickered.

The bandit automatically responded negatively, "Like hell I am!" Clearing his throat, he tried to sound a bit more casual around the girl. "So, uh, how is…bein' dead going?" And with that was followed by a strained silence as the two stared each other down, blank looks on their faces while the question floated around in the air.

Having it all sink in, Reirei broke out in a hearty laugh. "How is being dead? What an awkward question!" She was laughing so much that she had to hold her stomach with both arms to avoid muscle pains. Seeing how she kept laughing and avoiding the query, Genrou's face started to heat up a bit when he reflected on his words. _What __else __could __I __have __said? __I __couldn__'__t __think __of __anythin__' __else!_

"Well isn't this a festive atmosphere to walk into?" From inside the mirror, a strong male voice that Genrou was used to immediately emerged from behind Reirei. And before too long, a good-looking, strongly built man who looked like he was in his early thirties, with long, pale brown hair and a few strands that hung in the middle of his face walked onto the scene. His equally brown, piercing eyes peered down at the flame-headed gawker. "Well now that everything has been worked out, we can head on back to Mt. Reikaku, resuming our previous lifestyle before things took an _unfavorable_ turn." The man emphasized the word "unfavorable", Genrou knowing fully well that the unfavorable events being the mess they had been caught up in with the Mt. Kaou bandits and that demon Dokoro.

"Ha-Hakurou!" Genrou mentioned the name of his bandit leader as he stood there before him. In the time when things were getting bad, it didn't help when the man fell ill—leaving the most deadly tasks up to Kouji, Reirei, and Genrou. Sure, everything seemed exciting to the young bandits, taking out a bunch of enemies as if they were nothing, but it escalated onto a completely different level when you had the irking feeling that someone was really going to die—and in this case, it was Reirei.

The man cocked his eyebrow up. "Why are looking at me as if you saw a ghost? You just saw me not too long ago." Before the younger bandit could say something, Hakurou's face showed evidence of an epiphany. "Oh I see, you think that I'm still sick and bed-ridden! Well, I wouldn't allow such a pesky thing such as an illness due me in. I am ready to resume my post as the leader." It was because of Hakurou's sickness that Genrou decided to go off on his own and find a cure—there was no way that he would accept losing his mentor to something so trivial.

His originally solo journey was interrupted by the incredible distraction of a mysterious, overly headstrong girl named Aki. At first, he thought of her as a _huge_ problem that would only prevent him from any kind of progress, but he was becoming more aware of how much of herself she was putting into helping him, for someone she just met one day starting on bad terms, even if the whole situation was a huge pain in the ass. Of course, he was glad that they were finally developing their friendship and hoped that things would stay that way—after all, she wasn't as bad as he initially pinned her to be. Even he had to admit that both she and Chichiri were just the people he needed to reach his goal. The question was: was there still a point in going on if everything was fine again?

"Of course," his eyes inspected Genrou, "this doesn't mean that you can't start preparing for your reign. I meant what I said before—you are to inherit the title once I am no longer fit to hold it. That is to say that you still need some growing up to do." Out of all the men in the world, Genrou looked at Hakurou as if he were the very definition of the word. From the moment the man saved him out of a tough bind, the fanged teen wanted to be the manliest tough guy around—the kind of man he saw Hakurou as. So, after a bit of proving himself, the nickname "Genrou", meaning phantom wolf, was given to him as he was welcomed into the Mt. Reikaku bandits.

His reminiscing was brought to an end when Reirei put on a jokingly grin. "Asking him to do that may be more of a challenge than it sounds."

"Hey, shut up!" Genrou yelled out with a fist up at her. Holding back on his annoyance, he addressed them both with seriousness, still contemplating what he should do regarding all the events that were unfolding. "Livin' the dream—bein' a part o' the Mt. Reikaku bandits, the best group around that no sane man would go up against. Yup, that's where the real men are—there's no doubt 'bout that," he smirked, _bein__' __the __leader __won__'__t __be __half-bad __either_, only to have it falter a few seconds later, trying to make sure that he didn't get too excited too soon. "But this whole thing—seein' you two here like this—definitely some doubts."

* * *

><p><strong>Chichiri's 3rd POV<strong>

"I don't blame you for what happened Houjun—you should stop beating yourself up because of it…"

Just like his two comrades, Chichiri had been lead into an ominous room coated in eerie energy—mirrors stood up, lined next to each other with a more prominent one in the middle. Two beings stood in the mirror, each watching Chichiri with remorseful expressions. One was a somewhat handsome man with dark blue hair that was for the most part in a bun high up on his head along with somewhat short bangs that didn't reach his teal eyes. He wore common yellow and pale blue ancient Chinese clothing. The beautiful woman next to him was a bit shorter than the man—she had elegantly long dark grey hair that mostly traveled down her spine while a part of it was moved to the front to hang over her shoulder and onto her chest. Her understanding violet eyes seemed to see right through Chichiri and into his heart, sending a wave of pain from tormenting memories.

With the severity of the situation at hand, the monk had his secret mask off, to show the scarred face hidden on the inside—showing the face that the people in the mirror were more comfortable with—the face they saw before they both perished. Chichiri stood frozen in shock from the sight of the very two people he thought he had wrongfully murdered—all because of the rage and jealousy that had taken over his heart for only a brief time, only to be immediately replaced with sorrow and regret.

"Please talk to us Houjun," the woman pleaded, calling Chichiri by his birth name, "It's been so long and we just want to make things right." With only a small portion of the shock dissolving, he inspected the perfect face of his late fiancée. _Kouran__…__could __this __really __be __you? __Or __is __my __guilty __heart __playing __cruel __tricks __on __me? _He switched his attention to the man. _And __Hiko__…__all __in __this __one __place__…_Chichiri's heart squeezed painfully in his chest—just seeing those two before him brought back the memories that he would rather have forgotten, yet have lingered with him and impacted his life greatly—making it impossible for him to ever wash the tainted-ness away.

"Look, I don't blame you for what happened," Hiko told him, "I…" the words were difficult to get out, "betrayed your trust—our friendship—so I probably deserved…my fate."

Hearing this, allowed Chichiri's voice to work properly again. "You didn't deserve death!" Clenching his fists, the monk looked down, remorse burning in his crimson eyes. "I could have tried harder to save you…" Holding the prominent scar where his eye was supposed to be, he shouted, "Losing an eye is nothing compared to losing a friend! I could have done more…" Images of that awful day replayed in his head—the powerful flood that took out his whole village, wiping out his entire family, Kouran being washed away after he caught her and Hiko kissing, his rage and wanting to kill Hiko, trying to save his best friend from the raging waves and currents, a sharped-branched tree flying out from the violent winds, impacting him in his eye, causing him to lose grip on Hiko's hand…watching him being forced away as the incredible pain from his wounded eye and heart overtook him.

Kouran was starting to cry. "I hated that the last thing I felt before dying was sadness, knowing that I would never be the right woman for you, knowing how I have been disloyal to you. I hated myself for making you feel so lonely and hurt for all this time."

Instinctively, Chichiri didn't like to see her cry, or see her sad at all, so he held out his hand in longing. "Kouran…"

Wiping away her tears, a small, hesitant smile formed on her lips. "I'll only forgive myself if you do Houjun, if you would accept, I would like to give our relationship another chance—being your wife has always been my dream, even in death. But now I'm back, so we can live happily." The world seemed to spin through Chichiri's vision as she truthfully said, "Because I still love you…so much…"

Being knowledgeable about the workings of the universe, a part of him knew fully well that what was going on wasn't real—that this was probably just another trial that Aki, Genrou, and himself had to go through, but the psychological impact of it all just made the whole experience seem so real. Even if this was fake seeing the forms of his dead fiancée and best friend, hearing them talk again—it was just too much.

He longed to be with her—to have everything right between him and his best friend. And now he was potentially being given the option to make things right again.

* * *

><p><strong>Aki's POV<strong>

Shifting uncomfortably in my spot, I contemplated whether or not it would be the right thing to do to return to their world. Of course a part of me wanted to, there was no doubt there, but I also knew that my story in their lives had ended—or could it have been that the story wasn't completed yet? Perhaps the book was being opened again and I still had a shot at my happily ever after. _But __really, __could __I __simply __just __do __that __though?_

"I don't know…" I told them as I continued to ponder on it.

"C'mon Aki!" With a satisfied smile on his face, Hikaru touched this side of the mirror with his finger. On contact, the edges of it started to glow in a rainbow stream of light—making it look like a magical ribbon that continued to play with the spectrum. "All you have to do is step through the mirror, onto our side, and you'll be livin' it up with the Host Club again!"

Being both fascinated and surprised by his words, I tried to inspect the new lining of the mirror a bit more closely. Making sure that I didn't seem too excited, I asked with a nonchalant, yet puzzled tone. "Really?"

He nodded, the happy smile on his face never faltering as he and Kaoru wrapped their arms around each others' shoulders, a pose they often liked to do. "Yup! And I swear that you will never be taken from us again—"

"You'll never have to go away!"

"We can all live happily and have the times of our lives together."

"Y'know, doing some Host Club activities here and there, finishing high school together," _I __can __see __that __they __still __refuse __to __acknowledge __the __fact __that __I__'__m __not __only __older __than __them, __but __two __grades __ahead. _Back when I was attending Ouran Academy, I wasn't present at first to establish my transcripts (I was unconscious from fighting Shadow Maidens), so the Hitachiin twins took it as their liberty to set everything up for me without my consent, putting me in their grade, their tenth grade freshmen class (that was another thing I liked better in the U.S than Japan, the schooling system—ninth grade was freshman year, not tenth) before even knowing the true details. It was still very clear that they intended on the same set up as before if I were to actually go back with them. "Making a life for ourselves—the three of us can always be together!"

Kaoru turned to Haruhi, "It can be the four of us if you want~."

"I don't want and no thank you," was what she replied with.

Hikaru snickered. "You say that now, but we already managed to get Aki, it's only a matter of time before you turn around."

"Actually, I chose _you_. So it was completely my decision," I pointed out. It was true after all. Those two had been playfully pestering me for the longest time before I had finally accepted them as friends. And I accepted Hikaru's feelings after he confessed that he wanted me to stay with him.

"In any case," the older twin moved on with the conversation, his face growing more tender and sympathetic. "I meant what I told you before you left," he started to blush with the sentimental words he was saying, "I—I mean _we_—really prefer to see it when you smile, to see you happy."

"And with the Host Club, you know that that will always be possible," Kaoru added in.

Hikaru concluded their invitation with a confident grin, "So just leave whatever drag world you're in and be with us!"

Then they both sung simultaneously, "We know you want to!" _Well __of __course __I __want __to__…__but__…_In the past—when I had first met these two, they had driven me absolutely insane with their blackmailing and constantly clinging to me and going to such lengths just so that I could loosen up and have some fun. Sure, their overall intentions were sweet, but even to this day I still thought of them as unorthodox. Whether or not I would have ended up with Hikaru in the end if they hadn't used their methods, was a complete mystery.

"I can see that you're distraught my darling little sister," my eyes widened at all-too familiar female voice, feeling the sting of a million needles impact my heart. "So let me make your decision a bit easier." Bringing my hand up to my chest, I squeezed the material from my tube top, whole body shaking as tears formed in my eyes. Breathing becomes difficult, only shorts bursts of air come out at a time while a huge lump formed in my throat.

"K-Kajou…" Barely a whisper passed through my lips. Just hearing her voice caused my body to react in such a dramatic way. Surely it was impossible. It was impossible. It was impossible…

Yet it sounded so real—as if she were really there talking to me. But it was….impossible…right? My mind must have been playing tricks on me…

A new wave of emotions emerged as a woman with long fiery hair and deep amber eyes materialized in front of the Host Club, none of them seeming surprised by the new member. But I just kept staring…staring at this impossibility forming in front of me.

Seeing old friends standing here—okay, I could handle that…more or less. Witnessing my dead older sister appear out of nowhere, the person who used to be my only purpose for living, made me want to break all of my tough-oriented, self-enforced rules to completely break down and cry. But, for the most part, I managed to keep a grip on myself. Illusion or not, the rushing memories just by seeing her face brought both pain and happiness to my soul.

"Aki," she said my name in such a warm and motherly way that compelled me to run into her arms, but I stayed firm in my spot. "My sole desire this whole time had to be with you once again. I realize that it was a mistake to leave you the way I had." She smiled, causing my heart to squeeze any more even more. "But luckily the universe had given me another chance at life, sending me to the world of your friends here." Chuckling a bit, she added, "I guess it had problems sending me directly to you. Bad reception I suppose." _That__'__s __unlikely__—__if __anything, __the __universe __did __this __just __to __mess __with __my __feelings __some __more. _And it was definitely achieving its goal—my brain had absolutely no idea how to process everything that was happening. "But I'm here now, little sister, to be with you. Just step through the mirror and I promise that everything will be alright." With my legs moving by themselves, I stepped up to the mirror, extending my arm out so that my palm touched the glass. Kajou did the same on her side, making it seem like our hands were touching. "You, I, and your friends here will always be together through thick and thin. Nothing will separate us ever again."

With all of them grouped together like that, I seriously started to consider their offer. It would have been great—no, more than great—to be able to just leave my troubles behind, not having to worry about which world I belonged in or about how long it would take to find it. I could just solve my problems then and there, my wish would finally come true. Happiness was so close, it was almost in my grasp.

All I had to do was just step through the mirror.

* * *

><p><strong>Genrou's 3rd POV<strong>

"Wait…what are ya sayin'?" Genrou looked curiously at the main mirror as its edges glowed in multiple colors.

"It's like I said, silly," Reirei held up her hand as if she were presenting something. "Just step through the mirror and we can go on dangerous and exciting adventures again!" Winking at him, she then stuck out her tongue in a cute manner. "I promise not to get stabbed again—I should probably plan things out a little better next time."

Crossing his arms, the bandit leader gave Genrou an expecting look. "You should seriously consider stepping though. Think about it—everyone will be alive and well and the Mt. Reikaku bandits will thrive. It seems to me that your choice is obvious."

"Huh…" Genrou stroked his chin while he weighed his options. _It __does __sound __like __a __pretty __sweet __deal. __And __if __what __they __are __sayin__' __is __right, __then __everything __bad __that __happened __would __be __completely __erased. _It was definitely a tough call.

Before she died, Reirei had confessed to the flame-headed bandit that she had fallen in love with him during the time they were put together due to complicated circumstances. When the memory of that came back to him, Genrou was aware of how awkward it would be to be hanging around with her again—he wouldn't have known how to act. He was fairly sure that he didn't love her back—she was his friend, there was no doubt about that, as well as a nice and exciting girl, but he was sure that his feelings didn't escalate so far as to pure infatuation. Besides, it had been a while since he's even seen Reirei, whatever romantic thoughts and feelings that he might have had (and he was pretty sure that he didn't have them), they would have withered away soon after her death.

Despite all that, though, he wouldn't deny that he wanted his friend back and he wanted everything to just work out fine.

* * *

><p><strong>Chichiri's 3rd POV<strong>

With a trail of tears running down her perfectly contoured face, Kouran spoke with a voice as soft as silk—her small, hopefully smile made Chichiri just want to melt. "I promise you, stepping through the mirror will allow us to make everything better again. Hiko and I would be alive and…and we can all live together in peace like we used to." Her expression became gloomier. "Before everything went horribly, horribly wrong."

Hiko tried to comfort her by resting his hand on her shoulder. "But it will be alright Kouran." Turning to Chichiri, he said, "Everything will be alight since it'll be like that tragedy had never even happened." If the blue-haired monk were to go through with this, the positive outcomes would be sure to uplift his life once more. Just knowing that he could take back everything that happened, make things right, stirred around his emotions in various directions. After seven years, he and Kouran could finally get married not to mention that the bond between him and his best friend would be rekindled—it was just what Chichiri had always wanted.

"Every day since then, had regretted the awful mistakes I had made—never once did I stop thinking about you two. I kept on telling myself that I had killed my fiancé _and_ my best friend. Even though I've taken on the new, more peaceful lifestyle of a monk, dedicating myself to bettering the world and vowing to never be with another woman, there was always darkness in my heart that continued to linger on from that day…" He was left alone in misery especially since he knew, in the bottom of his heart, that he could have done _something_ to prevent their deaths. _Now __all __I __have __to __do __is __step __forward__…__I __have __a __chance __to __fix __everything__…_

* * *

><p><strong>Aki's POV<strong>

"Aki please!"

"We want you back!"

"We miss you!"

"You were the coolest girl at Ouran!"

"So sweet and spicy!"

The multiple fan-girls manifested in all of the mirrors of the room, their mixed, high-pitched voices etching their way past my eardrums and into my brain, quickly forming a heavily pounding headache. My decision didn't come any faster especially with most of the Host Club, and Kajou, joining in with the girls to press on even harder. With loud words being shot at me from every direction, my brain couldn't focus properly—there wasn't even any time to think with all of the ruckus going on. The pressure from it all was bound to make me go completely insane if I didn't come to a conclusion soon.

Holding my ears and eyes shut, I tried to block out all of the noises—I needed to concentrate! _Think __about __it __Aki, __if __you __do __this, __then __you __can __finally __find __happiness __and __end __this __perilous __journey__…__or __else __you __could __be __jumping __from __world __to __world __for __the __rest __of __your __life! _All I had to do was step through, then everything would be just how I wanted it. With the dark ring gone, it would be like starting a completely new life—I'd be free.

But would it be the right thing to do?

* * *

><p><strong>Genrou's 3rd POV<strong>

"C'mon Genrou! Just step through!" Reirei cheered.

"It would be the wise thing to do," Hakurou's pale brown eyes pierced into his protégée's. "You want to show the world how much of a man you can be, right? Then this is the first step."

"I…uh…" The path wasn't clear to him—he knew that he wanted what they were offering, but there was something in between the lines, something that he was missing, that made him question what was going on. His whole body shook, hesitant to take a step forward.

* * *

><p><strong>Chichiri's 3rd POV<strong>

"Houjun…please…" Holding her hand out for Chichiri to take, Kouran continued with soft words. "Come back to me…I beg of you…"

_Should __I __do __it? __What __if__…__what __if __things __don__'__t __turn __out __right? _Clenching his fists, the monk's shoulders trembled as he stared at the floor. He thought that the decision would be easier to make, but it was turning out to be one of the hardest ones he'd ever made in his life.

* * *

><p><strong>Aki's POV<strong>

"WILL EVERYBODY JUST _SHUT_ _UP_?" My voice echoed in the peculiar space, the forceful tone caused everyone to cease their pressuring. After panting for a few seconds, I took in a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out steadily. Finally, I was able to hear myself think. It didn't take long before something came to my attention.

"Aki? Is everything okay?"

Quickly snapping my head towards my older sister, I decided that my theory was worth testing. "Kajou, let me ask you something." My voice was still a bit shaky from the previous shock, but I knew that for the sake of everything that was going on, I had to keep a sturdy tenor. "If I were to come back with you guys, would you be willing to join the Host Club and be willing to trust them as well as going along with whatever crazy scheme they have planned?"

It didn't even take long for her to come up with an answer. She just closed her eyes and smiled. "Of course, I'd do anything for you little sister." _Anything, __huh?_

"So Aki," Hikaru added in, "what do ya say? As if I even have to ask."

Searching through all of the possible outcomes, I was a bit saddened, but my answer surprisingly came as easy to me as breathing. "I can't believe that I'm going to say this, but sorry, I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request."

The twins plus Tamaki gave me blank looks. "Wait…what did she say?"

Kajou narrowed her eyes with disappointment. "She said no." They all gasped in surprise to my older sister's revelation.

"Aki-chan doesn't want to…" Mitsukuni sniffed as he held back tears. "She doesn't want to come back with us?" He looked towards me as he held onto Usa-chan tightly. "Please say it isn't true Aki-chan!"

A sad smile riddled on my face, I shook my head. "It is true—but I never said that I didn't _want_ to come along with you. It's just that, and I might be completely wrong about this, I don't believe that any of this is real." Knowing that someone was going to ask for an explanation, I decided to oblige. "My older sister Kajou, the one that I had grown up with, only trusted me, never anyone else. Not only that, but it was completely against her morals to participate in any group activities or anything like that—the Host Club is no exception." The Kajou I knew would put on an accepting face in front of the rest of society, but in truth, she only opened up to me—she only supported _me_. Addressing what Kyouya had said earlier about how the ladies had missed me, I further explained, "All of the clients…none of them should have had any memory in order to be upset about it. In fact, none of you except Kajou should have any recollection regarding my contribution to your lives. As much as I'd hate to admit it, no one is above the universe, and the universe wanted you all to forget." I was there when their memories were wiped—I had saved Tamaki and Haruhi from falling off a bridge and into the sea and after taking them back to shore, they had no idea what had just happened. The whole Host Club showed up then, not having any idea how the two of them were saved—or of the eighth member they had accepted sometime before. It was like everything we had gone through didn't matter anymore. Well in a sense, it didn't—if I couldn't get my wish granted there, then I was practically a shadow passing over their lives. The only benefit from that world was that I had a chance to train considering my friends didn't even know who I was.

As hard to accept as it was, that was the way things were.

Looking into their saddened faces, I had to fight through my own negative emotions and maintain my smile. "Really you guys…thank you for the tempting offer—no sarcasm intended." I wanted them to know that I was being completely generous with the situation. "I'd honestly love to be with you guys in a dream world where everything went my way." _But __unfortunately, __I__'__m __smart __enough __to __know __that __my __life __isn__'__t __like __that __and __it __probably __never __will __be._"It would be awesome to not have to deal with Shadow Maidens and all those forces of Darkness—always thinking that someone is trying to kill me." All I wanted was a life where people both understood and appreciated me, wanted me around despite my flaws and curse.

But…

"I'm needed right now—there are two guys I just met and I don't think that it would be cool if I completely bailed on them like that." My smile and stature became more confident the more I spoke—never did I think that I'd take back what I had said. "If you guys are all still in this spot when everything is said and done, then I will definitely take your offer into consideration!" _Well__…__probably __not._Dreams were nice and all, but unless it's for real, then I would just be fooling myself. I might as well have been watching some TV show and daydreaming all day about being part of the story. Not only would that be sad, but it would also be a tease. I'd much rather live my own fairytale and experience every minute of it.

Out of all of the people staring at me, both Kajou and Hikaru looked the most hurt. Ordinarily, I'd sympathize with their pain—since they were the reflections of my ex-boyfriend and dead sister—but I was surprised to find that I didn't feel anything at all. And I wasn't even sorry for it.

There was no point in feeling sorry for an illusion.

"Aki," Hikaru spoke as his golden eyes stared into mine, an apparent blush forming on his face. "Don't…don't you love me?"

With my expression growing somewhat serious, a mildly mischievous grin played on my lips (oxymoron-ish, I know). I held up my hand to the mirror in the shape of a gun, finger pointing straight towards the middle. "Nope—If I did, I'd still be there, wouldn't I?" Gathering up energy in my hand I casted a spell, _"__Blam __Blazer!__" _Instantly, a wave of blue energy shot out, accompanied by a light-blue beam that shattered the mirror on contact, with me making sure that my eyes were protected from the flying debris. Moving my arm from one end of the mirrors to the other, I destroyed all of them, leaving only the tiny fragments of what they used to be. The images were erased and I was just left alone with piles of shattered glass.

Part of me was regretting using such a spell for a task such as that—seeing as how a few spots on my body had been mildly slashed by some of the sharp glass shards. I chuckled nervously. _Okay, __even __I__'__ll __admit __that __that __was __a __bit __much._

Lowering my arm, I thought about what I had just told Mirror Hikaru. The more I thought about it, the more I had realized that what I had said was true. After all, my whole journey was based around who I fell in love with—it would be in the world of my true love that I would reside in. Until then, I would probably just keep jumping from world to world until the universe decided that I deserved to settle down and be happy. Knowing how twisted he universe was, though, I knew it wouldn't be giving me any breaks any time soon.

The fact was, though, that I hadn't fallen in love yet. I deeply cared about Hikaru, and at a time I might have said that I was falling for him, but I didn't love him.

When my journey began, I acknowledged that I'd be going through some pain, Taiitsukun even warned me. Some of that pain would be from leaving friends behind and severing bonds—it was in the contract after all. My story was still in motion and I wasn't looking for any shortcuts. _I__'__m __going __to __see __this __through __till __the __end, __and __hopefully __my __happy __ending __will __be __that __much __sweeter._

That is…if I even get a happy ending...

Suddenly, the world around me started to spin—no, I wasn't feeling light-headed…it was literally spinning. I sat in my spot as sturdy as I could, but with what was happening, I was reminded of a ride at an amusement park that had you hanging onto the inside of an open circle as it spun at high speeds. The atmosphere almost immediately changed as colors that were nonexistent before came into view. With the spinning actually starting to get to me, I closed my eyes to avoid dizziness from befalling onto me.

The oddest thing was that it didn't even feel like I was moving, not when I was my eyes were closed anyway. _It __was __probably __the __maze __pulling __yet __another __stunt. __Oh. __Freakin__'__. __Joy. _Feeling that I had to open them back up sooner or later, I did, only to observe my new surroundings. I found myself standing in some kind of circular area, completely surrounded by tall, thick, ominous trees that didn't even look like they could be penetrated. The ground was completely covered in mahogany dirt while the sky was split down the middle—on one side, it was completely sunny and daytime, on the other, it was deep into the night was a crescent moon shining.

_What the hell…kind of messed up place…is this? _

As I tried to figure out my next course of action, I noticed someone lying leisurely on the ground, just a few yards away from me. My eyes widened in surprise. "Genrou!"

Opening his eyes, a smile ran across his face that showed off his fangs as he snapped his upper body up to face me, still holding his heavily wounded arm that was wrapped with the fabric from my jacket. "Hiya Aki! What took ya so long?"

Putting my hands on my hips, I spoke with sarcasm in my voice. "Well _excuse_ me for taking my sweet time. So…" Somewhere in all that drama with the mirror's I refused to acknowledge that I did in fact feel a fluctuation of distressful emotions coming from Genrou. They didn't seem important to me in the moment, for obvious reasons, so I tried to keep them out of mind. Now that I saw that he was fine, I figured that it didn't hurt to at least ask. "Did you get thrown into a room full of mirrors that made you recall memories and emotions that you would have rather forgotten or kept buried?" For some reason, my sentence came out so fast that I was worried that he wouldn't understand what I had said.

Somehow, he managed to catch the gist of it. "Yup." I honestly didn't expect him to tell me what he saw, but he did. "I got ta see an old friend o' mine, this chick named Reirei who died a little while ago, and the Mt. Reikaku bandit leader Hakurou, who wasn't sick anymore. The deal actually seemed pretty sweet, but I knew that it was too good ta be true." _So __they tempted __him __with __the __revival __of __a __dead __friend __and __the __good __health __of __his __leader. __This __maze __sure __has __a __way __with __screwing __with __someone. _Part of me figured that he was going to ask what happened with me, but I was rather astonished when he said, "If ya don't wanna tell me what happened ta you, then it's fine. I don't want wanna reopen old wounds."

His sincerity kind of impressed me—I didn't expect him to be like that…I kind of pinned him as the type of person to hound someone for information regardless of whether they wanted to open up or not. Face flushing slightly, I decided to at least return the favor since he told me. I looked away to avoid his eyes as I spoke. "Believe me…you wouldn't be opening up old wounds that weren't already violated by this stupid maze. I was just…" My expression fell as the painful feelings came trickling back. "Paid a visit by the Host Club and my deceased older sister. They wanted me to join them, but something about it didn't seem right…So I declined their offer…" Back when I had to make the decision, it didn't seem so hard, but thinking about it showed me just how huge it was. Deep inside, I knew that I was actually pretty close to stepping through. Shaking my head, I changed the subject to avoid further sentimentality. "By the way, has Chichiri made his way back yet?"

"Not that I can see—I was the first one here," he told me. _Hmm__…__so __he__'__s __still __stuck __in __there__—_

"You called?" Out of nowhere, the blue-haired wonder himself popped out of nowhere, causing me to jump a bit, but not as drastically as when we first met.

Sighing, I held a fist up at him. "Dammit Chichiri, it's _never_ cool when you do that!"

Holding up both of his hands in defense, he smiled playfully with that fox-like mask of his. "I'm sorry ya know? But since we're all sharing what we went through, I'm going to admit that I was tempted with a world that had peace on earth and good will towards men, ya know?"

_Why __the __heck __does __he __sound __like __a __Christmas __special? _Grimacing, I told him flatly, "You know, if you're going to lie about it, at least say something that's a bit more convincing."

Remaining in his perky state, he said, "I don't have the foggiest idea as to what you're talking about, ya know?"

"Uh-huh…"

Genrou jumped up onto his feet, quite skillfully I might add, as he dusted himself off and walked up to us. "Instead of debatin' whether er not Chichiri's story checks out, how about we find our way outta this whacky place once an' fer all. The hijinks are really gettin' on my nerves—"

_Smack!_

In the blink of an eye, my whole hand stung as I left it extended out in front of me—Genrou, with a dumbstruck look in his eyes, held his now reddened cheek with the hand on his good arm. My eyes grew from the shock of my actions.

"Wha—wha—" I tried to speak.

"What the hell Aki?" Genrou shouted with anger in his voice, still tending to the side of his face. "Why did'ja slap me?"

Feverishly shaking my head, I did my best to explain this peculiar phenomenon. "I-I didn't. I-I-I mean, I don't know why. I—"

"You what?"

"I didn't do it on purpose—I didn't even know that I was going to do that." That was one of the weirdest sensations I had ever felt—not being able to control your own actions, it was like my arm was completely dead and someone decided to move it for me.

"What? That's such a load of—" Genrou hesitated with the last words of his sentence, an expression of aggravation and determination appearing on his features. "Hey, wait a minute…why can't I move?" I could tell that he was trying to change his position, but all I could see was his body vibrating vigorously.

"H-Hey, he's right! I can't move either, ya know?"

Testing it out for myself, I found that my body felt as if there were no structural bones holding it up, and yet I was still perfectly in place. The harder I tried to move even a finger, the more I realized how futile it was—I was frozen, feeling, for the most part, mortified that the messages my brain was sending to my limbs weren't processing as efficiently as they should. My arm was supposed to move, on my command, but it was like heavy steel chains were holding them in place.

"It won't be long folks, until our next exciting show begins!" There was that same deep male voice we heard roaring from a speaker when this whole circus fiasco began. Turns out that the originator of the voice had been keeping up with us throughout our experiences. It was about time that the guy came out of the shadows. _We __take __him __out, __and __I__'__m __guessing __that __this __whole maze __ordeal __will __be __over __with._

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see what seemed like a little boy of about nine or ten dressed in a modern ring-master outfit—containing a black top hat, his dirty blonde hair sticking out from around the circumference, a long cape, and a performance tuxedo underneath (bow tie and all). In his hand was a large white megaphone in which he spoke into. "It would seem that our performers are completely astounded by the sight they see before them—especially the lovely lady with the red eyes." He took the device away from his mouth, his real voice actually sounding a bit high-pitched—the kind of voice you'd normally expect from a kid his age. "Isn't this a lot of fun?" _What? __He__'__s __been __using __the __megaphone __to __disguise __his __voice? __Who __is __this __little __boy?_

"Fun my ass!" Genrou proclaimed, still making an attempt to move. "Who are ya kid and what is goin' on here?"

The little ring-master stuck out his tongue as he made his way into our little frozen circle. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Look, this doesn't make any sense." While I talked to him, part of my brain was doing its best to come up with a reasonable plan to make it out of this predicament. "Everything that happened in this whole circus—even your clothes—are modern in my case but way too futuristic for this particular world. So how can this even be possible?"

The ring master laughed as he chucked the megaphone in some random direction, just one bounce on the ground and it disappeared into thin air. "Out of all people Akimoto, you should know that the universe is capable of many things and is present in every world. So the ideas presented here aren't exactly foreign." _Of __course __a __minion __of __the __universe __knows __my __name. __I __must __be __a __popular __topic __at __board __meetings._

"You don't speak like a normal little kid, ya know?" Chichiri noticed.

"Well, technically I can take on any form I want, but I figured that you lower-life forms would be able to comprehend my being with this body more easily. But enough about all of the technical stuff," he lifted his arms into the air as if he were about to announce something. "It's time for the puppet show to begin! After all, what's a circus without a good puppet show?" I was about to ask what he was going to use for puppets, but a deep nauseating feeling overwhelmed me as I remembered how I had slapped Genrou without any control of my actions. The question wasn't _what_ he was going to use as the puppets, it was _who_ he was going to use.

"Oh God…" I whispered in horror.

"It looks like the lady figured it out. I'm afraid that it won't help you much though. But don't worry…" Using some mysterious powers, he jumped effortlessly across the circle, a good twenty yards in just one leap. "We're going to have _lots_ of fun." With my body faced in one direction, I couldn't quite tell what the kid was doing just by looking out of the corner of my eye. But I did feel an odd sensation from the very middle of my back. Glancing across at Genrou, I saw a faint, single reflective string coming from his back that happened to trace back to the no-good ringmaster. The situation wasn't looking any better than when we had first begun. "It's time for the fairytale to begin. Places my puppets!" My legs involuntarily moved me to the center of the circle, refusing to listen when I told them to stop. "Once upon a time, there was a young girl who had a horrible and lonely childhood. Her parents were neglectful and the only person she had come to know and love had died a horrible death." _What? __Is __he __telling __my __life__'__s __story?_" She found that her only friend in the world was a little, blue-haired cat." Chichiri immediately showed up at my side, except he was on the ground on all fours.

"Umm…cat?" _Since __when __did __I __have __a __cat __sidekick?_

"Hey, why am I the cat, meow?" The monk complained.

I groaned as mentally slapped my forehead. "If you don't like the role, then don't play the part by meowing."

The kid snickered. "Your face sort of called for it." _Except __his __mask __reminds __one __more __of __a __fox._ "Now, don't interrupt me!" He cleared his throat. "Anyway…the cat could tell that the girl was very lonely, even if she did have to constantly fight ninja's on a daily basis."

"Ninjas?" My body moved by itself again, this time, it hopped around, and threw random punches and kicks to no particular target. Part of me ignored my actions as I yelled back at the kid. "Ninjas? Really? Where the hell are you basing your information off of kid?" I felt completely stupid for attacking nothing—anyone on the outside looking at my performance would probably think I was crazy or something. Even though I wasn't moving on my own accord, I was still starting to feel the fatigue of all of the physical movements (added on to the weariness I was already feeling from this trials' activities).

He ignored my commentary. "Her pet cat could tell that she was growing weary with life, so he decided to go out on a long, perilous journey and grant her wish of true happiness and belonging." With that, Chichiri started to awkwardly run on all fours around the edge of the circular grounds, meowing as if he were a real cat (it was getting hard to discern whether or not he was making those sounds on purpose). The whole thing looked rather goofy—in fact, if I didn't believe that this puppet show would end in our doom, I'd be pretty entertained with someone making the monk prance around as if he were really a feline. It was even less funny in my case since I never stopped attacking nothing—so as Chichiri ran, I kept fighting. This whole puppet show business was already becoming a huge pain in the ass.

Genrou stood on one side of the circle, doing absolutely nothing as he forcibly waited for his part to be called. The "cat" Chichiri made his way over to the bandit and abruptly stopped in front of him.

"Okay, I'll admit that you playin' the part of a cat is actually pretty priceless," The fanged-bandit couldn't help but laugh a bit.

"I thought you were in a bad mood about this?" Chichiri asked.

"Of course I'm pissed with not bein' able to move, but sorta hard to be with the stuff that's goin on with you two. That kid has a sense of humor!"

"Don't laugh for too long, ya know? You still don't know what role _you__'__re_ gonna play."

Continuing on with the story, the ring-master made Genrou walk steadily towards the center—my location. "The cat was able to locate a noble prince from a faraway land—a man who also wishes to find happiness with love." _Wait__…__Genrou__'__s __the __prince? __What __a __slap __in __the __face __to __him__…__ha! _Considering every fairytale that was ever told, my somewhat amused face went grim. _If __he__'__s __the __prince, __and __I__'__m __the __damsel __(damn __that __kid __by __the __way), __then __this __story __can __only __turn __out __one __way. __Crap._ "With the help of the cat, the prince was able to make his way back to the lonely young girl." With Chichiri at his side, and still on all fours, the two made got closer and closer to my location. The only relief being that my body had finally halted, allowing me to finally get a breather before the storm.

In the final few feet, the monk stopped in his tracks, but Genrou persisted, right up until he and I were standing straight up, facing each other. "Now that the prince and the young girl had found one another, they could have their first kiss, establishing their everlasting love."

The both of us feeling a sense of alarm almost immediately, we both shouted out, "Say what?" _Like __I __didn__'__t __expect __it. __Damn __my __intuition. _This was one of those times when I really, _really_ didn't want to be right.

The kid laughed. "Of course you guys have to kiss! It wouldn't be a proper story otherwise!" _This __little __boy __obviously __wasn__'__t __deprived __of __Disney __movies __while __growing __up. _He didn't hesitate with having Genrou put his working hand on my shoulders, sending an immediate shock throughout my system as our bodies got closer together. Instead of having looks of passion and desire, as one would see with a lover or significant other, we both had the most uncomfortable looks on our faces as the mysterious force slowly brought him down just a few inches from my lips. Fortunately, with the intense and increased reason to break free, the force of our willpower made it more difficult for whatever the power was to make us actually make contact…well, not on the lips anyway. With an extra push, Genrou actually managed to kiss my forehead, causing me to blush feverishly, my body temperature rising considerably. _At __least __he __only __got __my __head, __right?_

"Aww man, you guys missed—let's try it again, shall we?"

Genrou broke away, him obviously flushed as he spoke uneasily. "We—uh…um…" He growled. "There's no way that we're lettin' this kid have what he wants!"

"I get what you're saying, but even I have to admit that it won't be that easy…" Once again, he was lowering his head in order to make the proper move towards me, the two of us continuing to shake and break the ring-master's hold on us. Who would have thought that such a cliché storyline would end up working against my favor?

This time, however, we managed to fight off the kid's control, making sure that the last action—or any version of it—wasn't repeated. What I wasn't appreciating was the fact that my energy was starting to deplete considerably with the extra effort I had to put in to stop us from doing something that would ruin our newfound friendship.

"Okay what gives? You two won't cooperate!"

"Of course we won't cooperate you demented little—"

"Oh I get it!" Hitting a light fist in his hand, an idea sprung into the kid's head. "You two don't want to do the normal thing because that what the young girl and the prince always do. I mean a small kiss, how _plain_!" A wave of relief overcame me as my heartbeat finally started to slow down. That was when a bombshell was dropped on us. He spoke with a sinister voice, sending a chill down my spine—this time I was actually hoping that Shadow Maidens would swoop down and attack. Oh how much I wished that those bitches would provide a delightfully lethal distraction at that moment. "We'll actually take it a step further. There's only one way for two people to express their love and physical needs—this will be the fairytale to tell the truth of what happens after the wedding—or perhaps even _before_."

I had just become friends with the guy—he wasn't as bad as I initially thought, in fact I was actually considering him a good buddy one would say. But I did not, under no circumstances ever want to have sex with him, let alone kiss him.

When Genrou unwillingly slid my jacket off, exposing my bare shoulders and mostly uncovered upper body (I mean come on, a tube top that showed a few inches of my stomach didn't exactly hide a whole lot).

As it hit the ground, I impulsively shouted out, "What kind of a little kid are you? You shouldn't even know about adult things like this. Besides that, no freakin' fairytale is _that_ graphic!"

"I'm not an ignorant child Akimoto, remember? Plus, I control the story, so it can go in whatever direction I wish it to. For example…" The jacket that was on the ground was immediately torn into shreds, leaving me rather upset from Emiko's gift being utterly destroyed. _That. __Little. __Bastard! _"I've already destroyed one article of clothing of yours, now how about you get rid of that pesky top?" Reaching down to the tight hem of my shirt, my arms were crossed in position to slip right off of my body.

_Hell to the no. _

"Chichiri! Help us!" In some situations, I'd say that it was appropriate to ask for assistance—it was definitely not the time to allow my pride to take over. Much to my dismay, he was reduced to running around the grounds just as he was doing before—the problem being that he was absolutely no help to us.

"Kid, you are dead once I'm outta here." Genrou threatened. "Don't think I'll go easy on ya just 'cause yer a squirt."

Feeling enraged at the tiny ring-master as well, I added in my thoughts. "You will suffer the new meaning to the term corporal punishment!"

The kid didn't seem to feel very threatened since all he did was grin and move his hand around. _That __must __be __where __the __strings __are __coming __from! _My thoughts were immediately broken as I felt Genrou's firm hands on my waist, my skin feeling the warmth of his touch and the familiar shock that it brought as he slowly attempted to lift my top off.

With my whole face completely red by this point, my nerves couldn't take much more.

So I completely snapped.

Closing my eyes, I released the hold on my energy and allowed it to painfully rush out of my being and onto the physical field, causing a considerable strain on my body. The silver veins covering my body started to glow bindingly as a plethora of spells shot out of various spaces, going in every direction possible. Without proper concentration or direction of the collections of energy, they weren't fully mature, going haywire, hitting everything and immediately exploding on contact.

Ground shaking from all of the violent impacts, clouds of smoke was beginning to engulf the whole area as craters of all sizes were etched into the ground. Everywhere you turned was a quick flash of light before it totally combusted, threatening to destroy any living thing that dared to get in its way.

"Aki, you have ta calm down!" Genrou tried to break through my unconscious actions. "Otherwise, all of us will be reduced ta nothin' but ashes."

There was too much going on—I couldn't grasp onto my thoughts enough to focus properly. The high concentrations of emotions were loosening the grip on my supposedly disciplined control. "I. C-Can't!"

"Argh!" The kid stomped a foot forward in frustration. "You're ruining everything!" Lifting up one of his arms high over his head, my body also lifted up from my spot. He then swiftly brought his arm down, his motion making me slam right into the ground, stomach first—the incredible pain overwhelming my body as the wind was knocked out of me.

"Aki!" Genrou and Chichiri yelled out in panic. Repeating the notion quite a few times, my controller continued to bring extreme agony to me, and although I couldn't control my body, it didn't take away from the fact that I felt like every bone in my body was breaking each time I was crashed into the hard, unforgiving ground. The flow of energy soon deceased—followed by violent spells ceasing completely. But that was hardly my main concern. My brain was starting to completely stop functioning as numbness befell onto my body, I was actually starting to black out.

With another wave of his hand, the kid tossed me aside, my body rolling across the ground—pain erupting over and over as I continued to hit the ground mid-roll—as it came to a halt—my lack of movement probably convincing the guy that I was knocked out.

"Aki…" Genrou spoke in a dreadful tone, cursing silently to himself. "You will _pay_ for that!" Extreme hate was slathered onto his words.

The ring master sneered. "It had to be done—no one wants a broken toy after all. So she had to be thrown away." Keeping one eye open, I noticed how he put a finger under his chin as a thinking notion. "But what shall I do now that my main character is out of the picture?"

Feeling warm blood trickling to the ground from a gouge in my head, and no doubtingly my exposed knees as well as shoulders, it took every fiber of my being to stay conscious. Chances were that the kid had lost his grip on me and I was free from his control. All it took was the shifting of my arm to confirm just that. Smiling with newfound hope, I waited for my chance to strike, reserving as much of what was left of my energy as I could.

Closing my eyes for only a split second, I used the technique to see auras in order to locate the vexatious string connecting Chichiri and Genrou to the ring-master. _There __they __are!_The strings, just like its master, had an ominous red halo covering themselves, making their location as clear as day.

With one last burst of adrenaline, I jumped up onto my knees, alarming the kid, and casted a simple spell, gathering the familiar Wind to my hand. _"__Saisu!__" _The crescent-shaped blade of Wind shot out from my hand, effortlessly snapped the strings. All of us were finally free.

Both Chichiri and Genrou must have caught onto what had just happened, since it didn't take long for the both of them to surround the kid with homicidal expressions hanging off their faces. "Now kid, you die!"

The little boy had a stray tear running down his face as he started to pout. "I can't believe you lame bunch actually managed to completely ruin my show! You guys aren't very good sports!"

Thinking that we had finally won, I breathed a sigh of relief as I finally gave myself a chance to relax. But I was more surprised to find that I could stand up perfectly without even trying—as if my body wasn't even processing the incredible pain that it had been forced to endure. Developing a sense of empowerment, I tried to test my mysterious surge of physical confidence by taking a step towards the sadistic little creep.

But how come my legs wouldn't work?

Every inch of my being was drowned in horror and disbelief as I slowly trailed my eyes up at our circus-themed undertaker.

His faked frown sinisterly twisted up into a merciless smile. "By the look on Akimoto's face, I'm going to assume that she's figured out that the show isn't quite over yet. In fact, I'd say that we're hitting our _grand_ _finale_."

Genrou and Chichiri looked over at me with bewildered and worried faces. "What's up Aki? We finally got this chump backed into a corner."

"We're gonna win, ya know?"

My intention was to shake my head dramatically, but even that simple motion was impossible for me to pursue. "No, you guys…I—" Blinking hard, I felt a wave of anger and incredible annoyance overrun my being. "You!" Without the ability to turn my head and point, I glared at the kid with intensity, hoping that my crimson eyes installed fear into his heart. "How the hell were you able to do this? I—"

"Save your breath lady. I'll give you the explanation so just keep your bra on and listen: I knew that Akimoto would probably find a way to escape and if not, I'd arrange it so that she would. I allowed her to think that she was free and sort of counted on her releasing her friends too." His smile widened. "And now…she changed the rules of the game. With just her under my control, the real fun can finally begin."

"I don't understand. Why didn't you just control only me in the first place if that was your plan all along? Why go through all of that other stuff from before?"

He giggled as he adjusted his top hat. "Why else? It was fun—you know, entertaining. Where's the fun in holding all of the cards if you just get straight to the point? It's boring doing things that way." _Dammit, __I __underestimated __him! _"Now be a good lady and disintegrate your friends for me…and make it extra flashy."

My arms started to rise up towards my comrades, as reserve energy flowed to my fingertips. _That __kid __is __going __to __make __me __fight __them! _I tried to put everything I had into lowering my arm, but there was just no use, my body once again felt like it no longer belonged to me anymore—as if I was just the one going along for the ride at this point. _Wait __a __second, __that __kid __forgot __how __one __of __the __conditions __I __needed __to __conduct __a __proper __spell __was __direction. __He __already __has __me __facing __Genrou, __and __he__'__s __collecting __my __energy. _It would be risky, but I had a plan. I just hoped that no one would be regretting anything from it.

_That __jerk __will __regret __messing __with __me!__ "__Saifogeo!__" _A long pink sword manifested between Genrou and I, the point aimed towards his chest. With the help of another mental push, I ran him straight through, his eyes enlarging from surprise.

"Genrou no!" Chichiri yelled.

The bandit shakily looked down at the sword that had pierced him. "A-Aki…why?"

Laughing manically, the kid jumped around in his spot. "It wasn't the flashiest performance I've ever seen, but the shock factor is rather high, so I approve!" To everyone else's disbelief, a rather confident grin played on my lips. "She's…she's smiling?"

"Kid, you _really_ should have done your homework when you were devising this little plan. If you had known how my spells worked—or even the different types—then you wouldn't have practically handed my side the home-field advantage." Seeing the puzzled look on his face, I explained further. "You see, the _Saifogeo _spell is a healing spell." A small gasp escaped past his lips. "I'm fully aware that my body is messed up right now, and that my energy is practically dead until I can get a chance to recharge. So as far as this battle goes, I have…probably lost. But as long as my friends can keep going, then at least there will be someone to take you down." _At __my __expense. __The _Saifogeo _spell __does __the __trick, __but __it__'__s __only __for __emergencies. _When all of the pink coloring of the sword drained into Genrou's body, my own health energy transferred into him, leaving me considerably weakened, and in this case (how beat up I was at the time of the spell-casting), even more so. I had no choice but to do it. With his hurt arm, Genrou wouldn't be able to take me on in a fight. Now both he and Chichiri could defeat my uncontrolled self without any problems.

The sword disappeared as soon as my power was drained—the bandit held up his once hurt arm and inspected it, only to find that it was completely healed. "Wow! I can't believe it, I feel great!"

I panted as exhaustion flushed throughout me, eyes drooping, and body feeling as if it suddenly got heavier. "That's great Genrou. Now you two need to end this, please."

He punched his hand and glared at the kid with determination burning in his amber eyes. "You bet!" Realizing the state I was in, his face softened up a bit. "But you're too weak…"

"You're darn right she's too weak!" The kid shouted out as he pointed at the three of us. "And now nothing will prevent me from using her to destroy you all! I will have my grand finale!"

Even with how weary I was, I apparently had enough willpower to forcibly turn my head and face the little brat. "You know what? I'll be damned if I let a little kid order me around."

His eyes narrowed evilly when a menacing idea erupted in his head. "So be it." From the palm of his hand shot out a current of electricity that traveled down the line of the string attached to my back. Before another thought could even process through my brain, an intense, burning jolt violently shook every organ in my body—my insides feeling as if they were on fire as my vision switched from colors red and black both simultaneously, and separately. The torture seemed to last for an eternity, but I knew that it had only been a few seconds—probably not even that. I could feel myself becoming detached from my body, from the world as the pain was slowly deteriorating. Nothing could be seen through my eyes anymore, and I couldn't even remember if I was screaming or if it was somebody else. All I knew was that my world was turning into an inviting darkness that somehow seemed to make…me…feel…free…

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><p><strong>Genrou's 3rd POV<strong>

For some reason, Aki seemed to completely lose her energy—her eyes were still open, but her head hung as if she were asleep. Smoke could be seen emitting from her, even at a distance. The tiny bastard was still keeping her up with this ominous strings of his, still believing that this was some sort of puppet show. The flame-headed bandit told himself that there was no way in hell that he would let that guy continue to take advantage of her.

"Well I think we'll find that she _won__'__t_ be bothering us anymore." The kid snickered. _Wait, __what __does __he __mean __by __that? _Genrou asked himself. "I guess when it comes down to it, a _lifeless_ doll is better than one with spirit." He shrugged. "Teach his own I suppose."

"There's no way…"

"Genrou, you have to focus. What's done is done, ya know? We can't afford to take our eyes off of this kid!" Chichiri stood with his staff at the ready, but he had an atmosphere of dread about him—there was something he wasn't telling Genrou.

"Yeah but…why isn't she sayin' anything?" He tried his best to look her in the eye, but to no avail. His voice became shaky as he spoke. "C-C'mon Aki, you always say somethin' at times like this. Stop pretendin' an' resist 'im already!" A blade of Wind slashed up in front of him, had he taken another step forward, he might not have even had a head anymore. "Aki?"

A sphere of sharp currents of Wind completely surrounded their crimson-eyed companion while the kid floated up into the sky above her. "The final act of the show is entitled 'Do or Die'. I don't care which one it is, as long as you keep me entertained. So says the great ring-master!" As he disappeared into thin air, Aki immediately dashed from her spot to attack her friends, the sphere around her doing most of the work. Chichiri was able to keep her at bay with his staff, making sure that she never made contact with his body—at the high speeds the winds around her were going, even touching attempting to touch her meant losing a body part. Unfortunately, Genrou had nothing to protect himself with, so all he could do, to his intense dislike, was dodge her with his super-human speed. He knew that he could just end all of it if he managed to find that little coward who disappeared.

The force field seemed to only keep the girl at bay for a little while. Chichiri was starting to lose his advantage when she decided to use more force to push him into submission on his knees. It was getting harder for him to even see as her Wind sphere managed to summon up every particle of dirt in the surrounding area. The monk must have known that he could probably take her since she purposely used up her energy for the sake of the kid not taking advantage of her powers. The only thing she was capable of at that moment was the manipulation of her natural-born element. Genrou knew that he had to do something soon or else Chichiri was a goner—even if she were being controlled, Aki was still one of the most dangerous individuals he had ever met.

If only the two of them weren't so hesitant to attack her.

Suddenly, the flame-headed bandit could hear his comrade's voice in his head. _'__Genrou __I __have __an __idea. __But __you __have __to __distract __Aki__—__or __the child__…__however __this __whole __thing __works, __ya __know?__'_

_Distract 'er? Them…whatever…Distract 'em? How do you expect me to do that? _

'_Think of something!'_

Looking all around, Genrou tried to see if he could spot the kid all on his own, then he would show him no mercy for all the crap he had put the trio through. He groaned in frustration when he found that he didn't exactly have the same abilities as his magically inclined friends. Taking notice of a hand-sized rock on the ground next to him, he absentmindedly picked it up and threw it at the sorceress with force…only to have the rock completely disintegrate as it made contact with her sphere.

"A rock?" Chichiri yelled out in irritation. "You threw a _rock_?"

"You said to think of somethin'…"

"Yes and that requires actually thinking, ya know?"

The kid's mocking voice echoed all around. "You're not very bright are you?"

Feeling insulted at how both his enemy and his friend belittled his fast acting, he growled with a hint of a blush on his face. _Yeah, __I__'__m __sure __that __Aki __woulda __contributed __to __their __little __put-down __fest._"You know what you brat? If yer so tough, then stop playin' with us and fight like a man! Quit usin' Aki fer yer own selfish amusement!"

Instead of coming into view, the mysterious kid's voice just rang out from nowhere. "No, I don't think that I will. But hey, instead of just ending your existence this way, how about we add in some drama and tease you a bit first? After all, we are still trying to put on a show." The woman immediately withdrew her energy, standing on the ground in front of Chichiri without a word.

She started to levitate, floating herself over to Genrou who was still probably playing the part of the prince in this little performance. Without even stopping, she opened her arms to him and wrapped them around his waist, bringing them together once again. As his whole body started to heat up, he wasn't quite sure on how to react or deal with the situation at hand. Was he supposed to attack her? Or should he just leave her there and hope she comes back to her senses? Aki tightened her hold on him as she laid her head against his fast beating chest. He didn't return the gesture of course—in fact his body stiffened up at her touch, making sure that his arms weren't making any sort of contact with her. This ordeal was already making him blush like crazy not to mention that—_Wait__…__somethin__'__s __wrong. _He didn't feel anything from her. In the past, whenever the two of them touched at a time of high emotional level, there would be a pleasant shock surging through their systems. It had been like that ever since the two of them met, even when they absolutely couldn't stand one another—he didn't exactly know why it happened, and it sort of annoyed him, but he had learned to live with it. But regardless of all that, he wasn't receiving any spark at all. Considering the embarrassing predicament the two of them were caught in, he knew that Aki would have normally blown her top by this point. She was completely calm though…not even a word came from her.

"Aki…why don't'cha talk to me?" No answer. "Yer stronger than this, don't let that bastard control you dammit!" She just wouldn't talk, but her embrace never weakened. Grinding his teeth, he thought to himself, _what __can __I __do? __If __I __attack __her__…__dammit,__what __do __I __do?_

When he closed his eyes to think, a voice rang in his head, but it wasn't Chichiri's or the kid's. A woman's face came into his thoughts, a rather pissed off look in her red eyes as she stood with her arms crossed. _'__What __the __hell __do __you __think __you__'__re __doing __Genrou?__'_

_Huh? _

'_I can't believe you'd let me just shamelessly hug you like that…I wouldn't hug you like that you moron! Why are you just standing there?'_

_Aki? How're ya—_

'_Focus on the problem at hand. I've never seen you hesitate before. Had this been any other time, you wouldn't even think twice about attacking me—you'd just do it.'_

She was right—the two of them sparred and argued almost all the time. And during that fight when they first met, he didn't need much motivation—some taunting maybe—to go all out and show her up.

But something was different—either the situation or the timing of it…it didn't seem right.

'_You__'__re __insulting __me __by __doing __nothing. __Look, __this __is __the __one __time __I'__m __giving __you __permission __to __win.__ '__Cause __we __all __know __that __you __probably __wouldn__'__t __be __able __to __do __it __any __other __way.__' _The smugness in her voice made him want to start a heated argument, but he knew that it wasn't the time. He also knew that she was baiting him on purpose in order to get him fired up.

It was working.

"Genrou!" Chichiri's voice called out.

Without even thinking, the bandit pushed the girl away, grabbing her right wrist as it was held out extended to the side. In her hand was that weapon of hers, the kunai, aimed right for him. There was no doubt that Aki was about to stab him in the back during her false hug. Remembering her "motivational" words, he used his other hand to flip her over his shoulder, landing on the ground behind him, facing straight up on her back. When she tried to struggle back up, she clenched weapon in her hands and charged at Genrou. From the side came a wide beam of blue light that unexpectedly caught Aki, sending her clear across the circle. Chichiri's attack luckily managed to make her lose her grip on the kunai, causing her to drop it right as the blast hit her.

"Wait a second…you two weren't actually supposed to attack her!" The two still standing could tell from the somewhat enraged, disembodied voice that the kid was getting frustrated—sincerely frustrated, not like those fake tears that were shed before.

"Now's our chance!" The monk called out.

Genrou nodded, and sprinted forward without hesitation. "You got it!" As the dust from the kicked up dirt settled, Aki had somehow ended up being lifted up from the ground as the bandit forcibly bound her with a bear hug. Tightening his embrace, he made sure that she wouldn't be able to properly move or do any unnecessary attacks any time soon. Luck played on his side this time—he knew that although she was a master with magic, her physical strength leaved a lot to be desired, so keeping her perfectly in place served no issue. While she tried to struggle free, Genrou could feel the tug of the invisible string on her back—the kid was having trouble manipulating her as long has her body was tied up.

"Hold on a second—let go of my puppet! This is not how the story goes!" The kid whined with a fury.

Nonchalantly walking up to his two friends, the playful yet confident smile on Chichiri's face was directed to a seemingly blank, elevated spot in the air behind Aki. "This story was yours at first, ya know? But I hope you don't mind if we make a few changes." Putting us finger out, the monk seemed to have strung the vexatious line coming from the woman. "Now that you can't move her around, she can no longer serve as your body guard and plaything, ya know?"

"S-So what? You still can't see me and I can always disconnect from her." There was a nervous shakiness in the kid's voice, making him actually sound like a scarred child.

"It's not exactly like seeing you was really the issue, ya know? We were more concerned with Aki's safety more than anything else. But now that we have her, we can focus on you!"

"B-B-But I can still disconne—"

"Nope. Sorry that's not an option either." Chichiri held up his finger as he explained. "Both of my friends here are familiar with a little spell of mine where I can bind two things together, ya know?" He inspected the still struggling girl in Genrou's arms, feeling sorry that he didn't think of this plan sooner. "When you decided to put your attention back onto the story containing the prince and the young girl, I took the opportunity to cast a spell to where you could never detach yourself from the string, ya know? It sort of helped that your string has an aura to it—somehow like a living thing—I was able to make sure that you didn't pull any more tricks on us—"

To conclude the little explanation, Genrou yelled out, "So it's curtain's fer yer little puppet show ya puny sadistic bastard!" With that, Chichiri's hand started to glow a bright, pale-blue color. Lowering his hand down to the string, a violent shockwave traveled upwards, hitting a target as it screamed in agony. The continuous flow of energy started to make the invisible form to flicker in and out, right until the solid form of the oddly dressed kid came into full view. His hat fell off of his head and onto the ground as the burning torment persisted. Eventually, the light began to consume the small body as the yells turned into screeches. With one more push of might, an explosion of blue detonated in the very same spot, causing both Chichiri and Genrou to shield their eyes from the blinding light.

Aki's suddenly became heavier as the flame-headed bandit relaxed his hold on the girl. Lowering her gently to the ground, he found that her head had absolutely no support to it at all—it fell over, limp, just like the rest of her body. Laying her out flat, the two companions fell to their knees to observe the damages.

She had dark bruises, scratches, and deep gouges on various parts of her—her once pale skin painted in bloody red and dirty with the clinging dirt of the battlefield.

Seeing her like this, so fragile and motionless, seemed to stab Genrou in the heart—it immediately brought back the images of his friend Reirei's death. But he knew that this wasn't going to turn out like that. Aki could fight through virtually anything—never even admitting when she was afraid or out of her league…then again, from the little time that he's known the woman, it seemed as if those issues were never really the case.

"Alright Aki, enough is enough. We beat the crap outta that brat, so you can wake up now." He grinned, thinking that she was aware of his words and actions. "Yer never gonna hear the end of it ya know. _We_ took out someone that gave ya trouble. Fer once, we saved the day…" His voice trailed off as he looked across at Chichiri. He was looking down and away with a grim look riddled on his usually cheerful features, refusing to glance at the scene in front of him. "Wait…what's wrong Chichiri? We won! She's just bein' a big drama queen…right?" A few second later, he gasped, staring into her still opened eyes. They lacked the life, pain, intimidation, and depth—not to mention smugness—that they usually possessed with their deep red irises. In fact, they were completely blank, unobserving….dead.

_There__'__s __just __no __way__…_

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><p><strong>Huh…things aren't looking too good here are they? If u wanna know what happens next, sit tight for the next chapter (which might take a while...I apologize in advance)!<strong>

**PLEASE REVIEW! And tell ur friends too (I'd love for my story to be shared, it adds an extra year to my life XD)!**

**Luv u all for continuing to read! (wow…30 chapters…it feels like this had been going on for a while—I feel so accomplished! I gotta say that at first I didn't think that I had the motivation to keep on going with this, but this story is my baby and u guys have been so awesome with reading. So its thanx to u that I can go on! Thank you!)**

**A new pic has been added to DA, so make sure u check it out!**

**C****ya!****^_^**

**Oh yeah! IMPORTANT INFORMATION! I'm thinking of drawing a Christmas/Holiday portrait with Aki and another character, but I'm going to let you decide who! Along with your initial reviews, give me the name of one person, literally anyone from the whole _Love __Hurts __5 __Ways _storyline so far, and I will draw an holiday pic with Aki and that character. From ur reviews, I will tally up which name occurs the most. U guys have 1-2 weeks so start deciding! **

**The pic will be posted up on DA after it is completed. Kk? **

**Until next time!**


	31. When One Door Closes

**ATTENTION: FINALS ARE OVER AND I HAVE COMPLETED MY 1ST SEMESTER OF COLLEGE. WHOOO! =D**

**Hey everyone! It's time for the next chapter! I still can't believe that's it's been 30 (technically 31 now…) chapters! I feel like I should celebrate or something…nah I think that when we get to 50, then THAT will be something to party about. Hehe…but just one step at a time! **

**Anyway…thank you all so much for reading and your reviews last chapter. As always I love them and you guys for encouraging me to keep going. **

**Its winter break! Hallelujah! I've been waiting months for this, and I'm sure u all have as well! What would make the winter better would be if I didn't have to get a job. But alas…I've gotta make money somehow. If only they paid me to write fanfiction…then I would be the happiest girl on the face of the planet!**

**Oh yeah, there's something else I have to do for this chapter…A disclaimer! Only because a new character will be introduced…soo…**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fushigi Yuugi, Ouran High School Host Club, Fruits Basket, D., Inuyasha, or their characters. But I do own the characters: Akimoto Tsubaki, Kajou Tsubaki, Kyoko Fujiwara, Saruwatari Michiyo (don't ask me when these two will show up again cuz believe me, it will be a while), and—now introducing—Shokyoku. **

**So let's get to it! Here's Chapter 31!**

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><p><strong>Genrou's 3rd POV~<strong>

Trying to hold back tears, wave upon wave of disbelief and dread rushed throughout Genrou as he stared into the lifeless crimson eyes of his immobile friend. As she lied on the ground, face up, he deeply hoped that he would see a twitch—any tiny bit of movement that signified that she was still alive. But there was nothing.

It was supposed to be a happy time. They had defeated that little ring-master brat, and probably bought their ticket out of the maze. But how could things turn out so wrong?

"Aki, stop playin' around—this isn't funny!" He bared his fangs in anger, hoping to get a reaction out of her. "There is no way that yer dyin' on me. Dammit Aki! Say somethin'!" _How __the __hell __could __this __be __happenin__' __to __me __again? _He shook his head, trying to get the possibility of his companion's death out of his head. _She __wouldn__'__t __allow __this __to __happen._The events unfolding then and there reminded the flame-haired bandit all too well about the tragic passing of his friend Reirei. She too was helping him out with something dangerous, trying to go up against forces that none of them should have tampered with. But being the little reckless girl that she was, she went off, thinking that she could change the tide of it all. Right when they thought that they were in the clear, Reirei gave her life so that Genrou could win and survive.

After they met (and after a whole bunch of ugliness that was exchanged in the form of words), Aki had agreed to help him out on finding the cure for Hakurou's illness.

"_**Let **__**me **__**come **__**with **__**you.**__**" **_She told him.

Then Genrou asked her, _**"**__**Why **__**would **__**I **__**want **__**to **__**travel **__**around **__**with **__**the **__**likes **__**of **__**you?**__**"**_

Using her usual snarky tone, she explained herself_**.**__** "**__**Well**__**…**__**let**__**'**__**s **__**start **__**with **__**the **__**fact **__**that **__**we **__**are **__**both **__**looking **__**for **__**something.**_ _**Since **__**there **__**is **__**strength **__**in **__**numbers, **__**it **__**wouldn**__**'**__**t **__**be **__**all **__**that **__**bad **__**of **__**an **__**idea. **__**And **__**it **__**wouldn**__**'**__**t **__**be **__**for **__**a **__**long **__**time, **__**just**__**…**__**temporary.**__**"**_ And of course, she installed a bit of confidence into her argument. _**"**__**And **__**I **__**wouldn**__**'**__**t **__**be **__**holding **__**you **__**down**__**—**__**I **__**can **__**handle **__**myself. **__**And **__**if **__**you**__**'**__**re **__**worry **__**is **__**about **__**you **__**looking **__**less **__**macho **__**with **__**me **__**around, **__**don**__**'**__**t **__**worry**__**—**__**I**__**'**__**m **__**plenty **__**tough **__**and **__**not **__**girly **__**in **__**any **__**way. **__**You **__**saw **__**what **__**I **__**did **__**to **__**that **__**building **__**back **__**there.**__**" **_

It was supposed to be a simple operation: get the flower and disband. In theory, the whole plan seemed quite simple—not strings attached. And with the combined efforts of him and two magic users, things should have been accomplished a lot faster. It really shouldn't have turned out like the way it had. None of them expected things to actually be difficult and a risk to their lives…

Genrou still wasn't sure about what her motives were for wanting to come along—she mentioned how they were both searching for something—but what was she looking for? It didn't matter to him. Not anymore. The point was that she was willing to help out a stranger—a stranger that she had a mysterious bond to, but a stranger nonetheless—while enduring some sort of internal battle that neither he or Chichiri knew about. But he could feel it, no matter how strong she seemed on the outside. It was weird that that was how things went, but there was no point in fighting it.

But because of him and his stupid mission, Aki may have gotten herself killed while trying to complete the bandit's dirty work.

Boy did Genrou feel pretty damn low.

"Chichiri! Why're you just sittin' there? Do somethin'!" He ordered the sullen, blue-haired monk.

"I…" He spoke in a somewhat low voice. "I never studied any healing spells, ya know? So I'm afraid, that I probably won't be of really good use here—"

"Don't give me that!" Genrou roared. Hovering over the woman, he took hold of her shoulders and started to violently shake her, foolishly thinking that that was all it would take to wake her up. "You have to wake up! Come on! Wake up!"

Chichiri placed his hands over the bandits', giving him the best stern look that he could manage with that fox-like face of his. "Genrou, you have to stop! Shaking her won't do anything."

"It's better than nothin'! At least _I__'__m_ tryin' somethin' instead o' just sittin' there feelin' sorry an' thinkin' that nothin' could be done!"

The monk sighed, staying calm while trying not to argue with his younger consort. "You just don't understand." Lightly pushing the bandit away, Aki's upper body was gently lowered back onto the ground, still undisturbed. Taking her wrist, Chichiri pressed two fingers against her skin, just under her palm. A slight gleam of hope washed over his features, only to be replaced with one of mild dread. "Her pulse is getting weaker…I only detected very few heartbeats, and they were far, far apart from each other." His head sunk lower as he released her wrist. "Her life force has almost completely dissipated. I'm sorry to say that…" Turning his head, Chichiri's voice started to strain. "She probably only has a few minutes, if that."

Reaching his arm over Aki's body, the distraught bandit took hold of Chichiri's collar, forcing him to look directly into the blazing eyes of Genrou's resentment. "If she still has a pulse er a life force, then she can be saved. So you better do somethin' before I make ya do somethin'…"

"Genrou, I told you—" Seeing the determination in his fiery-haired companion's features, a flicker of optimism flushed through the monk as a plethora of ideas raced through his head. He must have known that giving up would have been the wrong way to go. Chichiri knew that Genrou was right: as long as there is a small glimmer of hope, then it would be a waste to just throw in the towel—Aki deserved _at __least_ that. "Alright, I guess I'll give it a shot, ya know?" Genrou's dedication to saving the girl was contagious—Chichiri didn't want her to die either.

With his grip loosening, Genrou's expression softened, switching back to concerned rather that full of rage. "So what are we gonna do?"

The monk crossed his arms and legs as he searched his thoughts. "It's a long shot, but I think I have an idea, ya know?" He looked up into his companion's amber eyes. "But it will involve collaboration between the both of us—and hopefully Aki if she's still in there."

"She is." Genrou said with a matter-of-fact tone. "Tell me what to do." He didn't know what to expect, but he was damn sure that he would be willing to do almost anything to make sure that history wouldn't repeat itself.

"Well considering you two have a bond, I'll need you to use that in order to call her back before she's too far gone. Reach out for her, ya know?"

For some strange reason, Chichiri's plan made Genrou blush a bit as he gave the bandit a baffled look. "How the hell do ya expect me ta do that?" Something about the monk's words made Genrou extremely wary.

"Well…you could kiss her, ya know?"

With his face becoming even more red, a grimace formed as he looked from Aki to the ground on the side of her. "A-A-Any other suggestions?"

Chichiri gave a slight laugh, causing Genrou's eyebrow to cock up. "I didn't honestly expect you to do that—you can just hold her hand, ya know?"

"Well why didn't ya say that in the first place?" He erupted, trying to calm down enough to make the flushness of his face disperse. The very idea of even having to kiss the woman made him feel uncomfortable, especially after the whole mess they had just went through while being controlled by that little kid. If his and Aki's will weren't so strong he wouldn't have gotten away with just merely kissing her on the forehead—even that memory made his body temperature rise a bit.

Rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, a small smile still remained on the blue-haired man's lips. "Sorry, just trying to use your reactions to lighten the mood a bit, ya know?"

The bandit gritted his teeth. "Now is not the time you damn-side-trackin' monk!" Clenching his fists, Genrou failed to see how he could honestly be joking around at a time like that. They were trying to prevent their friend from dying, so continuing to stall and test the fates of the universe could prove disastrous. Time probably wasn't on their side so they couldn't afford to delay any longer.

"Okay, okay!" Chichiri cleared his throat, attempting to become serious again. "But really, I'll need you to hold her hand—that would be a good way to exchange your energies, ya know? I'm gonna need you to really focus."

Hesitating a bit, Genrou started at Aki's soft, pale hand. On any other occasion, such a sentimental gesture would probably make him want to punch himself—or tempt Aki to do it. But if this would save her life, then he would so what needed to be done. Taking hold of her hand, he noticed even more of her limpness—there was absolutely no resistance when taking a part of her into his possession. Feelings of sadness and hopelessness temporarily squeezed his heart once again as he was plagued with the thought of losing her. But just like before, he shook it off, knowing full well that having doubts wouldn't help the situation at all.

"So what are you gonna do in the mean time?" He asked the monk.

"I'm going to try and get her breathing again, ya know?" With shaky hands, Chichiri reached up for his face, squeezing a bit on the sides. Right as Genrou was about to ask what he was doing, his eyes automatically widened when he saw his friend's face come off! Underneath was a similar, yet different face with one serious eye with red-brown irises while the other had a deep scar over it, forcing it closed. Genrou just sat there, mouth wide open as he had his finger pointing at the mysterious phenomenon he knew as Chichiri. His eyes continuously switched from the apparent mask to the real face. _What __the __f%&$ing __hell?_ "With us working at the same time, this should prove to be effective." Noticing how the atmosphere changed a bit, Chichiri looked up at him. "What is it?" The monk already seemed to know what the bandit wanted to ask since he was practically shooting daggers at him with his one sharp crimson eye that seemed to say "I dare you to ask me about my face. Go on punk. I. Dare. _You_."

Genrou's eyes just seemed to trail off in another direction steadily as he said, "Oh nothing…" Mentally slapping himself out of his trance, he added, "Let's just do this."

Chichiri nodded. He put the heel of his hand on Aki's chest, then covered it with his other hand, interlacing his fingers. Without further instruction, he began to compress the chest, over and over, trying to get her lungs to react.

As he held Aki's hand, Genrou found how unbelievably hard it was to concentrate and do what Chichiri had asked of him. He knew that he had to stay strong for her sake, but…the feelings he was having were absolutely horrible. The thought of this turning out exactly how it had with Reirei caused him to feel nauseous—his heart beat intensely in his chest. _All __o__' __this __is __wrong! __No __one __was __supposed __ta __get __hurt__—__not __this __bad __anyway. __Why __did __things __turn __out __like __this? _Focusing at this point was virtually impossible, no matter how much he wanted to.

Closing his eyes tight, Genrou started to send powerful thoughts through his mind. _You __might __be __a __bit __too __sarcastic, __as __well __as __too __serious __at __times, __and __are __as __stubborn __as __the __hardest __brick __wall__… _Once again, the incredible urge to cry was there, but he had to stay strong. _But __dammit, __you__'__re __not __weak __Aki! __You__'__re __the __toughest __woman __I __have __ever __met._

After about thirty compressions, Chichiri tilted her head as her chin lifted, making her mouth open slightly. With no hesitation, he pinched her nose and lowered his face onto hers, pressing their lips together.

An unexplainable sting conflicted Genrou as he watched the sight. However seeing her chest rise up and down from the transferred air, he knew that what had to be done was necessary to revive her.

Shaking his head, he put the peculiar feelings at the back of his brain, trying to focus. Genrou watched as Chichiri brought himself back up, starting with the chest compressions once more.

_Come __on __Aki. __Ya __can__'__t __let __somethin__' __like __bein__' __electrocuted __do __you __in. _His thoughts suddenly exploded inside his head as a loud, emotional shout. _WE__'__RE __FRIENDS __DAMMIT __AND __AS __A __MAN __I__'__M __NOT __GONNA __ALLOW __YOU __TA __JUST __GIVE __UP!_

…

…

…

Almost immediately, Aki's hand squeezed, sending a pleasantly familiar jolt coursing through his body. Simultaneously, her eyes regained their life as she took a deep breath.

* * *

><p><strong>Aki's POV~<strong>

Feeling a bucket of air enter my lungs all of a sudden, continuous deep inhales and exhales persisted, allowing me to become familiar with the reflex of breathing once more. I blinked a few times as my blurry vision attempted to settle and become clearer. Nothing really processed through my brain, and I couldn't really feel my body, not immediately anyway, so my only real perception to the world around me was the sound of my heavy breathing.

My heavy breathing…For some reason, the perfectly normal idea seemed so surreal.

_What happened to me? _

I really couldn't remember anything that happened—all I knew was that I couldn't move and that…two people were staring at me. _Who __are __they?_

When my eyesight finally improved, I found myself looking into the concerned, yet at the same time relieved faces of an amber eyed, flame haired bandit and a blue-haired, bang-defying gravity monk whose mask was off for some odd reason.

"Ch-Chichiri…Genrou…wha-what's…up?" I asked weakly. _Why __are __they __staring __at __me __like __that?_

"Aki…" Genrou's words seemed to have caught up in his throat considering his words trailed off as he peeled his eyes away from mine, staring at the ground instead.

Giving up on trying deciphering his awkwardness, I turned my attention to my other, probably more audible friend…who seemed to have put back on his mask before I even had the opportunity to blink or comment about it. _Umm__…__okay?_

He must have noticed my looking at him and as he asked, "What is it?"

I shook my head, closing my eyes to try and get my thoughts in order. It confused me as to why he had his mask off, but it was usually for a good reason, so I didn't bother to ask. If he wanted to tell me, he would—I knew that the topic regarding his true face and that mask was a sensitive subject, so I wouldn't press on it.

Trying to avoid eye contact with me, Genrou looked to Chichiri. "So tell me, with that mask of yers, how did'ja—"

"How are you feeling Aki? You had us really worried, ya know?" You could tell that he instantly changed the subject, making me give a small smile before it fell once again.

"Well, honestly," I sighed and chuckled bitterly. "I've been better." Without warning, pieces of memories came spiraling through my consciousness. _There __was __a __fight__…_Being paralyzed, controlled by some punk, merciless kid…_I __was__…__electrocuted? _The rest of the details were still hazy—it gave me a severe headache trying to recollect everything, but I was pretty sure that I got the gist of what occurred previously. Which of course prompted me to immediately ask (yelling out),"Did we win?"

Finally speaking directly to me, Genrou started out with scolding. "Do ya know how stupid it was to heal me like that? Ya could have used that energy ta save yerself insteada me ya idiot! Puttin' yer life in danger like that wasn't worth it!"

Feeling the urge to punch him with his offensive statements, I thought, _he __doesn__'__t __talk __to __me __this __whole __time __and __this __is __what __he __comes __up __with? __What __a __jerk! _"That didn't really answer my question you dope. Besides," My eyes trailed up to the sky as a flash of that ring-master's face flashed into my brain. "He would have killed me off regardless of the things I did or said as long as I refused to cooperate." _I __probably __just __speeded __up __the __process. _Calming down from my completely justified annoyance at Genrou, I began to realize just what those two had gone through after my electrocution—recalling their extremely worried faces when I regained consciousness, they must have went through a lot for my sake. It was a weird feeling, one I wasn't used to…knowing that someone worried about me so much. And I could feel it radiating off of Genrou, a mixture of remorse and distress, our bond allowing me to empathize with his feelings. Part of me was starting to feel guilty for snapping at him the way I had (the other half not so much since he so _rudely_ lectured me). The only sad thing was that since I wasn't familiar with their feelings towards me, I didn't know the proper way to react to it all. Even though it had happened back in the other worlds with the friends I had left behind, it was still a foreign concept for me as a person. For most of my life, people never cared about me—not with the dark ring plaguing my life. All I had was Kajou—sincere feelings from anyone other than her either seemed wrong or just plain unnatural.

But these guys…they could have just left me to die—or stay dead—and went on without me, going on with their lives. It was a similar practice that I had to go through when switching worlds. In that aspect, fighting it and looking back was virtually pointless for me—I had agreed to make sacrifices to achieve my wish after all. Genrou and Chichiri didn't accept it though…

I wonder what it all means…

Searching the eyes of both of my companions, I smiled and said, "Thanks you guys… for bringing me back." _Don__'__t __know __if __I __was __completely __gone, __but __still__…_Before giving them a chance to respond, the object of our mission came to mind. I instantly shot my upper-body up. "You didn't use the Sacred Blood Lily on me did you?" Extreme aches of pain shot through my body with my sudden, unprepared movement. So apparently my muscles had relaxed so much after the incident that now I was feeling every ounce of pain that was dealt to me from the battle—literally everything hurt like a bitch. It felt like my whole being was being crushed while some jerk-ish force was twisting my bones as if they were made of silly putty (if they were actually made of silly putty, then I seriously think that I wouldn't be in so much damn discomfort ). _I__'__m __starting __to __think __that __having __a __fully __numb __body __wasn__'__t __such __a __bad __idea__…__God __dammit__…__I __seriously __hate __the __universe __right __now__…_With the weight of the world pushing my body back (i.e. gravity…a.k.a. bitch number 23), I expected to feel the unbelievable agony from my sore back hitting the cold, hard ground. But instead, I landed in the secure arms of Chichiri as he smiled brightly at me, his playful features lightening my mood a bit.

"You don't have to worry Aki, the flower didn't even show up yet, ya know?"

"Yeah, and we probably wouldn't go wastin' it on you anyway," Genrou sourly chimed in. On an impulse, Chichiri shot him a look that shot through the bandit like a laser. He chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his head and looked away. "It was a joke…" _I __swear __if __I __wasn__'__t __convinced __that __he __was __my __friend, __then __I __would __have __obliterated __him __by __now __for __those __crude __jokes __of __his__…_

"Well, it's good to hear that you guys didn't use it—otherwise I would have killed you for wasting the one thing we've been fighting for on the likes of me."

Through gritted teeth, Genrou spoke in a low tone, probably hoping that neither of us would hear. "That's a great way ta repay yer friends for savin' yer life." This time, _I_ ended up glaring at him though sharpened eyes. Without even looking at me, you could tell that he felt the sting of the scowl. "You two are real chumps, ya know that?"

Having that said, our little group had a few seconds of silent awkwardness being exchanged. It was then that something came to my attention. "Hey Genrou, quick question: can you tell me why you are holding my hand?" His eyes suddenly widened in alarm as he looked down to inspect the problem. Not a second later, he threw my hand away from his just as another spark was exchanged—an apparent blush running across his face. In an effort to hide his embarrassment, the bandit quickly jumped up from his spot and walked off in some other direction without another word. My eyes followed him as best as they could as I wondered what exactly was up with him. Sure I was still curious as to why he was holding my hand in the first place, but I was slightly more concerned about why the hell he was acting so darn awkward around me. My brain was still a little too fried (no pun intended) to try and figure it out.

"So Aki," Chichiri began.

"Hmm?"

"Do you think that you'll be able to move on your own?"

Contemplating his question, the swift memory from my hasty—not to mention painful—move earlier came to my attention, making me respond with, "Not very well…" I sighed, feeling frustrated at how vulnerable I was at that moment. "Really, if I had another chance at that brat, I'd show him the true wrath of a woman's scorn." You could practically see the fire spewing from my mouth with that last statement.

A drop of sweat fell down the side of Chichiri's cheek as he slightly shrunk in comedic fear. "That sounds kinda scary, ya know?"

Genrou suddenly appeared from wherever he went with his arm extended down to me, my kunai being presented in his hand—handle out as he expected me to take it. Still the guy refused to really look at me directly, so the majority of his standing body was turned outward. Even with his face turned away from me, his flushed features had extended around even to his ears.

Looking at the kunai, I asked, "How did that even get all the way over there? I don't even remember taking it out." This must have been one of those details that I couldn't recall. If it was even possible, Genrou became even redder as he seemed to be fishing through something in his mind—a memory perhaps? He probably knew what had happened to me but didn't want to say. _I __wonder __why._

Groaning in frustration, he kneeled down, grabbed my hand, and forced the kunai into my possession. "Just take it already!" He ordered, right as he pushed himself back up and faced his back to me while crossing his arms.

My eyebrow twitched in annoyance. _Rude __much?_"Dude! Where the hell is that attitude of yours coming from?"

He scoffed and glanced back at me, looking out of the corner of his eye. "I don't _have_ an attitude. I'm exactly how I always am."

"Okay, okay, I can see where this is going so I'm going to stop it right here, ya know?" Chichiri frantically spoke to the both of us. "Aki, Genrou is just happy to see that you're okay. He's just trying to find the proper way to express himself, ya know?" I shot him a skeptical look. "Well I never said that he was doing a good job, ya know?" Despite his words, it was hard to actually believe them. If Genrou were really worried about me, I doubted that he'd be acting like such an insensitive jerk. He couldn't have been concerned about me—he was probably just peeved about me wasting his time even more than I already had been doing. Perhaps I had been giving him too much credit earlier. Perhaps…he didn't care about me at all.

_Well it doesn't matter to me. _

Taking a look over at the flame-headed bandit, I showed a scowl. "You're wrong Chichiri. It makes no difference to him if I make it through this alive or not."

Genrou turned abruptly to face me, an expression of both hurt and anger flaring in his eyes. "Ya can't honestly believe that can you? I never said that I wanted you to die—I'd never say that!" He clenched his fist at me. "It scared me half ta death when ya wouldn't respond ta me." Lowering his arm, he started to calm down a bit as his words began to trail off. "I…I didn't…It's just that—you…" With the blush returning, he awkwardly brushed through his hair, his hand resting on the back of his neck as he looked away attempting to search for the right words. "Why do you women always have ta make things so damn difficult?" _No __you__'__re __wrong __Genrou__—__you__'__re __the __one __who__'__s __making __things __difficult__…__why __can't __you __just __say __what __you __want __to __say? __You__'__re __kind __of __sending __me __mixed __signals __here._

With the unwanted continuation of uncomfortable silence and glances being exchanged, our attention all focused on one spot on the ground about two yards away from us. It seemed like something was sprouting at an astonishing rate! As confusion lied riddled on our faces, we were surprised to behold a glowing, light-green stem rising up from the soil. At the end of it was a large bud, awaiting for the right moment to reveal its hidden secrets. Anticipation riding the air, the bud suddenly opened up, blossoming into a larger than average lily with radiant red pedals, the inside near the core blending into an off-white color.

The three of us just continue to stare as the lily brings its own roots up from the ground, floating in the air as if by some mystic force. As if our little group were calling out to it, the luminescent plant levitated over into our direction. I was shocked to find that it had made its way to me as I lay in Chichiri's arms. So weakly, I extend my arms out, and take it mid-air, the perfectness of it never faltering with my touch. The silver veins branched all over my body seemed to spontaneously flicker the very moment the flower landed in my hands. There was no doubt in my mind that this had been the treasure we had been looking for this whole time—its healing abilities were so powerful that even its sensation on my skin gave me enough energy to sit up on my own (temporarily). Even a wave of uncharacteristic optimism shot through me given the things that were happening. But here it was…

The Sacred Blood Lily.

Still no words left any of our lips as we sat there completely dumbfounded by the marvel that lied in my hands.

But just like some magical switch that was flipped on, my two companions completely shifted the atmosphere as they practically leaped for joy.

"Hell yeah! We beat the shit outta this maze! We finally got the flower!" Genrou fist-pumped the air as he cackled with extreme happiness.

"I knew we could do it ya know?" In all of the excitement, Chichiri immediately got up from his spot (leaving me to almost fall back completely since I had no one to support myself on anymore) and went over to Genrou. They locked arms and began to do some odd dance where they skipped around in a circle with goofy smiled on their faces.

"I don't ever recall bein' this happy! I feel like I can do anything!" Genrou proclaimed. "I've never been so happy ta see a flower in all my life."

"You said it, ya know?"

Instead of being annoyed with losing my resting buddy, I smiled at their goofiness. Being who I was, I stayed relatively calm on the outside, while in reality, a mini-party complete with confetti, balloons, silly string, and a huge cake—as I bounced off the walls like a hyper little kid—went on in my head. Really, having that flower in our possession meant one of the biggest waves of relief I had ever felt in my entire life. _Finally __we __can __leave __this __awful __maze __for __good._

Noticing how I was just sitting off by my lonesome, the two of them rushed towards me and hugged me tight, almost like we had just won the championships in some huge sport tournament. Victory had finally met us after our hardship—it was definitely something worth celebrating.

"The game is over Aki! We beat the maze at its own game!" You could tell that Genrou was so stuck in his enthusiastic high that he wasn't even aware that he was acting giddy and hugging me. My body was crying out to me in pain as they continued to stimulate my sore muscles with their hugs. But oddly, I didn't care so much about that or focus greatly on it. I was more concentrating on this new feeling. Never before had I worked so hard with others to achieve something so great—something that showed our endurance and significant efforts—truly working together like a team. It had always been me by myself—trying to get things done on my own. People didn't want to get near me, but it didn't matter as much to me because I at least knew that on my own, I could do the work perfectly—no flaws and no distractions…it was their loss. Things were different this time though, we had completed the task and I felt good about it. You could say that I felt very content with myself, even if things didn't unfold as perfectly as I would have preferred—the sense of accomplishment with teammates was there. And boy did I revel in it.

Plus that flower had excellent timing considering it completely broke the awkwardness between us. "You know," I began with my usual cynical tone, "it would be best for you to keep your mouth shut before the universe decides that we're not being modest enough to accept such a gift."

Almost immediately, the bandit ceased his flow of elation as he looked at me with a comically worried expression on his face. "There's no way. There's absolutely no way that it can be that cruel. Could it?"

Flashing him a teasing smile, I said, "You have no idea." _This __is __me __talking __from __past __experience._

Without warning, the world around us seemed to just fade away—an updraft from the ground below lifting us slightly as everything turned to a blinding white. My whole being felt as if it were temporarily weightless, it was a different type of weightlessness that I induced with my energy when I flew. This one felt somewhat…surreal and disorienting yet at the same time I felt like I was finally being liberated.

After one simple blink, I realized how we were teleported back to a familiar spot. Up above, the sky was a cheery baby blue with wisps of white clouds that floated by—birds flying and chirping happily as they soared across. The clean, crisp, and fresh scent of the greenery around us aroused my senses along with the pleasing visual stimulation and traces of _real_ nature. Nothing seemed genuine in that maze—it was almost like we were in some sort of dollhouse and everything was just made of plastic. Just sitting there in that spot we had started in almost made it seem as if nothing had really happened. But the impacts of everything were so real, there was absolutely no way in hell that what we had been through had just been a dream, or a _very_ elaborate game of pretend.

In front of us stood the arch of trees that we had used in conjunction with a mysterious, universe formulated map in order to open the portal to the maze. For some reason, it seemed so long ago…Genrou, Chichiri, and I had just met—a feeling of tension surrounding our little group as the bandit and I exchanged hateful comments and glares. It didn't exactly help things very much when Chichiri used that binding spell on us. In the end, though, everything worked out—more or less.

And now the maze would be locked up again for another thousand years—waiting for its next set of victims to come along in search for the legendary flower.

God have mercy on their souls.

"Well, it seems like we're finally done with that adventure, ya know?" Chichiri stated.

_Thank __God,_I thought.

Upon the teleportation, Genrou had long since realized that he was hugging us, and had already backed away, leaving me to be held up once again by Chichiri (at least _somebody_ was considerate enough). Speaking of which, I attempted to shift my position, but found that moving was something that I'd have to suffer through until I could fully heal.

So I decided to speed up the healing process.

Closing my eyes, I casted a spell, _"Blessed, humble hand of God. Breath of Mother Earth, I pray thee come before me, show your great compassion on my person and deliver me!" _My body developed a gentle sheet of glittering, pale-green moving energy as I finished the chant with "_Recovery." _Some of the aches and pains felt like they just elevated off of my body, floating off into some space of nonexistence. Unfortunately, I was still so drained from everything that happened that I lacked the strength to completely finish the spell and heal myself fully. So the light faded and I ended up taking in a deep breath, only to let it out in exasperation.

Suddenly feeling drained, I leaned back a bit, panting from the loss of energy.

Genrou looked at me with a confused gaze on his face. "What the hell was that supposed ta do?"

"I was trying to heal myself." He flashed me an "it didn't look like it did much" look. So I continued with an explanation. "The healing spells I have aren't exactly the greatest things in the world considering they have drawbacks to them. The one I just casted on myself forces me to use my own energy times two—something I can't exactly use in plenty at this given moment. But believe me, some my muscles don't exactly feel like their being tortured anymore." I sighed again. "I'll have to keep on using this spell every time I get a boost of energy until I'm fully healed." _What a drag. Damn you maze. _

Walking over to me, Genrou squatted down to my height, took my arm, and wrapped it around his neck. Then he used his legs to push up, bringing me from the ground along with him as he supported my weight using his—my free hand continued to hold the still radiant Sacred Blood Lily. "Well it won't do ya any good to just sit there an' do nothin'. The best way ta get over bein' hurt like that is ta just walk it off!" Surprised, by his kind gesture, I didn't fail to process what he just said. _I'm pretty sure that that's not the most accurate accusation. _He had been yelling at me before, and now he was helping me up. Man did I wish that this guy would be a little more consistent.

Just as I was fishing around for what to say next, Chichiri spoke up with a surprising statement. "This has been a real blast, ya know? But I just recalled how there was somewhere I needed to be."

"What? So suddenly?" I asked. It actually never occurred to me that he would be the first one to leave the small group of ours.

He nodded, the playful smile on his face never faltering. "I'm afraid so." Walking over to me, he gently took the flower from my hand, and used some type of spell to encase it in a magical, light-pink bubble. Pressing down on it, the bubble, along with the flower, started to shrink, down to the size of one of those small, rubber bouncy balls that many kids are so enamored with. _Huh that's actually pretty smart!_

When he was finished with what he was doing, he held it out to Genrou, who stared at it for a few minutes, trying to figure out what had just happened (poor guy couldn't figure it out fast enough). With confusion still on his face, the bandit took the conveniently sized treasure and placed it in a pocket on the inside of his trench coat.

"We've worked so hard for that flower, ya know? So I figured that we—or more like you—should keep it safe until you need it, ya know?" He chuckled. "And I made it travel size for you!"

"Uhh…thanks Chichiri. Ya really helped out a lot and came through fer us." Genrou smiled, his fangs in full view. "Yer a real man's man."

Chichiri chuckled. "Thanks for the compliment!"

"But Chichiri," he looked over at me, "as I recall, you told me that you didn't have any agenda or prior engagements you had to deal with." I narrowed my eyes at him in suspicion. "So what could have possibly popped up out of nowhere after we had just exited an inter-dimensional maze for who knows how long?" _I mean, come on! It's not like he as AIM or text messaging—and I'm sure as hell that Facebook hasn't even been thought of yet. _

Genrou gasped a bit when he processed my words. "Hey ya, that's true. Plus we just went through all of that crap back there. Yer just gonna go?"

Shrugging, the monk leaned on his golden staff almost as if he were trying to think of something. "Sometimes things are just weird like that, ya know?" He bowed to us. "I really am sorry to just get up and leave, but something really did come up, ya know?" I didn't exactly know how to feel about him just leaving like that. As somewhat embarrassing as it was to admit, I had sort of looked up to Chichiri as an older brother type, even if I didn't exactly know what it was like to have an older brother. But now as I thought about it, I realized that elevating him up that high on my relationship-o-meter probably wasn't for the best considering it would be harder for me to let go. Even though I had for the most part trained myself how to release someone from my life, much of the process was still very difficult to accommodate.

That's how things went in the world, however. And I just had to suck it up and deal with it.

Walking on the path ahead of us, the blue-haired man stopped short and turned around to face us one last time. "By the way Aki, there's something I've been meaning to ask you, ya know?"

My curiosity peaked, not knowing what to suspect from him. "What is it?"

"You're not from this world, correct?"

Both mine and Genrou's eyes widened with Chichiri's claim, but mostly likely widening for completely different reasons. My reason being that I thought he already knew that and didn't need confirmation. Genrou's reason probably being that, surprisingly, he had never caught on and was just now making sense of why I was so different than the average Universe of the Four Gods gal. Such a sad, sad boy he was.

Revealing a sly grin, I responded with, "Why no, no I'm not." For some reason, I felt as if I knew what he was going to ask next.

"Well then, could you possibly be the Priestess of Suzaku?" Knew it. All Genrou did was exchange glances between the monk and I, mouth gaping open as if he had been blown away by something.

"I can see how you'd assume that—a girl with foreign clothes who had descended from another world who was destined to save the land. Or something like that, correct?"

One of his eyebrows popped up. "Huh. So you're familiar with the legend?"

"Only bits and pieces of it—the emperor told me quite a bit." _Most of the details are lost to me, though._ Holding up my arms, elbows bent, I shrugged with fake indifference. "Seems like a real nice bedtime story if you ask me."

"Fascinating." Stroking his chin a few times, he persisted on (I honestly wondered how long I could string him on like that before giving him a straight answer) with a troubled look on his face. "But you never really answered the question, ya know?"

I decided to beat around the bush for a little while longer. "I don't know—are _you_ a celestial warrior of Suzaku?"

He decided to play along as well. "That's a very good question, ya know? It would be much easier to answer your question if you answered mine first."

_Touché. _

Sure enough, I was getting somewhat bored and annoyed at this particular game of back-and-forth. We were getting nowhere at the rate we were going, and it could keep on going like that forever. "While I completely understand how you would think something like that, I'd have to admit that no, I am not the Priestess."

"Well why didn't'cha say so in the first place?" Genrou yelled out for no apparent reason.

Giving him a "well why are you so p'd off in the first place" look, I decided to not dignify that with an answer. Instead, I turned my attention back to the monk. "Now it's your turn. Are you a Suzaku Warrior?" I didn't know what prompted me to ask, but a legitimate answer would be nice to stifle my curiosity.

"Hmm…" He put his finger under his lower lip, feigning thought. "Maybe, maybe not, ya know?"

"Wait—what?" And with that pleasant statement, Chichiri took his cloak and concealed his body. In a few spins, the cloak shrunk more and more until it was completely gone, the wielding monk along with it.

His voice carries itself along with the wind, flowing past our ears. "I'll see you guys around~!"

Scanning the area around us, a slight hint of bitterness could be caught on my consciousness. _That __sneaky __monk __did __that __on __purpose. _Still, it felt kind of weird with him gone…

"What a weird guy," the bandit pointed out as he joined me in the scan.

With an "oh brother" expression riddled on my features, I retorted with, "Well you're not so normal yourself."

"Look who's talkin'!"

His harsher tone not fazing me, I concluded with, "So I guess we're all freaks then."

He smirked. "Looks like it," turning his head to face me, his smile turned more genuine. "But I think I prefer it that way. Things are more excitin' when things aren't exactly normal." I couldn't explain it, but seeing him smile like that seemed to make my stomach do a tiny flip—it was the oddest thing.

All of a sudden, my body became very cold as an outrageous wave of negative emotions flourished throughout my being. There was a horrible sensation at the pit of my gut as an ominous cloud of despair manifested in my mind—the sheer density of it making me want to break down and cry. All other thoughts from just a few seconds before were glossed over as a violent rush of every horrible emotion and memory completely overwhelmed me. I continuously gasped for air as I felt that I was literally sinking into a deep ocean of despair. Blood rushing to my head, a creeping blackness started to obstruct my vision, blocking off the rays from the sun I hadn't seen for so long due to the simulated continuous evening of the maze. My heart was directly being attacked—with every beat, a surge of emotional pain pumped through my veins instead of blood, draining all warmth from my being. With panic stirring up inside of me, I wanted to scream out. I had just made it out of a dark unfriendly place, why was I being pulled into another one? Why couldn't I experience the light?

Right when I thought that things couldn't get any worse, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. All I knew was that I wanted out—like I had never wanted out of anything before (even the maze seemed more inviting than wherever I had been flung into). When I started to believe that I had been damned into eternal darkness, my eyes started to adjust, and before I knew it, I realized that I wasn't in pitch-blackness. In fact, it was like the abyss I was in was surrounded by dense walls of black and a dark, metallic-looking color that seemed to thickly flow like magma. And yet, it felt like I was standing on something solid.

How peculiar.

The thing that caught my eye the most was that, all around me, but a good distance away, I could see how I was at the center of a large, electric-like energy that surged all around. Tilting my head upwards, I noticed how a separate ring was around the same space, but was vertical instead of the other one which was horizontal. At two points, the two rings intersected, probably with a strong bond no doubt.

Still feeling an unpleasant chill, I instinctively wrapped my arms around myself. Part of me sort of wanted to believe that Shadow Maidens were lurking around, but something about it seemed…off.

"Taiitsukun! Taiitsukun!" I called out, figuring that this was all of the old woman's doing. "Taiitsukun! If you're the one who brought me here, then take me away already! Just kill the suspense—"

"Taiitsukun isn't here Akimoto…" A feminine and high-pitched chilling voice came from behind me , making me reluctant to turn around. However my more defensive side prompted me to jump around, ready to cast whatever spell I needed. And floating there in front of me where two sharp eyes, almost cat-like, one a turquoise-ish color and the other, a dark off-orange. _What __the?_What I didn't expect was for the pair of eyes to start giggling. "Oh I'm sorry! I just can't do it! Staying _that_ serious is such a drag! Honestly, that isn't my style." Much to my relief, I was finding that the eyes actually belonged to somebody—more like some _girl_. The body of a small girl, maybe around seven years old, began to manifest. She had extremely pale skin, almost as if she had never seen sunlight before—her two different eye colors more prominently standing out. Her hair was extremely long and wavy, flowing all the way past her knees—the shade seemed almost black, but faint sheens showed how it was actually a very dark magenta. She wore an elegant gothic dress that was predominately black, but had some white frills on her sleeves and skirt lining.

You'd expect such a child to have a sweet and innocent tone to her voice, when in actuality, she sounded pretty condescending and snobbish. The question was if those were her actual personality traits. _I __guess __I__'__ll __find __out. _"Don't worry! I know that you prefer to be called 'Aki'—I was just tryin' to sound dramatic." All I could do was just stand there, confused, as I tried to make sense of what was going on. So far…nothing.

The little girl snapped her fingers, and in a cloud of smoke emerged a white, concrete throne-like seat—her tiny body only occupying a small portion of it as she lied down sideways with her legs just barely dangling off the armrest. She stretched with a satisfied smile on her face. "You have no idea how great it is to finally be awake again! I absolutely hated how that maze sealed me up with its nasty," she shuddered, "sacred powers, yuck!" Battering her long eyelashes at me, she added, "I knew that you'd make it out somehow—'cause you're awesome like that Aki!" She sighed with relief. "And now we can be together again!"

_What? Together again? I don't even know who this girl is!_

"Umm…who're—" In the blink of an eye, she was found with her arms wrapped around me in a hug, my arms bound in as well. You have no idea how uncomfortable I was feeling at that very moment. _Some __little __girl __is __hugging __me__…__Did __I __have __a __daughter __that __I __don__'__t __know __about? __Or __maybe __my __parents __had __another __kid __that __I __don__'__t __know __about? __I __think __I__'__d __remember __someone __with __her __eyes __and __uber __clinginess. _Really, the way this girl hung onto me but Miaka's clinginess to shame.

Sneering, she continued to speak. "Hey Aki, where you lonely without me? I just felt so awful leaving you with those two unnecessary idiots_.__" __Is __she __talking __about __Genrou __and __Chichiri?_

Yet, I felt as if I had heard her voice somewhere before, but I couldn't exactly place where. "Okay little girl, I've had enough of this, so start talking. Who are you?"

Her distinct eyes widening for a split second, she resorted to giving that chilly giggle from before. "Oh Aki, I've been with you for nearly your whole life." The next statement that came from her lips had transformed her voice, making it deeper, more sinister and into one I had come to know way too well. "Do you recognize me now?"

I was startled, completely stunned from the realization. "You're the voice—the female voice that has been talking to me this entire time."

"I'm much more than that." She grinned as her voice returned back to normal. "I'm the dark ring."

* * *

><p><strong>Genrou's 3rd POV<strong>

"Aki? Aki!" Genrou circled the woman who suddenly turned stiff, her previously sore body standing up on its own as she stood unresponsive to the world. "What's wrong with ya?" _I __can't __believe __all __of __the __crap __that __happens __to __this __chick. __Someone __obviously __hates __her. _Looking into her eyes to see where she was staring off at, he was shocked to find that her eyes had turned completely black—not just her irises, the normally white space as well. His attention then alarmingly switched to the still new silver lines dispersed all over her body. They were starting to fade away, her smooth fair skin returning to its original, non-branched state.

_What__'__s __goin__' __on? _Some sort of dark force covered her completely, like a fog that was exclusive only to her. Most of it was beginning to concentrate at her mid-section, forming some sort of ring around her.

_That thing from before…it's comin' back? _

The bandit looked up at her in concern, not knowing what he could do for her. "C'mon Aki, wherever yer stuck at, you can make it back out!"

* * *

><p><strong>Aki's POV<strong>

The attempt to fully process—more like accept—her words proved to pretty much be a failure on my part. "What do you mean that you're the dark ring? You're just a little girl! And besides that, I thought that it was gone!" From the moment I took a step into that maze, I was relieved to find that the dark ring was finally gone—if anything, that was the one and only thing I was grateful to the maze for. Sure, some of the important decisions I had were a tad difficult to make since there was nothing there pointing me in a direction, but I was starting to feel that I could finally make my own decisions, like I was free from something—or in this case someone—dominating my life. And now I was finding out that not only was the woman's voice and the ring one and the same, but they were both a little girl (and what was up with all of the little kids that were popping up lately?)

She shook her head with an amused grin on her premature face. "Nope not gone, more like sleeping—or sealed I suppose." Releasing one of her arms from around me, she superficially flipped some of the hair that fell on her shoulder. "You know how weird that maze was—its sacred nature blocked off all entities and essences of Darkness. Which totally blows since I wasn't able to be with you!"

_Wait__…__what __does __she __mean __by __that?_ "That can't be true. Chichiri and I fought off some shadow creature when we were trapped underground." How could I possibly forget that incredibly horrid trial? Both the monk and I were lured into a trap where our powers had been sealed, making it so that we would have to fight through without them. I couldn't stand that test—that was the weakest I had ever felt in my life and it didn't help that the maze had sent Hellhounds and Heartless after us as if we were being hunted for some sick sport. If I had never forcibly bent the rules of the game, Chichiri and I probably would have been surely done for.

Shifting her position, she resorted to just hugging my arm, rubbing her head on it as if I were some large, fluffy teddy bear. The creepiness factor was continuing to sky-rocket by this point, causing my eye to start twitching. "Oh Aki, you must have learned by now that that maze played a whole bunch of tricks on you and your _playthings_." _Are __we __referring __to __Genrou __and __Chichiri __as __my__ "__playthings__" __now?_ "If those were _real_ shadow creatures, you would have needed Light in order to defeat them."

My eyes flashed wide for a split second as the epiphany made its way into the light. _Oh __yeah, __that__'__s __right. __I __used __a __Wind __spell __on __them__…_I was kind of surprised that I didn't make the connection sooner. A red flag should have instantly been raised in my mind the moment I took down those things so easily with _Bram__Gush._I was just so stuck in the moment that it never occurred to me.

The little girl sighed in a dramatic "oh woe is me" type of way. "It's just so stupid how that place only allowed five of the elements to exist in it while Darkness is off by its lonesome. When I meet the jerk who came up with that place, I'm going to give him a piece of my mind!" _Five __elements?_

"Wha-what do you mean by 'five elements'?"

Her embrace on my arm became tighter, almost as if she were claiming me as her own or something. "Oh come on Aki, _I_ _know_ that you're smart enough to have figured out the final two elements, even if that hag Taiitsukun didn't reveal them to you."

_Now __that __I __think __about __it, __Taiitsukun __did __tell __me __a __while __back __that __there __were __two __extra __elements __other __than __Water, __Fire, __Earth, __and __Wind._Somewhere along the lines, she also said that those two would be too difficult for me to achieve—I felt very insulted of course. But throughout my growth with the magical arts, some things did come to my attention as I made my way through several discoveries. "They're Darkness and Light, aren't they?" Something had told me that they were, but a part of me didn't exactly want to ask Taiitsukun about it. How can you blame me? She's the type of old woman who hates getting to the point and makes you figure stuff out on your own. If I had asked if those two were elements as well, she probably would have responded with "well what do you think you stupid girl? Do I honestly have to spell _everything_ out for you?" Yup. That's exactly what she would say.

Finally allowing my arm a breather, she took both of my hands in hers and swung them merrily. "Bingo! Six elements in all. And might I add that it was really clever using my power to boost the _Dragon_ _Slave_ some time ago. You are quite the resourceful one—which is part of the reason as to why I love you so much!" _Hold __on __a __second__…__love? __And __what __did __she __mean __by _her _power?_ It seemed very evident to me that she was pretty amused by my lack of knowledge on some stuff. However, it didn't take a rocket scientist to decipher how this little girl had an ample amount of answers to a vast majority of questions. The problem for me was to choose which ones to ask and ask them carefully—I didn't know what bizarre world I was in, but judging from her demeanor and her ability to make a throne appear out of nowhere like that, this was her domain, and who knew the things she was capable of. If there was one thing I learned from that maze, it was not to underestimate small children.

They can be deadly.

"Fine, whatever. But that doesn't explain who the hell you really are." Her explanations to things might have made sense, but I still had a hard time believing that she was who she claimed to be.

Completely ignoring my question, she continued to swing our arms as if she didn't have a care in the world. "It's so nice to finally see you up close! You know, I never thought that you and I would be meeting anytime soon—which made me want to cry—but when you left that maze, I grouped up a whole bunch of energy so that we could finally talk face to face." She chuckled. "I must say that it did take a little effort to pull you in here." That was when she started to levitate again, this time circling around as she observed certain features—just like a curious child.

"Hey! What're you—"

Without my permission, she took my arm as she floated around in the air, repeatedly brushing her hand along its length. "Wow, your skin is a nice creamy color, and how your beautiful brown hair is so silky, yet thick at the same time." Shifting herself behind me, the little girl combed through my locks, starting with my scalp, not caring about my input on the whole situation.

Forcing myself forward, I violently turned around to throw her off. "Stop feeling my hair!"

Unfazed by my sudden reaction, she continued to probe further. Somehow teleporting behind me (again) she wrapped her skinny arms around my waist, as more of a measureable sense than an embrace. "Small waist too, but still curvy enough to display attraction." _This __girl __is __a __freak!_

By this point, I was so flushed that I thought I was going to possibly explode from having to endure all of that...that…touchy-feeliness. It was just such an unnatural thing! "Let go of me!" I called out.

Twisting around to my front, she levitated higher and grabbed my head, bringing my face cloer to hers—her cat-like differentiated eyes in full view. "And has anyone told you that you have the most beautiful eyes in the universe? They're like perfect rubies in the shadow of Darkness."

Feeling completely fed-up, I took the palm of my hand and smashed it in her face. Using probably more force than was absolutely necessary, I pushed her away, probably a good few feet. The action of it sort if reminded me of trying to hit away a balloon whenever it got too close. "Back off!" With a tone that expressed that I was done with her crap, I demanded, "You tell me who you are already!"

To my surprise, she didn't get offended or even mad at my actions. Instead, she just shook it off and maintained that slightly smug and amused expression. "I told you, I'm the dark ring that's been with you for most of your life."

"Since when did the dark ring have a consciousness?" It just didn't make any sense.

Bringing her hand her mouth, she closed her eyes and giggled again, pretending to act like a sweet and innocent little kid. "Since forever, silly! I know you must have heard my voice all of those times. Am I right?" Looking down slightly, I couldn't help but recall all of the negative comments, feedback, and advice that woman's—_little_ _girl__'__s_ voice sent out to me. Some of them really fueled some of my decision making with certain situations. Somehow, she knew what must have been wandering through my mind. "See? Now you realize that I have been looking out for you—with those awful kids when you were younger, all of the judging teens now, with those jerks back at Ouran, and even when that bitch—or bastard—Nuriko was saying bad things about you." Back when Nuriko and I had first met, he and I had started off on horrible terms—even worse than what Genrou and I started off with. The darker part of my subconscious really wanted to make him pay for things so insignificant such as his walking near me. Luckily things weren't like that anymore. If only I hadn't accidentally went too far and made him suffer with a wave of the dark ring—him and Tamahome. Sometimes…I just lacked the control to control that side of me.

With all of what she was saying coming together, I felt the need to make something clear. "Wait! If what you're saying is true, then how did you…why did you—"

"To answer your question, it was my mother who created me and imprinted me onto you. I was created, simply put, to keep you safe!" This was what she called 'safe'? I kind of hated the idea of knowing what dangerous was to her.

"_Your __mother_?" Not only did the dark ring have a consciousness, but it—she was given birth by someone? "You mean…some chick _put_ this curse on me?" There was just so much information to process—so not only am I still plagued with the dark ring, but it was technically a person, and some sadistic bitch was out there somewhere who wanted to make my life miserable for no apparent reason. _Oh __yeah __universe, __that __seems _completely _fair._

Apparently the little girl possessed the skills to make herself tear up on command, because I was sure as hell that she wasn't the type to get offended so easily—at least not with a comment like that. The act almost reminded me of the fake tears that Hikaru and Kaoru used for their little display for the ladies back at Ouran (honestly, real actors don't need fake tears like that. But the clients never caught on (let's remember that these are the same chicks who can't add two and two together and figure out that Haruhi was actually a girl). So you can see the madness that went on back at that school). But back onto more pressing matters. "Aww…Aki you make me sad by calling me a curse. But I forgive you!" I rolled my eyes. _She __bounces __back __fast. _"Yes, by extracting the Darkness in your heart and exposing it to the outside, I was then given life and a personality." She lightly dabbed her fist onto her chest to make her look more valiant. "So, you were actually never alone even when you thought you were! It's just been so sad not being able to really talk to you, or hug you, or do any of the things I want with you because I'm limited to this space." Really, most of those things she wanted to do—and did—would have been a lot more appreciated if she kept them to herself.

"Hold on," something about her explanation stuck out to me, "you said that the Darkness was extracted from my heart. What Darkness would that be? I mean, I attained you so long ago—seemingly since I was a baby—I didn't even know what Darkness or any of that stuff even was." How would something like that even be possible? From what this little girl was saying, she made it seem like there was a time in my life where I was free—but I just couldn't recall such a time. Was it possible that a part of my memory was blocked out?

Her eyes scrolled up when she started to ponder on it. "Let's see…what's the easiest way to explain this….Everyone is born with both Darkness and Light in their hearts—but they are both buried deep, deep inside only triggered by specific emotions." She scoffed in disgust. "And because humans are so pathetic and unbalanced, they only blindly use them and end up doing really foolish things—the most foolish thing being them corrupted by Darkness. If humans weren't so darn weak, that wouldn't necessarily be the issue." Her discussed turned into an exasperated sigh. "But alas, the morons continue on. Luckily, though, you and I aren't one of them!" _What?_Realizing that she had caught herself too late, she jokingly tapped her head and bit her tongue. "Oops! I think I said too much…My bad."

I didn't want her to think she got off scrape free. "What did you mean by—"

"It's a secret. Can't tell you now, sorry!" For some reason, that didn't really surprise me—it was a big disappointment, but not a surprise. "_Anyway_, because of what—I mean _who_ you are—you're able to use Light, Darkness, and the other elements to your advantage. Knowing this, instead of having your Darkness remain inside, my mother thought that it would be a good idea to expose it so that you can use it—or me—to your benefit." Lying back leisurely in the air, she continued on as if the information she was giving was unimportant. "I never felt that I was being used though, out of all the people I'm glad that it's you that I get to spend eternity with."

_Eternity __my __ass._"Back up a bit kid. I want to know, first of all, who this mother of yours is—as well as why she hates me so much to go and make my life a living hell." I had wanted answers all my life, and now this was potentially my chance.

She started to float away from me—still perfectly comfortable as if she were floating on one of those blow-up toys in a swimming pool. "Can't tell you that either—it's also a secret!" She uncharacteristically paused for a second. "She chooses to remain anonymous until the right time. But I can say that she certainly doesn't hate you—in fact, we both think that she did you a huge favor." It was somewhat hard to place, but it almost seemed like her tone became more serious when the topic of her mother came up. Where did _that_ come from all of a sudden?

Regardless, though, I'd be damned if I allowed my opportunities for answers slip through my fingers. My tolerance levels from all of this were starting to boil over. "Don't give me any of that crap! There are some bits of information that you're hiding from me—spill it, or else I'll be forced to make you." The aggravation was spread on pretty thick with those last few words.

Emulating the Hitachiin twin's first reaction to my threats and powers, the little girl just smiled brightly and clapped her hands. "How amusing! I always wanted to hear your famous threats in person. You do sound pretty cool when you say them. Far better than any superhero some geek can come up with." An immediate fire began to blaze in her eyes as anticipation flowed through her being. "Well if you insist on fighting me, then go ahead!"

Insinuating this as an invitation, I immediately assumed a battle stance as I fished throughout my brain for a spell. Rationalizing that Darkness wouldn't be all that bright of an element to use (again, no pun intended), I knew that I'd have to take another route. Gathering energy to my body, one spell stuck out to me that I figured would do the trick. _Remember __Aki, __you __don__'__t __want __to __kill __her. __You __still __need __her __alive __for __answers. _Agreeing on my resolve, I casted, "_Source __of __all __souls __which __swell __in __the __eternal __and __infinite__…" _

"Ah, so you're gonna use _that_ spell!" She applauded. "Very well then!" What I didn't expect was for her to say a part of the incantation. _"__Everlasting __flame __of __blue, __let __the __power __hidden __in __my __soul__—"_

"_Be __called __forth __from __the __infinite!__" _I finished. So she knew the chant—big whoop. It didn't necessarily mean that she could back it up. A blue halo emitting around my body, hers as well, as my aim caused a circle of blue light to appear around her…and curiously me as well. Thinking it best to ignore it—or be prepared to get the hell out of there, I concluded the spell, "_Ra-Tilt!__" _Light-blue flames dancing around the magic circle appeared, preparing to flare up in its final attack. Seeing as how the exact same thing was happening around me, I didn't form another thought except _gotta __get __away!_Using a bubble of Wind underneath my feet, I managed to immediately jump up and out of the circle of danger, just as an infinite pillar of blue energy rushed up from the ground, having the ability to destroy any target that ever had the unfortunate mishap of getting trapped in the middle.

Landing somewhat firmly on my feet, with just a small stumble, I looked over to see how things went with my opponent. Turned out that she also avoided my attack as she floated freely along. Confusion rattling in my brain, I manage to get a stutter out that sounded like, "What the?"

Seeing the spell disperse, the little girl nonchalantly made her way over in my direction, the intent on fighting completely leaving her intentions. "I'm a part of you Aki, so technically, I have the same abilities as you do." I groaned. _Well __that__'__s __sort __of__…__f%#$ed __up._ "You can't really surprise me with anything—not when I know you're every thought." An evident scowl riddled on my face, my logical brain tried to work through every possible scenario that could occur. But all the while, I was distracted from the built up rage that was surfacing and long overdue. Not surprised by my reaction, she levitated around me, almost like she was psycho-analyzing me—like she knew exactly what I was about. "Oh _I __see_ what's going on now, you're mad at me, aren't you?" Her eyes narrowed as the smile continued on. "Yes, you're not mad that I'm keeping information from you, not completely, you're more mad of the fact that you've been…_blessed_ with me your whole life."

Snap.

"Blessed? _Blessed?_ That is such bullshit!" So far, I had concealed my emotions about this whole thing—but no longer. All of the turmoil—all of the pain I had ever experienced was because I was stuck with this little brat almost like a disease. A life like mine wasn't even worth living—it just wasn't fair. A small, darker part of me—the part that didn't give a damn about acting calm and staying strong by not reacting to pain—wanted to just destroy everything and show people the anger and sadness that I had welled up in my heart. But I knew that would be wrong—it wasn't their fault. I gave the little girl a deathly stare. It was _hers._ "I could never get close to anyone because of you! I can't even imagine a life where everything's okay and I'm perfectly happy—because of you, I'm _that_ messed up!" No one should have to go through what I had to. I just felt that…that things should have been different.

Seeing me so worked up, she halted in her spot, a frown now forming on her lips. "Aki, please, you must understand the reasoning of all this…" Her worlds trailed off and for the first time, it was like she didn't know what to say—she didn't know what words would be able to make everything she did alright.

_F%#__it. __Darkness __is __my __power __too.__ "__Darkness __beyond __twilight__—__crimson __beyond __blood __that __flows. __Buried __in __the __stream __of __time __is __where __your __power __grows.__" _I could feel the dark cloud surrounding me, giving me the malevolent strength that rested in my hand. _"__I __pledge __myself __to __conquer __all __the __foes __who __stand. __Before __the __mighty __gifts __bestowed __in __my __unworthy __hands.__" _A combination of black and red lighting condensed into an ever-growing sphere on my palm as the spell commenced. _"__Let __the __fools __who __stand __before __me __be __destroyed __by __the __power __you __and __I __possess!__" _Not taking another second to think about it, I released the violent beam of Darkness. _"__Dragon __Slave!__"_

The little girl had mentioned that she could do the exact same things as I could…yet her reaction time was off by…a lot. Fortunately for her, she broke out of her daze and mirrored me right at the last second. _"__Dragon __Slave!__" _She didn't even need to pull off the whole incantation, she just dished it out and used her energy to divert mine, leading it into a different direction. Feeling that I lost my control, and ability to win this way, I ceased my flow of power, diminishing the spell until it was completely over. Letting out a sigh of relief, she then turned to me with a concerned expression. This time, all feelings of amusement completely washed away. "Look, you can't defeat me that way, so can you please just hear me out?" An exhausting sensation overwhelmed me, forcing me to submit for the time being. It was amazing to me how I was even able to move at all in that world—unlike back in my physical consciousness where I'm still sore from battle damage. It wouldn't have been smart to continue on with something that could turn out tediously. I was already grateful that I could stand, who knows how much control that little girl honestly had as well. "First off, I never _wanted_ to hurt you—I love you too much to even think of doing that." She shook her head as her eyes trailed down in apparent remorse. "I hate that this whole condition brings you pain and misery, but I promise that it will get better the moment you decide to finally let go."

Unclenching my fists a bit, my curiosity perked up only slightly. "Let go of what?"

"What else? The futile dream of wanting to have a relationship with anybody." Noticing how my eyes widened as my body relaxed a bit, she continued as a bitter tone stuck onto her words. "Others aren't perfect like you Aki, they are corrupted, and betray each other—love and friendship basically mean nothing to them. Those terms are just titles they stick on certain weak bonds that only last for a short time. With them, nothing is forever. They continue to kill and lie and cheat, and many of them aren't even sorry for the sins they commit." I hated to admit it, but she was right. Back in my world, all you had to do was turn on the news and story after story would be about how the world would get even more corrupted. You eventually find that you can't trust anyone—that you're never safe. It's sad when a world is so messed up that you think you'd be better off being alone. Being the over analytical persona that I was, I noticed things in people—I saw the darkness in their hearts and how they displayed them. I also noticed how so many were unaware to their wrongs thinking they were right. With so many different views and actions going on, who's honestly to say who or what was right or not. What was good and evil?

Her words flowed easily along with my inner thoughts. "You see that I am right. You know that I'm right. I've seen what you've seen Aki, been where you've been, heard what you heard. And in that world you grew up in—even in the worlds you've traveled too, both emotional, and physical pain is inevitable." You can't escape the pains and evils of the universe—to think that you could would be a foolish lie to tell yourself. I had long since realized and accepted that my life and the existence of the world around me was screwed up. Why else would I desire change so bad? "Because of the conditions my mother bestowed onto me, I allow you the burden of remembering every ounce of pain you have ever experienced in your life…" That was the curse that was on me—that was what made my suffering distinguishable beyond others. Every single day, I was forced to live through every painful experience almost as if it were happening over and over again. The feelings I had would remain, the torment never ceasing. I could still hear my cries of agony and sink in the depth of hopeless ness—every little memory that made me want to cry. Most people either forgot times of hardship or even put it past their mind to move on.

I lacked that luxury. I wasn't allowed to forget. And with every new painful scenario that unfolded on an everyday basis for me, it would just keep piling on more and more. To lessen the burden, I would pretend like nothing affected me, perhaps fool my psyche into thinking that nothing mattered. But even I knew that I couldn't get off that easily. So with this journey, I tried to learn how to put on a genuine smile, trying to prevent any more pain—trying to acquire new memories that would make everything better. But no matter what I tried, I knew I couldn't mask the pain forever. "Instead of giving up and just ending your life, you remained strong Aki—that's another reason why I like you so much. You continued on everyday knowing full well that more pain would come your way. But when things got too bad, I helped you release the negative energy stored inside your heart—or more like in the dark ring I suppose—which would be forced out as a wave onto the sorry people who harmed you, making them feel only a fraction of the suffering that you had to go through." That was the other condition. Whenever I felt threatened or figured that the negative energy became too strong, I had no choice but to let it go. Anyone around me would then be forced to suffer because I couldn't contain myself. The only benefit I found in this was that people would leave me alone. But at other times, innocent people would get hurt because of my selfishness. "You always felt better whenever that happened, didn't you?"

Feeling slightly ashamed, I whispered, "Well…" That was also true—a slight wave of relief would smother me, if only for a few seconds whenever I let a dark wave shoot out.

"Or rather, you feel better whenever you don't feel sorry for them afterwards." The overwhelming ping of guilt would often gloss over my feelings of relief, making it seem like it was never even there to begin with. The little girl's volume increased. "That's your problem! You care too much about a bunch of other's who will end up hurting you. And, I'm sorry to say, but there's something that you have failed to realize: You are incapable of falling in love with _anyone_."

Her words hit me like a violent electric shock—I would know. "What the hell do you mean that I'm incapable? I've felt feelings—"

"That you _thought_ were love or affection and such. But in reality, you're more in love with the idea of _being __in __love_. Why do you think that you were so easily smitten by that mutt Inuyasha, the moody feline Kyo, and that trickster rich bastard Hikaru? Because of the mindless dribble that had ended up brainwashing you from your world, you grew up in an environment where being appreciated, popular, and loved by a bunch of people means true happiness." Part of that did make some sort of sense. Looking back on it, I did sort of attach myself to those guys rather easily—more Kyo and Inuyasha, I sort of had to refine my feelings for Hikaru before they could become known—but still. Even when I was younger, seeing so many romantic movies and all the happy couples made me rationalize that being happy meant being in a relationship. That was why I forced myself to have a crush on Yosuke back in my world—I wanted to achieve simulated bliss. But something in me told me that that was wrong, so I never pursued it. Truth was…I actually hated that guy. "Sure that's the nice end of the fairytale if you really believe in all that. But the people who made up those standards are all hypocrites in that every single one of them has wronged someone at some time or another, making their lives worse." The little girl hugged herself and closed her eyes, maybe imagining that I was over there with her—comfortably embracing.

"I'm trying to give you that happily ever after Aki, but the way to do that is just let go. Let go your negative waves of energy and show others just how much pain you're in…maybe then they will finally understand what selfish fools they are. Let go of your desire to be accepted into a society that is too primitive to even see how wonderful you are." Opening her eyes slowly, you could see a slight pleading expression hanging on her soft, yet cold features. "Let go and be forever with me—your best friend."

Her sincerity was starting to break through, but I was sorry to say that that didn't quite make up for all of the crap I had been through. "There's no way in hell that you're my best friend! And I don't completely believe that people are as bad as they may seem. Everybody has a trigger—something that makes them feel horrible or make them do equally horrible things." I used to hate people. I used to hate the world for shunning me the way it did. But when I realized that it was me causing their pain, that it was me making them lash out in response to their happiness, I knew that, deep inside, they didn't have the desire to hurt anyone—they just wanted to protect themselves. _And __now, __even __if __this __is __the __little __girl __behind __the __dark __ring, __it __is __still __my __dark __feelings __that __are __projected __on to __them_.

Snapping her arm out, she pointed at me with an accusing finger. "You see Aki? It's thoughts like those that add even more sorrow to your soul. You can't fall in love because it may end up killing you. You've been hurt so much half because of the concern you have for humans, and the other half from the harm they've caused you. If you were to fall in love and have your heart broken sometime after _all_ that, the added pain would be too unbearable and you might end up killing yourself or submitting your soul completely to the cold darkness. And I…" Tears—genuine tears started to form in her eyes, running down her pale cheeks. Somehow, I could feel what she was feeling, similarly to my bond with Genrou. Unlike last time, she wasn't kidding about her sadness. "I don't want you to do that." She tried to speak past her excessive hiccupping. "I want you to be safe…I want you to be with me and I promise to make you happy and keep you safe from all of those evil people who are so bent on hurting you." _Huh?__ "_I thought that you almost died back there Aki. I couldn't sense you for a while, it was so scary—like I had been detached from an important life-line and I was just floating around in some cold space with nowhere to go and no one to talk to." She must have been talking about when I got electrocuted—when I was stuck in between life and death. "I couldn't feel your warm presence and it scared me. I wanted to die—if I couldn't be with you, there was no point of living anymore." _She__'__s__…__she__'__s __taking __this __a __bit __far__…_ "You're mine Aki, and I don't want to lose you or give you up!" At this point, she was completely wailing. She ceased her perky floating and sunk herself onto the cold, black ground, curing up in a fetal position as the tears made their way to the floor.

With everything that happened, and how young this girl really seemed, I was actually starting to feel bad about how I exploded at her like that. When I thought about it, the more I realized how none of this was really even her fault. After all, she did say that her mother imprinted her onto me—she really didn't have a say in anything. All she did was adjust and make the best out of her situation. And in the meantime, she was observing me, learning more about my life and traveling along for the ride. _This __little __girl__…__really __does __care __about __me__…_

"I do! I really do!" The way she looked so small and vulnerable on the floor like that really made her seem the age she looked. If what she was saying was true, then she was forced to watch someone she cared about suffer for so long. My face softened up. _She __really __does __feel __my __pain__—__she __knows __what __I __have __been __through._"You were willing to give it up for those two morons you're traveling with, I just couldn't take it—I love you too much to want anything bad to happen. I don't want you putting so much effort into helping out them or anyone else." Attempting to toughen up, she sat up and wiped her tears away, clearing her throat to sound less needy. "They will hurt you Aki—all of the humans will."

My legs finally began to move out of their spot, allowing me to calmly make my way over to the little girl. "Look, I know it might seem that way, but if you really know me, then you know that I simply can't accept that." When I finally reached her, I crouched down, matching her level as we met eye to eye. With a sympathetic and confident grin, I told her, "I left my world to find a way out of my crappy life, and I'm pretty determined to do just that." Yeah, my life was bad—_real_ bad. But there wouldn't be a point in going on if I didn't look for some kind of light out of the end of this tunnel. I wasn't a sad little brat who made other people do things for her as she was waited on hand and foot—no, I go for it all on my own.

The little girl, obviously frustrated, flailed her arms around. "But there's no point!" Obviously she was still following along with my thoughts. "You know how things go—people don't want to be around you because you cause them pain, unintentionally of course, and you're too scared to be around them because they might hurt you and add more to your pain, not to mention that you don't want them to get hurt by me. All of the trouble just isn't worth it." Her face was scrunched up in anger as she slammed her fist into the ground. "By trying so hard, you're just gonna end up in even more pain. And I don't like hurting you, that's just the way my mother designed me—to train you to want to stay away."

Nodding in understanding, I confirmed her accusation, "Sure, I'm scared to get close—I'm really terrified." _I__'__ve __felt __so __much __pain __in __my __life __and __it __will __only __get __worse__…__like __a __disease_. "It's sad when the one thing you want the most scares you to death. That's what happens when a curse gets put on me, but nothing will improve if I let this take over my life for much longer." She already knew everything about me, so there was no point in hiding how I felt. Saying all of that sure made me sound tough, but I still had more doubts than one could imagine. I was a frail person, afraid of so many things, and a curse certainly didn't help. To hide my pain from the world, I act indifferently, even to a point where I seem cold to most—like I have no feelings or even a heart. They will never know. Shaking my head, I had to try my best to conceal those negative emotions. That was when something rather important came to my attention. "Wait, I just remembered something…you said that everyone wants to stay away in order to avoid me sending out constant waves of negative energy. But…what about Genrou?" Her eyebrow cocked up in an irritated fashion at the sound of his name. "I mean, he's not affected at all—he completely repels your—my—_our_ effects. He's not like Miaka or Saru or Kyoko, they receive a small part of it, but he gets absolutely none."

Her growl at the sound of his name was low and hostile—almost as if she had a score to settle with him or something. "Oh yes…_that_ guy…that meddlesome fiery-headed _thorn_ at my side."

It didn't take a genius to figure out that she did not have the same type of feelings that she had towards me that she did with him. There was something deeper in there—something I wasn't seeing and something she wasn't telling me. But the bottom line was, "What makes him so special?"

Completely ignoring my statement, the little girl seemed absorbed in her own thoughts—plotting nefarious schemes that only she could really comprehend. In a low tone, she mumbled to herself. "One of these days I'll have to figure out how to deal with him…" In my head, there was a thought…but it didn't belong to me. It said, '_before __things __get __too __critical_'. I sort of figured that if she could hear my thoughts in this mysterious space of hers, then the same things could apply vice versa. However, her curious bitterness towards my bandit companion probably made her ignorant to that fact.

"Before _what_ gets too critical?" I asked. My question must have caught her fancy since she turned her attention back onto me. Intriguing . _So __I __can __read __her __mind._

She smirked, her amusement returning in response to my epiphany. "Yes, you can—just like how I can do the same to you. In this space, nothing is hidden unless you can conveniently eradicate it from your mind." _Figured __as __much._

Trying not to lose focus on the topic, I pressed on. "Well whatever, why is he so different than everyone else? And how come we have that whole spark thing that goes on?"

Scratching the back of her head, she sat cross-legged and wondered what to say next. My face was determined, hoping silently that she would finally cave and reveal all of her secrets. The resolve she made caused her to smile sneakily, and respond with, "Like I said before…That's. A. S-e-c-r-e-t."

Falling over comically, straight onto my face, I looked up at her with sweat running down my cheek. Oh course it is. I give up. _This __girl __is __almost __as __bad __as __Taiitsukun. _Well, at least her attitude was a little more pleasant, and I did get a lot of information regarding why my life had been so screwy. Seeing her satisfied smile sort of uplifted my spirits a little, as odd as it may sound considering whom she was. It was hard to explain, but I really did feel like I could completely open up to her—almost safe and homey. The sensation was familiar in some way…

All of a sudden, my body started to flicker in and out—it was almost like someone had just hooked a fishing line to me and was pulling me away. As I looked at my hands, my legs, everything else, I could see that, for the most part, I was losing my opacity—soon there would be nothing left.

"What's happening to me?"

Pouting like the little kid she was, she complained, "Aww man…your connection to this space is weakening. I'll have to send you back soon." I wasn't quite sure on how to feel about that. She may have been the object of my troubles in life, but she also understood me more than anyone I had ever met. Part of me really wanted to end her existence and the other wanted to stay and hear more about what she had to say. The confliction was perplexing, but I knew that the universe would end up making the choice for me whether I had a say in it or not. My whole universe problem wasn't necessarily a curse per se…but it was definitely a nuisance. The young girl sensed my disturbance. "It's okay Aki, I'll still be with you and I promise that we'll meet again! While I will be sad that we probably won't meet up again like this for a while, it has been the highlight of my life getting to really meet you."

"Uh huh…" The atmosphere became thick with awkwardness—on my part anyway, she seemed pretty content with herself. When I first arrived there, I was confused. Then I went into a justifiable rage. The transition was soon followed by depression and hopeless ness—ending in acceptance. This little girl was able to do that much to my emotions and now we ended up on better terms. There were still so many questions…so many things I wanted to express and talk about—she was the person to do that with. "So um…what should I call you? I mean, continuing to call you 'dark ring' is getting a little tedious." My question seemed to have troubled her. The smile on her face faltered a bit as it tilted in thought, her different colored eyes trailing up as she searched for an answer. This was peculiar to me. "What's wrong? Your mom didn't name you?" My parents hated me but they still gave me a name—the name wasn't exactly all that creative ("Akimoto" meaning "true autumn" in Japanese. I was born in autumn so my parents just used that), but any name is a name I suppose.

The younger girl just chose to shrug it off. "She didn't see the need to. She probably figured that I wouldn't be important or around others enough to be called something…"

_Well, __I__'__d __feel __sort __of __bad __if __I __just __referred __to __her __as __the __dark __ring__—__especially __since __I __know __that __she__'__s __actually __a __person. __Well, __more __or __less_. "Let me see…" All I wanted to do was come up with a simple name—perhaps something that had to do with who she was…_She __focuses __on __dark __and __negative __energy __so__…__I __guess __the __simplest __thing __to __name __her __would __be__…_ "How does 'Shokyoku' sound?"

She tested the name out for herself. "Sho…kyo…ku?" The name was another way of saying "negative" in Japanese. Considering that's the kind of energy she emitted (you know, dark ring and all), I figured that it fit rather nicely.

"If you don't like it—"

Using her energy to propel herself into the air, she zipped around at high speeds, doing various tricks and flips as happiness basically oozed off of her. "Are you _kidding_? I love it! You named me so I'll cherish the name forever! My name is Shokyoku! Shokyoku! Shokyoku! Aki gave me a name!" She cheered. The little girl reminded me so much of a kid who had just developed a sugar high in less than a minute from chowing down on buckets of candy.

Because of my inability to turn my back to cute things—and at this point, Shokyoku was acting real adorable—I kept my cool as best as I could. After all, I still knew that that little girl was not innocent at all—her little speech earlier proved that, she was just playing her part in combination with her newfound giddiness. "Alright calm down Shokyoku—it's not that big of a deal."

She zipped over and took my hands just like before and started to swing them while she floated. I found myself not resisting as much as I initially did when I had first arrived. "Of course it is! My Aki gave me such a wonderful name! Thank you!"

Chuckling nervously, I was starting to feel uncomfortable with such a drastic change in atmosphere. "Okay, okay, you're welcome." _Just __calm __down __already._

"If only you didn't have to go…" Letting go of my hands, she wrapper her arms around me—hugging me gently as she rested her small head on my shoulders. My maternal instincts took over as my hands moved up to return the hug, stroking her smooth hair as softly as possible. Getting close to my ear, she spoke in a low volume. "Just remember what I said: everyone else can and will hurt you. But if you're willing to go through with this, then I won't stop you—I don't have the power to even if wanted to. Just know that I'll be here for you when you need a reliable and truly loving shoulder to cry on. Then together…we can make them all pay…

Blinking hard, I half expected to still be in Shokyoku's realm, but the moment a flash of familiar physical pain impaled my body in an instant, I felt myself falling backwards as the brightness of the cheery blue sky and yellow sun that lit up the land filtered back into my vision. I was soon caught by strong arms as only a few rays from the morning star fought its way through the various branches and leaves of some tree. An appearance of fiery-red hair and amber eyes soon hovered over me.

So I really was back.

"You were _really_ out of it," Genrou spoke in a lower tone, "what happened to ya?" As he helped me to sit up a bit more, I couldn't help but notice how the dark ring—Shokyoku—was around me once again, the silver veins completely gone from view. Even though I knew that her intentions were good, it didn't take away from the fact that the curse did still bring pain, and I didn't notice until that moment how I had been temporarily relieved of my burden the whole time I was in the maze. The residual pain was still there, allowing me to actually believe that I was still affected by the curse. I didn't even have time to really enjoy the short amount of freedom I had been given. Being lost in my thoughts, I didn't answer Genrou's question—putting all of my feelings and experiences into words for someone who couldn't completely comprehend was a feat that I didn't exactly feel like attempting that at that present moment. "Hey, what's wrong?" He asked with a concerned expression. _Oh __yeah__…__I __forgot __about __our __empathy._

"Tell me, did I actually go somewhere…or…" Yeah, I was aware that I avoided his question, but it wasn't like I wasn't curious about what I asked.

"Huh?" Seeing where I was getting at, he answered with, "Nah, ya just stood there and yer eyes went black. Ya wouldn't move so I put you under this tree when I gave up on tryin' to wake you up er whatever." _So __I __really __was __inside __of __the __dark __ring. _He shrugged. "I figured that you'd break through sooner or later so I'd watch over you until ya did." _I __wonder__…_Since he could feel my strong emotions as well as the other way around, was he aware of what I was feeling when I was talking to Shokyoku? The flame-haired bandit looked around awkwardly as if there was something he was avoiding himself. He, however, chose to go through with it. "So, uh, there's somethin' I've been meanin' to ask ya when we met…" For some unexplainable reason, I could feel my heart beating in my chest a lot more prominently as butterflies erupted in my stomach. _Why __would __him __saying __that __make __me __feel __like __this? _The temperature of my face started to rise uncontrollably as my anticipation rose.

What the hell?

_Wait __a __second, __why __am __I __reacting __like __this? _I sighed, trying to calm myself down. _I __must __be __woozy __from __all __of __that __sub-dimensional __swapping __I__'__ve __been __doing __lately._

"So I was wonderin'…" _Yeah?_"What exactly _is_ that thing around'ja?" Blinking a few times, my head sunk in disappointment when I realized what he was referring to.

_What he was referring to…_

My eyes shot open as wide as they could possibly go. "Are you telling me that _you_ c-can see the ring of energy around me?" Even in my lifetime I could only see it when my emotions were strong enough. No one else was even aware that it was there unless I said something about it in order to warn them. More often than not, I would believe that people in my world would have laughed in my face if I told them something like that. But the people in the worlds I had visited seemed more…open minded. Despite that, I was still wary about it. So how was it possible that some guy I still barely knew could see what was unseen to everyone else?

He scratched his head sheepishly. "Yeah. I've always been able ta see it. I jus' didn't say anythin' 'cause I thought I might've been crazy and it just went away in that whacko maze. Since its back, I figured that it could actually be serious—"

"Shokyoku." I flatly told him.

"What?"

"The ring around me has a consciousness—her name is Shokyoku." I took offense with his words as I narrowed my eyes at him—my thoughts floating towards the memories of that mysterious little girl. "So please don't refer to her as a 'thing'." What I expected next was to hear him argue with me, ordering me not to tell him what to do.

In a matter of submission, he sighed. "Fine, I'm sorry, alright?" Almost immediately, my aggression had been subdued, still in slight surprise that none of it came from him. "Jus' tell me, what exactly is it—uh, she?"

Perhaps talking to someone who's out of the loop would make me feel slightly better about everything that happened. There wouldn't be much harm to it especially if he ended up forgetting about me in the long run anyway. Besides that, he'd probably probe me until he made his way through my defenses. I was honestly too exhausted to really give a damn. "She's a part of a curse of eternal suffering that we are both connected by. If it were just two victims, perhaps it wouldn't be so bad—but thanks to me other people are pulled in and pushed away…"

A puzzled expression hung on his tan features. "What the heck does all that mean?"

Normally, I'd get frustrated, but his simplicity was a bit…refreshing compared to the grand scheme of complexes that made up my existence. It was nice knowing that I had someone around who knew exactly what my situation was, but…I don't know…having someone around who was open-minded kind of brought me a small, temporary breath of fresh air. Shaking my head, I said, "Never mind." For what it was worth, I was happy that for once, I couldn't make someone suffer on my expense—that the curse didn't affect him. Even if he was just one person. I was so thankful for Genrou, even if he had no idea of the gift he had given me. For once in my life, a person never felt the curse, so they couldn't have possibly had any preconceived thoughts about me—especially the ones that came from hurtful gossip. For once I was able to steadily form a relationship the customary way, no influences, no Darkness interfering, just a normal friendship. Sure, like everything else I had to work for it, but…

It brought me a gleam of hope.

_Please don't let anyone extinguish it. It's honestly all I've got. _

I acknowledged Shokyoku's warning—how the piles and piles of negative emotions and memories would end up escalating to dangerous levels…which was very possible. But like I told her, I had to fight through this, even if it ended up killing me.

I'd risk death to fight through this hellhole of a life _in __a __heart beat_.

Seeing as how I stopped talking while getting lost in my thoughts (once more—honestly that seemed to be happening an awful lot lately), Genrou suggested something that through me for a loop. "We should go out somewhere."

Due to my mind being on the frizz from all of the "excitement", the connotation that should have flowed through my mind completely skipped over to the next possible explanation. "We've already been 'somewhere' if you haven't realized. That awful maze was 'somewhere' and then some. I've honestly had my share of 'somewheres' for a while. Besides," mentioning the maze brought back a reality that both of us failed to acknowledge for a while. "Are you sure that it would be a good idea to just go off and do something like that? I mean, we don't even know how much time has gone by while we were in there." Our eyes locked onto each-others. "Don't you have to deliver that flower to your leader?"

Showing a toothy smile, he assured me, "Nah, Hakurou's tough, he can hold out for a _little_ longer." _Gosh __am __I __happy __that __this __guy __isn__'__t __in __charge __of _my _medication. __Worst. __Nurse. __Ever._

Continuing to go on, I knew, would mean that breaking off later would be even more difficult than it already would be. It would have been smart to just leave each other then and there—just like what Chichiri did (again, I was still surprised that he was the first to leave). In the long run, that method would work the best and hurt the least. Of course some pain can't be prevented, so I had to tough through it. Leaving friends behind wasn't something I liked exactly, but the idea of never being able to form close bonds was beginning to be etched into my brain.

Some of Shokyoku's words did end up making a lot of sense.

"Look, we had just been through a lot of crap and deserve ta take a little break, rest, have some fun, and celebrate!"

_He __doesn__'__t __quite __seem __to __fully __comprehend __what __I__'__m __saying. _"I know what you're saying, but—" In the middle of my objection, Genrou slid his arms under my body, scooted me closer to him as he lifted up with his legs, ending up with me being held in his arms bridal style. An apparent blush ran across my face in response to his sudden notion. "H-Hey!"

"Ya still can't walk all that well, right? So I'll be forced to make ya loosen up by takin' you somewhere," he looked down at me with a smile. "C'mon trust me on this—I know how ta celebrate…_the__right__way_."

I scoffed. "Oh so apparently there's a wrong way?"

"Damn right there is!" _Shoulda __known._He had a hard head, so arguing in this specific case would not have been all that effective. So the guy was lucky that I wasn't at my full strength at the time—if the trials of that maze hadn't messed me up so badly, I would have dashed off before he could even suggest going out—well, I would have at least prevented up from holding me the way he was. I would have been as hostile as an alley-cat being forced into a cold tub full of water—not pleasant.

* * *

><p>"You know, it amazes me how quickly you go from a serious tone to a playful one," I told Genrou as he sat across from me at a table filled with a diverse variety of cooked foods with intoxicating aromas (too bad I had never really been much of a big eater). After he forcibly brought me to a decent enough of a restaurant (ish kind of thing…didn't exactly know what to call a place like that in ancient China-like terms), I had stopped rejecting his cause and decided to just go with it. At the very least, I had to keep up my dignity by using <em>Recovery <em>enough times to where I could walk on my own—painfully, but on my own nonetheless. And as much as I objected, I was sort of glad that he dragged me there…_sort __of._

Taking a sip of sake (of course), he countered with, "Why? We're not fightin' anymore and we got our trophy." He took out the bouncy-ball sized container for the Sacred Blood Lily and waved it around, treating it like some sort of ordinary trinket. "To me that sounds like a great reason ta let loose a bit." Returning it back to his inside pocket, he put his elbow on the table as he leaned his cheek on his hand. "C'mon Aki, lighten up! I even brought ya to this place with great food and, o' course, drinks! My treat, remember?"

My eyebrow cocked up with skepticism. "_Your_ treat huh? I'm guessing that you forgot that _I__'__m_ the one with the royal crest on her kunai." An imaginary thought bubble formed between us with the picture of my kunai in it as I spoke in a slight monotone. "Technically no one is paying for anything." Even if Hotohori were paying for the things I purchased, I sincerely doubted that it made a dent, let alone a scratch mark on his incredible fortune.

Annoyance was starting to hang around the air him. "Hey what's wrong with ya? Yer kinda bummin' me out here."

Without looking at him, I responded with a calm, "Nothing's wrong…" Like I realized before, when Shokyoku was sealed in that maze, I didn't even realize how the burden of all that pain was suddenly lifted. I was left with the residual pain, so it was like nothing was different, but it was. And when she came back, it all came rushing back like a tsunami. Ever since the dark ring reappeared around me, the curse was reenacted. It's like I had a gigantic boulder made up of sorrow and agony that I was forced to hold up all on my own. It never got any easier…I sort of wished that it had never been taken away by the maze. That way, I never would have had to know what it was like without it, now that I know, the realization of how much my life sucked smashed into my face almost as hard as George of the Jungle swung into trees.

Genrou, with his little optimistic self persisted on. "Ya know you can tell me—I'm all ears!"

_Can __I __really? __There __wouldn__'__t __really __be __any __point__…_ I tried my best to convince him of the story I was giving. "I'm just tired is all. Honestly, how can you _not_ be especially after all that?"

"My excitement is just too high from finally bein' outta there. I don't have the time to be tired!" _Looks __like __the __Duracell __bunny __is __still __going __on __pretty __damn __strong __in __his __brain._

I couldn't find where he was possibly getting all of that energy. My body still ached and the toll from the maximum amount of magic usage was still intact. The question was whether or not the spells I used in Shokyoku's realm did anything on my physical being—I suppose I'd never know. Just like when I came out of my electro-unconsciousness, my body had relaxed so much that the adrenaline flowed away from my system, leaving the pain to come through like a wave. The effect was still there much to my dismay

Stroking his chin, the bandit observed me. "Now that all is said and done, yer not really lookin' too good there!" A mental snap went off in my brain. _What?_ "Yer still bruised up quite a bit, even if ya did perform some healin' spells on yerself." _Strike __one._ "Not to mention that yer clothes look are torn up somethin' fierce, ya even lost that white coat o' yers that you were wearin' before." _Strike __two._ "Exhaustion is really showin' on ya with those bags under yer eyes and lack of energy ya seem to have—"

Bringing out the giant red and yellow toy hammer out of absolutely nowhere (called the Hammer of Justice), I used reserve energy to stand up from my chair and strike down on him—hard. _Strike __three._Fallen completely out of his chair, he lied there on the ground, foot twitching as he tried to comprehend the pain that I had just inflicted onto him. "I still have enough energy to do that!" _My __body __didn__'__t __favor __that __too __much __though__… __But __it __was __worth __it!_ "That is no way to speak to a woman you jerk! You are not supposed to point out things like that—especially not in public! What are you, some kind of idiot?" _Why __am __I __even __asking?_ Noticing how things suddenly got quiet all around, I realized that all of the other customers, and even the waitresses, had stopped what they were doing to stare at us—at me, the girl with the now apparent temper. _Oh __crap! __Everyone__'__s __staring __at __me!_ Putting the hammer away, I immediately sat back down and took a bite of a plate of noodles in front of me, almost as if nothing had ever happened.

Struggling back into his seat, he bared his fangs at me as he roared, "Why the hell did you do that ya psycho? Serves _me_ right for worrin' about'cha!"

Still focusing on my food, I refused to look directly at him. "You call _that_ worrying? While I appreciate the sympathy, I'd much rather you kept it to yourself."

Scoffing, he poured more sake into his small cup and slammed the bottle on the table. "Whatever!"

Somewhat amused by the situation—funny how the roles had switched—I smirked and asked, "So quickly to lose your newfound cheerfulness? How sad." Just as he was about to retort with something, I wisely added, "Haven't you ever learned to never let anyone disturb your happiness or let them take it away from you? No matter whom they are." The saying may not have applied directly to me, but overall, I found that it was actually pretty good advice.

He eyed me warily. "Well if that's true, then why did ya let someone take away yers?"

My eyes widened with his accusation. The thing was…he wasn't exactly all that far off. "No one—I-I told you that that's not what's wrong. I'm _tired_, okay?"

This time it was his turn to borrow the suspicious tone. "That tired?"

"Yes! I feel like I could just hop into a comfy bed and just sleep for a week straight, hoping that no one would disturb me…" My eyes slowly trailed away. "Maybe longer." Sounded pretty nice the more I thought about it.

"Sleepin' fer that long? What a waste of a perfectly good life."

_Perfectly __good, __huh? __If __only __you __knew._ A small trance overcame me at the thought. "When you sleep, it's like everything else that's happening in the world just seems to fade away, as if all of the problems didn't matter anymore 'cause you'd be detached." A small, emotionless smile crept across my lips. "You'd be so at peace that all of the pain just disappears. That's sort of how I felt when I was near death." Eternal sleep where nothing can disturb you—a sweet, comforting darkness was pulling me in, and I was willing to submit—you know, at that time. Whether I was destined to an eternity of bliss in Heaven or eternal torture in Hell was uncertain ( gosh I would have preferred the primary)…but it didn't matter, because I was taken away at the last second by a golden light that called out to me. "It was sort of scary, but looking past that, I was content, almost happy to leave it all. Kind of makes me wonder if it was worth it for you guys to bring me back—"

"Don't talk like that!" He yelled out, unintentionally knocking over his precious bottle of sake. It didn't even seem to matter to him at that moment. "Don't you ever feel regret fer choosing ta live! I don't know about you, but I'm happy that we brought'cha back—it wasn't time fer you ta go."

His feelings were strong, I could sense them from where I was sitting. And his concern was sort of making me…happy. "Genrou…" But he was starting to make another scene.

Scooting out of his seat, he gazed down at me with determination burning in his eyes in order to get me to see things his way. "Death is so far away, so it's not worth mentionin'. And if ya _ever_ consider killin' yerself, I swear that I'll—"

"Genrou control yourself! Everyone is staring at us…" As I spoke, I absolutely refused to allow my peripheral vision to work. I _did __not_ want to see those accusing eyes on me again.

"I don't care—I'm tryin' to make a point—"

"Point received." I spoke through clenched teeth. "Now sit down and _shut_ _up_!" Shooting daggers at him with my eyes, the invisible force seemed to somehow increase gravity in his area, pushing him back down in his seat, his amber eyes still fixated onto me. "Plus I never said _anything_ about suicide you moron! That's a coward's way out—I'd never stoop that low." _Never __again._

Hesitating with his words, he began to ask, "Are ya sure—"

Grabbing my head on both sides, I did my very best to not lash out at him for forcing me to continue on with this topic. "Yes I'm sure!" Letting out my frustrations with a sigh, I released my skull, going on with a calmer, yet at the same time tense voice. "Bottom line is: I'm tired. That's it. _That__'__s __all._ _No_ hidden meaning—_no_ secret message. No decoding of _any_ kind. _I__'__m__tired_, and as you so _rudely_ pointed out earlier, that must be obvious. So just _drop __it __already_." _Drop __it, __please __just __drop __it __Genrou. __Leave __it __alone__—__I __don__'__t __want __to __persist __with __this __conversation __any __longer._

Some cosmic ray in the universe apparently allowed my message to get through to him. "Well if that's really all, then I know something that will easily wake ya up!"

Pinching the nerve between my eyes, I whispered, "Don't tell me…"

"Sake! It's the miracle potion for anything!" He was the most predictable guy at times.

"If that were true, then why did we just torture ourselves in that God-forsaken maze looking for a magical flower?" Lowering my chop sticks, I crossed my arms and looked directly to him.

"Ya know what I mean. Let's just drink up and be merry!" Putting the bottle upwards again, he poured a small cup and held it out to me. "I promise that you'll feel better."

It was like watching one of those "Above the Influence" commercials on TV—I couldn't recall ever signing up for that contract. "Are we really stooping to peer-pressure? I'm not interested."

He swung it in front of me rhythmically. "C'mon! Ya won't regret it. Ya might get a small hangover, but that's just the result of a good time."

_That__'__s __actually __very __unlikely._ When I was younger, Kajou told me a very interesting tidbit about herself and I—how our anatomy seemed to work a bit…differently than others. She said that toxins in smoke, drugs, and alcohol couldn't affect us. We could take in as much as we wanted and nothing would happen-no trip, no hangovers, no cancer, or cardiovascular disease—nothing like that. She mentioned how our systems for some reason worked differently than theirs.

When I became curious—around age thirteen or so—I tried drinking alcohol just so that I could test my older sister's theory, or rather, experimental findings. After many, many cups (really, by this point in my life my parents couldn't care less about what their hopeless daughter was doing), the only thing I really developed was a stomachache from drinking so much, my mind didn't seem infected at all—and I wasn't sick the next morning. It was like everything I had ever learned in health class was disproven—at least in my case. Deciding to mix in a tad amount of business sense to the recent findings, I bet other kids on how many shots I could take. Yeah, it was immoral, but those kids annoyed me and I needed a few extra bucks in my pocket (hey, don't judge. You have things that you do in your free time, I had mine). I really only did that a few times, stopping after I found that the taste of liquor wasn't all that great. Besides, I figured that the other kids weren't planning on getting wise any time soon, so I stopped before I began carrying more cash than Las Vegas.

However, messing with my bandit friend did seem like the kind of sport I could get into. After all, he did tell me to 'loosen up'. Displaying a maniacal smile, I warned, "_I_ might not regret it, but you certainly will if I end up doing this."

Chuckling in a condescending fashion, he retorted with, "I doubt it. After all, I'd like ta consider myself a pro at this sorta thing."

_I __don__'__t __care __who __you __think __you __are, __going __up __against __someone __who __isn__'__t __capable __of __being __drunk __is __a __mistake_. "Well…" Looking into the mixture of pleading and anticipation in his eyes, I thought, _then __again, __this __would __either __end __up __teaching __him __a __lesson __about __drinking __or __just __be __plain __entertaining __on __my __part. __May be __he __was __right__—__I _can _have __some __fun __with __this!_ (To all the people out there, yes, my version of "fun" is a bit skewed, but come on, you can't say that you don't enjoy this!).

"What'dya say?"

Taking the small cup from his hand, I feigned a smile, my hidden agenda tucked under my bangs. "Sure why not? I'm sure a couple drinks won't hurt." _Won__'__t __hurt __me __anyway._

Genrou immediately cheered, practically jumping out of his seat with joy and laughter. "Sweet! Finally yer speakin' my language!" Spinning in his seat, he waved his empty bottle in the air. "Hey can we get a few bottles o' sake over here! Hurry it up 'cause I'm not gettin' any younger!"

Mentally rolling my eyes, I continued on with the fake smile. _Oh __brother._

* * *

><p>My eyebrow twitched with irritation. <em>I<em>_'__m __the __one __whose __body __is __sore __beyond __reason, __so __how __the __hell __did __I __end __up __being __the __one __lugging __him __around?_ Being the flame-headed, no self-control wielding nimrod that I should have known he was, Genrou managed to keep on drinking and drinking until he was darn near close to passing out. In the beginning, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, thinking that he's gave enough sense to stop when he reached his limit.

Boy was I wrong

_I __almost __want __to __kill __myself __for __actually __agreeing __to __his __stupid __suggestion. __I __should __have __known __that __this __idiot __would__ keep __drinking __even __when __he __went __past __his __limit. _With him being so damn tipsy, I was forced to buy two rooms (and by buy I mean show the royal crest and virtually pay for nothing), 'cause it was obvious that we wouldn't be going anywhere while Genrou was still out of it. _And __so __he __has __officially __evolved __into __a __waste __of __my __time. _It was my fault I suppose—I should have just pretended to lose while knowing full well that I didn't have a capacity but normal people like him did. That was just my luck: I try to have some fun and it bites me on the ass.

I knew I mentioned it before, but the universe really was a bitch.

A strong scent of liquor circled around him, the flushed look on his face made it obvious that he was wasted. "Wow Aki," his words slurred as his arms hung around my shoulder. I did my best to hold him up with an arm around his waist. "I didn't think that you were this strong. We should have a weight liftin' contest!"

Grimacing even more than I had been (if that were even possible), I said, "No thanks—you need to get some sleep after downing so much sake." Even if I had all of my strength, I still wouldn't have wanted to go through all of that trouble. _What __a __freakin__' __bother._

His arm tightened around my neck as he became more excitable. "Sleep? I don't need no stinkin' sleep! I can keep fightin' forever." Punching the air randomly, Genrou almost slipped on his own feet, bringing him pretty close to falling down. "C'mon Aki, it's just you an' me, takin' down all of the bastards!"

I sighed as I tried to rationalize with him. "There's no one to fight here." Even if there had been, fighting alongside a drunk? No. I'd be much better off on my own. "Just calm down, we're almost to our room." We were just slugging our way to our rooms, but the sooner we got there, the better. _Then __I __can __finally __sleep! _That beautiful idea alone motivated me to keep on going to drop the lug off in his room and race towards mine.

"Ya know what? Speakin' o' rooms, I just remembered somethin' that Chichiri said. Somethin' about Suzaku and his priestess." _What __the __heck __does __that __have __to __do __with __rooms? _The thankfulness of my inability to get drunk was definitely there, especially after the events that befell that night. Never would I want to be so out of it that I couldn't comprehend some of the things going on in the world around me. The worst part about this whole thing? I could have made a profit on it! "I didn't even think ta think that _you_ were the priestess. I mean, come on! Look at'cha!"

Even in a drunken state, he managed to slightly tick me off. "You know what? I am _this_ close to dropping you off in this hallway and leaving you to be trampled on." Sure, morally that would not have been good, but it would have made me feel a hell of a lot better.

"Oh stop barkin' at me woman! An' just listen!" _Actually, __I __thought __I __said __that __in __a __rather __mild __tone. __Wait__—__why __am __I __trying __to __reason __with __my self __on __this? __He__'__s __wasted!_ As the argument with myself persisted, he continued with whatever drabble he had started. "Since yer not the priestess, I can tell ya a little secret."

Discovering an opening, I smirked. "That you're actually gay?" The joke was as old as when we first met. He would always say how much he hated women and all that crap and would say how he wanted to be the toughest, manliest man. So I started joking around saying that he was gay. I knew that he wasn't, but seeing that rise out of him provides me a spark of entertainment.

Apparently, though, even while being drunk he still knew when his sexuality was being targeted—kind of peculiar, don't you think? "Dammit woman! I told'ja that I'm not gay! I like women!" I wasn't sure on what to be more surprised about: The fact that he admitted that he liked women or the fact that he said it out loud. Either way, the only way he'd ever say something so blatantly, to a woman no less, was if he was really, really drunk. "Do ya wanna hear my secret er not?"

I chuckled nervously, wanting to scratch my cheek. "I'm not quite sure to tell you the truth."

His voice suddenly rose, causing his voice to ricochet off of the walls. "Well ima tell ya anyway!" _Why __even __ask __me __if __my __opinion __doesn__'__t __matter?_" Ya see, _I__'__m_ one of them warriors of Suzaku that'cha hear so much about." Immediately ceasing the trek to our rooms, the biggest surprise of that day right after learning that the dark ring had a consciousness had just hit me. I certainly did not expect to hear any kind of news regarding stuff with that phoenix god Suzaku—well other than Chichiri's sudden interrogation before he left. With my mind not even focused in on that, hearing that kind of news was completely unexpected.

Forcing him to face me, I loudly asked, "Wait…you're _what_?"

Smiling with hollow accomplishment, he told me, "Yup! Can't believe it? I didn't either until Hakurou pointed it out ta me a while back." It was difficult believing him at that present moment, especially because he wasn't sober. Somehow sensing my skepticism, he went further in the supporting of his claim. "Ya gotta believe me! If ya don't, check my wrist." Which was exactly what I did. Checking under the sleeve of his right arm, I was shocked to find that a glowing red kanji character sat there as plain as day.

My mouth just gaped open with no audio processing for what seemed like minutes. Finally, I managed, "Omigosh! You are a Suzaku Warrior!"

"Told ya! The character says 'Tasuki'. So in a way, that's actually my name! Genrou just sounds cooler and Hakurou gave it ta me when I joined the bandits. Hell, I didn't even give a damn about bein' a stupid Suzaku Warrior. Mt. Reikaku is where it's at!" The more I thought about it, the more my memory recalled a bit of Hotohori's words when he was reading us the legend from the Universe of the Four Gods. The name 'Tasuki' was actually ringing a bell.

I wouldn't accomplish anything by just standing around in the hallway like an idiot, so I decided to continue helping him get to his room as my brain attempted to sort throughout all of the new information. _I __can__'__t __believe __it! __I __found __a __warrior __of __Suzaku!_ It was really supposed to be Miaka's job. Taiitsukun would have no doubt killed me if she found out that I prevented the girl from finding him on her own. Analyzing the circumstances, I had to acknowledge the fact that Genrou—I mean Tasuki (boy that would take some getting used to!) was drunk when he told me this, so he probably wouldn't even be aware that he told that secret to me. _I __guess __that __I__'__ll __have __to __keep __this __secret __now __too_.

Talking to him quietly so that he wouldn't respond back, I confirmed myself. "So your name is actually Tasuki, huh?" _Yup__…__I__'__ll __definitely __need __time __to __get __used __to __that. _Of course I wouldn't be allowed to call him that—it would tip him off about me knowing.

Finally reaching the door to his room (didn't realize why I didn't order a closer one), I shifted him around me so that I could reach for the key. Upon heading inside, towards the bed, I was relieved to find that in just a few seconds, I could be free for the rest of the night—With his body submitting to the intoxication, Tasuki collapsed before he even made it onto the bed. Having his arm around my shoulders caused me to fall down along with him. "Hold on! Don't fall asleep right here!" It was no use, he was unresponsive at this point—I was on my own. Scooting up to the side of the bed, using the little reserve energy I had left, my sore muscles cried out to me like someone was torturing them with a flamethrower. The last of my energy went into laying our backs against the wall of the foot of the bed. His arm was still roped around my shoulders, and at that point, I honestly had nothing left to check into my own room.

"I know that you complained about having me around, but for what it's worth, you aren't exactly all that easy to deal with yourself." _Oh __well. __No __point __in __complaining __about __it __now__—_Without warning, the weight of his head fell over to the side, landing on my shoulder, his fiery, unruly hair brushing up against the side of my face. I did my best to contain my blush, but…who was watching? The whole time my body had been tensed up from the awkwardness of it all, but it was evident that I wouldn't have been going anywhere until Tasuki came back to consciousness. So I relaxed, which allowed his head to get a better, more comfortable position on my shoulder—the whole side of his body snuggled in quite close, which didn't help at all with the rising of my body temperature. Looking everywhere in the room except him, I resolved to just closing my eyes, calming myself down as sleep slowly took over. _He __wouldn__'__t __be __doing __this __if __he __wasn__'__t __drunk._

_You're such an idiot…_

* * *

><p>"Argh!" It wasn't until the afternoon of the next day that the bandit finally came too. And boy was her not happy—which was understandable since he almost drunk himself into a coma the night before. I couldn't even imagine the agony he was feeling at that moment. Well—no, I still knew suffering from my curse, but at least it wasn't <em>that<em> kind of suffering. From the time he woke up, Tasuki was woozy and a major headache (frankly I was surprised that he didn't puke up all of those poisons—the whole thing was actually pretty clean. Either he lacked the gland used to throw up or he was an expert at holding it back). Bottom line, he wasn't doing so well. "I don't see how you don't have a hangover! What the hell is up with that?"

I shrugged, still choosing not to reveal my little "condition". "Just lucky I guess." We had already walked about a mile from the place we stayed in—actually _I_ walked, he treaded along like a wounded horse.

"Luck nothin'! You drank as much as I did, if not more." More. I definitely drunk more and I could have downed way more than he was even capable of.

Turning backwards to face him, a mocking smile played on my lips. "I thought you said that you could handle it? Huh? Big, strong, tough-man. What happened to 'I'm a pro'?" This folks, would be considered the gloating part of the story. A huge, fat "I told ya so" should have been written in neon colors and advertised above the bandit's head. Unfortunately, I didn't possess the power to do something like that.

"I'm not sayin' that it's _horrible_, I can handle it." His dreaded actions said otherwise. "And besides, I don't normally go _that_ far…"

_Why __do __I __have __a __hard __time __believing __that?_ Crossing my arms, I turned back around and closed my eyes in disapproval. "It's your own fault you know. Your foolish male pride compelled you to keep going right when you figured that I'd be superior to you when it came to drinking. You reached your limit back there yet you kept on going. Long story short: you have no one to blame but yourself." When you think about it, my contribution to his hangover was just a small part—he could have stopped at any time. Even so…I'd never end up doing that with him again—he was way too much of a competitive person.

He groaned in misery. "Can't'cha do anything to dull the side-effects at least? I mean, come on! Yer a witch fer cryin' out loud—" Like a reflex, I brought out the Hammer of Justice and rested it on my shoulders, ready at any time to swing it at full force at the bandit. Somewhat emulating a trained dog, Tasuki cringed, at the sight of it, knowing that he shouldn't have called me what he called me.

Withdrawing my toy, I snickered at his reaction. "Nah, I won't hit you…_this_ time. I'd say that you're already paying for your stupidity in full as it is." Even I had to admit that sometimes, rarely, the universe dishes out punishments fairly. This…would be one of those times. The universe may have loved to pick on me, but it has the potential to be an equal opportunist on better days. Thank God for that for if its attention was on me all of the time, I'd never get anything done.

Continuing on with his groaning, he asked ferociously, "Can ya please just help me?"

"What kind of powers do you think I have? I'm not a doctor." Believe me, I didn't want to seem harsh, but there really wasn't anything I could do that would do much good.

"You healed me before, and yerself!"

"Okay one: using _Saifogeo _would make me weaker since I'd end up giving you _my_ strength. I'm finally able to walk properly again, so that's a no. Two: Using _Recovery _would mean making _you_ weaker because the spell uses the energy of the person being healed. Considering the state you're in, it would probably end up making you feel worse. Three: Those two are really the only recovery spells I have, and their effects mainly only work on broken parts of the body, and wounds and such. I don't really think that they can aid hangovers. And four: this whole experience will teach you a lesson about trying to one-up somebody—especially when it comes to drinking."

There was an immediate pause following my drawn out list, then Tasuki's tone went dry. "Ya know, I feel kinda sorry fer the sorry bastard who comes along and marries you."

Winking at him, I pretended that his words hadn't affected me a little. "I can say the same thing to you Fang-boy." But maybe he was right…no matter how much I wanted to go around it, his getting drunk like that was fundamentally my fault. His competitive edge wouldn't have been triggered if I hadn't tricked him. My conscious would continue to stab at me and stab at me until I managed to come up with a way to do something about it.

"Hey!" He proclaimed, "I told'ja that I'm not gay!"

"Oh yeah! And speaking of which," I stopped in my spot, preparing to ask a question that had been circling in my head since we woke up. "How much do you remember from last night?"

The bandit's demeanor became rather defensive at my unintentionally offensive comment. "Oh sure, keep rubbin' it in my face why don't'cha! Fine, ya beat me in a drinkin' contest. But'cha better not tell anyone."

_Yeah,__ '__cause __I __know __how __often __that __topic __comes __up __in __everyday __conversation_. "I'm not talking about that. I'm seriously asking what do you remember about what happened after we left the table." That information was important for me to know in order to see if he remembers what he told me about who he was.

Backing off a bit, he uneasily answered it the best that his hangover would allow him. "I sorta remember walkin' to the room but not much else..." He tried to search his memory deeper, but his head was just in too much pain. "Why? Did I do or say somethin'?"

_If __that__'__s __the __case, __then __I __guess __I__'__ll __just __keep __it __to __my self __for __now. _"No not really—nothing worth mentioning anyway."

"Then why ask?"

"Curious." Simple enough, right?

Running in front of me, he demanded the truth he didn't know I even had. "You wouldn't ask unless somethin' happened."

"Or maybe I'm just curious." A nasty expression hung on his face as disbelief riddled throughout his features. "Why are you scowling at me? I could just have a natural curiosity. Sheesh! You never know when to let things go."

Staring at me for what seemed like hours, his persistence gave up when it appeared to him that I wouldn't break. "So…yer sure that nothin' went on?"

Pointing to my frown I asked him, "Does this look like the face of someone who's unsure?"

"Hmm…guess not." Being the simple guy that he was, his focus soon took another direction. "Well, whatever, if it was somethin' then I'll find out eventually." He would find out…in time. Miaka would find him and then our friendship would be allowed to go on for a little bit linger—at least until this whole issue with Suzaku was over. I would have been lying to myself if I had said that it didn't matter to me whether or not he was a Suzaku warrior. Let's just say that I felt reassured knowing that even though we'd have to split up soon, it would only be for a small while. Tasuki did get on my nerves way too often, but I sort of wanted to explore my friendship with the one person who wasn't affected by Shokyoku. Besides that, if I had left those feelings aside, there were still the secrets about him that Shokyoku was hiding from me. He was different, and I wanted to know why. "So Aki," He held his head o help subdue the headache that was probably pounding in his head. "Seein' as how we have the flower an' all, I was thinkin' that we could head on back to Mt. Reikaku an' give it to Hakurou. What'dya say?"

Uneasily trailing my eyes in some opposite direction, his offer processed throughout my mind. "Well, we _did_ get it so that he could get better…but…" _You __no __longer __need __me __for __this. _This was technically his mission to begin with. I just interfered and butted in with the intent of having someone be my map and my front line whenever I casted spells.

"But what?"

"I—" Before I even had the opportunity to finish my sentence, a flash of red blocked my vision, instantly bringing me back to the palace in Konan's capital. I was inside the elegantly designed throne room—Hotohori sitting on his rightful seat at his gold and scarlet throne. There was a deeper flash of light that occurred in the middle of the room, eventually taking the shape of a young girl with olive eyes, reddish-brown hair in an Odango hairstyle, and a familiar brown middle school uniform. She had on some ridiculously huge backpack filled with who knows what that caused her to fall backwards.

Right as I blinked, the vision ended, landing me back on the trail talking to my newly discovered Suzaku warrior companion.

"Miaka!" I instantly shouted out. He gave me a puzzled look when I mentioned my childhood friend's name. Deciding not to leave him hanging, I explained, "It's Miaka, she's back!" Calming down a bit, I panned up towards the sky. "I have to go."

"What? Why? How do ya know?"

To answer his questions in order, "That friend of mine that I told you and Chichiri about—I did tell you that I'd have to go back to the palace when she returned. And I had a vision. So…" Who would have thought that in the beginning of our journey together that I'd actually hesitate in getting away from him? It was kind of funny…when we met I couldn't wait to separate myself from the likes of that bandit. Things definitely had changed. "I guess this is good-bye for now."

Tasuki's past aggravation with me had ceased with my announcement. "Are ya positive that'cha have to go? I'm sure that yer friend wouldn't mind if ya did one more errand." Didn't particularly matter if she minded—even though she would. But I made a promise to look out for her. It was primarily up to me to keep her out of trouble. She may have been acquiring warriors to protect her, but there were some things that even they couldn't do.

Trying to make the parting seem less awkward dramatic, I changed the atmosphere around a bit to switch to my favor. "Hey, you've got the easy part now—I doubt that you actually need _my_ help—a _woman__'__s_ help." Hopefully he would take the bait. "Do you?"

Taken aback by my statement, he crossed his arms with indifference—toughening out the obvious pain from his still lingering hangover. "Of course not! I can deliver the stupid plant all on my own—"

"Well okay then. We're in an agreement." Using my energy, which had for the most part returned (I still had to take it easy though), I took to the sky—enjoying the intentioned weightlessness that I hadn't experienced recreationally for quite a while. The fly back should prove to be rather relaxing. I gazed back down at him. "Let's not make this whole thing real dramatic, 'kay?" We both had things that we needed to do and we were both aware that this would happen eventually. So parting on good terms was the best way to go.

Understanding what I was trying to get at, he nodded up at me. "I'll make sure that Hakurou get's this."

Waving him off smugly, I tried to emulate Shokyoku's unique façade. "See that you do—try not to screw it up."

Struck a nerve. "What're ya tryin' to say?" Bending over in pain, that ping of guilt struck me once more, leading me to think of something last minute. Rolling my eyes, I silently cursed my conscious for being a pest. I levitated down to him, while still managing to keep my feet off of the ground.

Lowering my forehead to his, I initiated his past request—but with my own special twist. _"__Convergence: __Recovery!__" _ Taking advantage of our bond, I utilized the energy that we shared together and used that as fuel for the new spell I had created (due to quick thinking and magic logic). Searching deep down for his origins of pain, it didn't take long before the negative sensations were exchanged between us—I felt it all, the severe pounding in the head, the increased sensitivity to sounds, and who could miss that acidic nausea? Being able to sense it way easier in myself, I extracted it with the spell—our bond, in turn made it so that his pain was relieved as well. The spell was an empathetic one—the pain that one feels so does the other, combining their energy would be necessary for non-physical healing (such as things that didn't involve blood or wounds) to then occur. Hoping that I did a good enough job for him, I released the bonded spell and lifted myself high into the air as I told him, "Don't push yourself." Chances were that that spell would only work between the two of us.

Instead of a thank you or a proper reaction, all he did was stand there, holding his head to put everything into focus. That was soon replaced by a somewhat annoyed look followed by a light pink blush.

Understanding his silence, I left some more parting words. "Good luck." _We__'__ll __meet __up __again __sooner __or __later. __After __all, __Miaka __needs __you __to __summon __Suzaku._

Resting his hands on the back of his head, he turned his back to me. "Yeah, yeah. If yer gonna leave, then go already. Yer holdin' me up."

All I gave was a single giggle_. __No __one__'__s __pinning __you __to __the __ground. __You __could __have __left __at __any __time_. Before he would end up using his superhuman speed to leave the area, something important came up. "Oh! One more thing."

He was already mid-run when I called back out, so he ended up losing his balance and falling to his face. "Yeah? What do ya want?" He yelled back with dirt all over his face.

Feeling slightly embarrassed with the question I was going to ask, I looked away and scratched the side of my cheek. "I'm still relatively new to this land, so I don't exactly… know where the capital city is…"

Standing up to dust himself off, the irritation on his face persisted as he pointed in what seemed to be south (using the sun as a reference). "How could'ja honestly not know… where ya came from?"

_Yeah, __I __already __know __that __I __should __have __gotten __a __map __from __Hotohori__—__didn__'__t __exactly __need __to __hear you__lecturing __me __on __about __it._ "Thanks a bunch." With that pleasant note, I boosted my levitation energy, giving me the speed to make it above some of the passer-by clouds in only seconds. The chill from the water particles were refreshing, waking me up and helping me feel slightly energized. Choosing not to waste any more time, I casted an aiding spell to assist my speed. _"__Ray __Wing!__" _A swirling shield of wind covered my body as I flew, leaving a beautiful white tail following behind_.__I__'__ll __be __there __soon __Miaka_. An instinct of mine prompted me to look back even though I knew perfectly well that I wouldn't have been able to see him even if I tried, not at the speed that I was going. I shook my head and focused onward, dedicated to my upcoming mission.

_Until we meet again…Tasuki._

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><p><strong>PLEASE REVIEW! I enjoy knowing how you feel about the way things are going as well as any predictions you may have. And for all of u who have never reviewed before, please just leave one comment so that I can know how ur feelin' about this story!<strong>

**IMPORTANT INFORMATION!Last chapter, I set up a contest to decide who Aki should pose with in a Christmas/holiday pic, and the majority has voted for Tasuki (you know, Genrou, but I will be referring to him as Tasuki from this point on). So head on over to my DA account and see the pic! (I drew it for u guys!)**

**BTW…Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Boxing Day, and a Happy New year! Thank you so much for reading! **

**Well, until next time…**

**C ya!**


	32. Bring It All Back

**2012! Finally here. Time to start out fresh for the new year!**

**Hey everyone! It's good to be writing again, but taking a break for the holidays was great, and I really hope you all had wonderful Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Boxing Day/ New Years memories. But it's time to get on with this story, shall we?**

**Guess what? _Love Hurts 5 Ways _has reached 400 reviews! Yay! Here's a list of reviewers—new and old—who have continued to stick around:**

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**Thank you all sooooooo much for your dedication to this story. I commend you all for staying with me and not getting bored. It honestly makes my day when you guys tell me how much you love this story and encourage me to go on—I promise you that I will. ^_^. I can really only keep going because of you all. My dream is to become an author and I know that writing this fic and completing it will be good practice for me—and I love doing it! =)**

**Here's to a new year and plenty more chapters, reviews, and readers! *cheers!***

**Anyway!**

**Enough of that wishy-washy, emotional stuff. I present to you…**

**Chapter 32!**

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><p>Just like when I had first began my trek of seeing Konan to its fullest (which I didn't exactly get to do thanks to a certain flame-headed bandit and blue-haired monk), I found myself soaring over the vast landscape filled with luscious greenery, rivers, and a few simple houses here and there. Unfortunately, I couldn't take every little detail in, not at the speed that I was flying at. Off to my right, I marveled the best I could at the magnificent lowering sun, which seemed to be the only thing that wasn't rushing by me at an amazing rate. Its rays helped paint the sky with different shades of blue, reds, and yellows—yet another romantic atmosphere that I had absolutely no one to share it with.<p>

How cliché and irritating.

Seeing as how it would still be a while until I reached the palace, I decided to catch up with my Letters to the Universe. It had been some time since I had a good vent and reflection of the things that happened. It would also help pass the time!

* * *

><p>Dear Universe,<p>

TAKE THAT YOU VAST BITCHIN' ENTITY! I survived your stupid maze! Along with Tasuki and Chichiri, we passed every one of your trials and we all got out alive. It was touch and go there a little near the end, but we made it out! Time and time again you messed with us and nearly killed us, not to mention you being at the highest level of irritation you could possibly get—although having that said, you're probably thinking of yet another way to make my life more twisted.

But you know what?

I learned a bunch of new info as well as met some interesting people which may or may not influence the path that my life is going in. But with the previous comment, considering that knowledge is power, I'd say that I'm another step closer to making it so that you have no more power over me. Most people appreciate the attention, but I'd be a lot better off (not to mention happier) if I wasn't your favorite toy to play with.

Going onto a different topic, a lot has certainly happened since the day I left the palace. I never would have expected to experience the things I had—or end up traveling with other people with a goal in mind. Even though I didn't get to see Konan to its fullest, it would be a lie to say that I was bored and didn't get an eyeful of wonders.

Let's see…I had a run in with some bandits, befriended one after _much_ reluctance, met an odd blue-haired, bang-defying-gravity monk, took out some siren-like shadow-kissed women, found that I was bonded with previously mentioned bandit on some cosmic level, became magically and physically bound to said bandit thanks to previously mentioned monk (which made me almost want to kill both of them), was forced to look at the face of my ex-boyfriend when it wasn't really him, and I learned how to see auras (even if it was only possible to me with my eyes closed).

After that, I was suckered into an underground nightmare where Chichiri and I temporarily lost our powers (leading me to bend the rules for the sake of getting the hell out of there), went through some more irritating trials, learned to use my kunai more efficiently (though Genrou kicked my ass when it came to hand-to-hand combat), got caught up in some lame circus trial where we had to go against killer lions and clowns (yeah…clowns), leading up to the "show of a century" where some sadistic and obnoxious brat made us the star of his stupid puppet show, causing my almost tragic death if it weren't for my companions.

Damn that bratty kid to Hell!

If I had another chance, I would strangle that kid no matter how much he cried. And maybe I'd painfully insert strings into _his_ back and put him in a show that he'd _never_ forget. I'd show that twerp just how dark I can _really_ be!

*ahem*

Sorry, I almost lost it a bit there.

Luckily, we acquired the Sacred Blood Lily for the Mt. Reikaku bandit leader, so all of our troubles weren't in vain. What was the icing on the cake? I learned that Genrou is actually Tasuki, a Suzaku Warrior (getting used to the name is still a work in progress for me)! That would explain his superhuman speed—Suzaku must have given it to him! It kinda sucks that I can't tell anyone especially Miaka. That old hag Taiitsukun would be at my throat if she found out that I messed with Miaka's sacred duties of finding her warriors on her own. No worries though, if the girl finds herself lost and can't find her fellow warrior I'll gently "nudge" her in Tasuki's direction without _telling_ her. You feel me?

On another note, I find it a bit weird how Chichiri just brought up Suzaku out of absolutely nowhere. It would be skipping to conclusions if I just rule him out as a Suzaku warrior. After all, in this land, most people probably know the prophecy, and with my futuristic clothing, it wasn't _completely_ odd that he ended up asking. But still…I have a peculiar feeling about him—I'm still curious about why he has a scar on his eye as well as why he feels the need to wear a mask. I totally respect him and think he's a nice guy, but I'm starting to get the impression that he knows a lot more than he leads on. And why would he just get up and go like that? _Suspicious_…

Since we're on the topic of weird people and phenomenon, what is up with whatever is going on between Tasuki and me? Even Shokyoku admitted that he was different—which is a _huge_ understatement in the grand scheme of things—he and I have some spark that is exchanged between us whenever we are at high emotional levels and touch, not to mention that he can see what no one has ever saw before: the dark ring a.k.a. Shokyoku! He' not even affected by my almost constantly flaring negative energy. Even with the somewhat complicated relationship we have, I still would have never expected him to be the one and only person I could have a normal friendship with—well, more so normal without the influence of my curse. I'm not complaining though! The question is...where do we go from here?

Of course, because of all the events listed as well as being forced into some God-forsaken maze for who knows how long, I never got to really make an effort to achieve my wish or even take out some Shadow Maidens. And now it would be put off even more since I have to help Miaka and follow the trail of drama that she stirred up in the palace of Konan.

Oh. Joy.

The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that life over there (with Nuriko, Tamahome, Hotohori, and Miaka) is very similar to that of a soap opera. Thank God for all the action and antics on the side though. Otherwise, things would be predictable (but really, as if you would make things boring for me—I would only be so lucky). But at least we can move along with the whole summoning Suzaku thing. That way, Miaka can get her duties over and done with so that she can be returned safely back home and out of the face of danger.

Lastly, I want to discuss the whole Shokyoku issue. The problem isn't her necessarily, I mean, she doesn't want to do what she does, she just does it 'cause that is what she's created to do. If there was anyone to blame, it would most definitely be that twisted mother of hers—whoever that bitch is. I'm extremely thankful since now I know a lot more than I did before. The little girl did shine some light on the mystery of my life, I mean now I know what the ring is and fundamentally why it's there, but there were still a bunch of questions that followed up. For example: who is this mother of hers who found it necessary to bestow her daughter onto me, making it incredibly difficult to form relationships with _anyone_. So not only am _I_ miserable, Shokyoku is forced to stay in that little space where she's virtually always alone, always looking out and observing my life through my eyes. That's all she does and I'm the only person she really knew and accepted.

Whoever that woman is, she is messed up to the MAX.

It was also painfully obvious that Shokyoku, and most likely her mother, had a real problem with Tasuki's existence. I wonder why…

*sigh*

There always seems to be unanswered questions, leading to even more hardships—you never make things easy for me or even give me a break. You really suck universe, you know that?

Love Always, with a HUUUUUUUUGE amount of sarcasm,

Aki

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><p>Just as expected, upon finishing the letter I was able to spot the busy capital city up ahead, with various carts and travelersfarmers/citizens walking in and out, carrying on with their everyday business. Of course, if it weren't for the very evidently decorated palace in the further distance, I would have absolutely no idea that this was my desired destination. I may have been in this world for a while, but I was almost nowhere closer to memorizing the geographical features than I was when I had first arrived. Come on! Give me a break—I was stuck in a universe-formulated maze for the majority of my absence. Of course I didn't have time to map out my surroundings.

The familiar city brought back the memory of when Miaka and I had first arrived—on a search for the mysterious man with the character for "ogre" on his forehead. Miaka ended up becoming hungry, big surprise there, so she indirectly stole some food, leading to us being chased by the poor man who had to deal with her. Oh, but the fun didn't stop there! The girl's gullibility allowed us to get caught up with some punks who had the agenda to rape and trade us. If I wasn't so committed to hiding my powers at the time, I would have made sure that those guys never walked straight ever again—by this time, they'd still be chipping the charred flesh off of their bodies.

_Eh. Coulda, woulda, shoulda_.

That specific memory led my mind to trace back to mine and Tasuki's run in with those no-good Mt. Kaou bandits who had used sneaky means of kidnapping us due to some grudge they had on my flame-headed companion. At the time, Tasuki and I couldn't stand each other, but I supposed that it was sort of thanks to them that he and I became friends. Funny how things work out that way, huh?

Despite my minor thankfulness to them, I was still kind of hoping that they didn't forget the little threat I made to them—they better have continued keeping their word and being good. The last thing I needed was to be bothered by another bunch of sorry vagabonds who had a serious death wish. Checking up on them just wasn't going to happen—much too out of my way—so only time could really tell. If they ever did come back around, then I'd end up reinforcing the little lesson that I demonstrated for them before. Here was the equation: Aki + Obnoxious Bandits = Pissed off sorceress who wasn't afraid to dish out destructively lethal spells. While that would be a huge bother, there was no doubt that it would help relieve some stress.

As I flew over the bustling marketplaces and homes, I couldn't help but notice the stunning number of people who suddenly stopped what they were doing to look up and gawk up at the strange phenomenon that was a woman who was flying around almost as if it were the most natural thing in the world. They were the ones who were making it weird—they couldn't have just left it alone and kept on walking. No, they had to keep staring like I was some kind of circus freak—ugh. _Circus? I can't believe that I used _that_ noun after all that has happened. _One of the things I hated the most was being the center of attention—having people just stare at me with all of their judging eyes.

Instead of panicking, I played it cool as I mentally frantically tried to find something to take my mind off of it. So I decided to just look ahead at the large, brilliant palace—not allowing my eyes to trail back down to the citizens. It was an amazing sight that never ceased to amaze me. Complete with banners decorated with scarlet and gold on an authentic Chinese-esque royal foundation. _It does feel like it has been a long time since I've been here. _Sure, I had no idea just how long, but apparently long enough for me to comment about it. Still though…I was somewhat thankful to Suzaku for keeping Miaka away long enough until I completed my promise with helping Tasuki out. And if it weren't for that vision, I'd have absolutely no idea that she had even returned. After all this time, one would think that I would be wondering as to why I even received visions such as that. But after a while, you come to realize that there are just some things not worth asking about so you just take what you've got and go with the flow. Besides, I've been having them for a while and had already become used to them occurring. And they had been very useful.

Well…

Except for that one peculiar one I had before leaving the palace—the one I had about Miaka's best friend Yui Hongo. That was the first time that my vision just fizzled out like that, leaving me on the edge of my seat like some kind of cliffhanger. Something literally blocked my ability to see the complete message…and that bothered me. I'd have to make sure to ask Miaka about Yui when I saw her. Hopefully it was nothing and the girl was still safe and sound back in our world.

I immediately ceased my more powerful flow of energy, leaving me to nonchalantly float a little over a mile above the palace. Arms crossed, I tried to formulate the best plan for entry. _Should I just arrive by entering through the front gates? Or should I just lower myself right into the courtyard? _Weighing my options carefully, I realized that just landing where I needed to initially be would have been less trouble than waiting at the gates waiting for confirmation from the higher-ups or whatever. I mean, I had already been in there once—what were the chances that they'd try to arrest me again? They should have known my face by that point.

Having my plan finally be decided, I steadily descended to the ground below, appreciating the fact that no one troublesome seemed to be around at the time. I could just walk in and meet up with Tama, Hotohori, Miaka, and Nuriko without any problems.

That was the plan anyway.

As I found myself touching the familiar marble floor, I admired the way that the unique lighting of the setting sun made the courtyard seem like a completely different place. It was interesting how different colors and tones had that kind of effect on a particular area.

The next step was to head onto the throne room to meet up with my unsuspecting comrades. Before I could even make my move, a plethora of footsteps cadenced on all around, causing my body to immediately tense up and scan my surroundings. It didn't take long for a flurry of guards to completely surround me, each one of them pointing the sharp blades of their staffs at my person.

I groaned. _You've got to be kidding me._

"State your name and purpose intruder!" One of them demanded. _Intruder?_

Instead of assuming an attack position, I just sunk my shoulders and sighed in exasperation. "Seriously?" It wouldn't have been so bad if this were the first time this happened. But this was starting to become the normal routine whenever I happened to encounter these guys. I would be totally justified by saying that this whole thing was really getting old. The first time? Okay, Miaka had unexpectedly run in front of the emperor to ask him for one of his jewels, so yeah, they could be suspicious about that. The second time, Tamahome, Miaka, and I escaped from prison and they were pursuing us. And now? This was just plain ridiculous.

"Listen!" The same man prominently commanded. He was probably the captain or whatever—the leader of this particular group of soldiers. "We will not go easy on you just because you're a woman. Now tell us your business in the royal palace or prepare to suffer the consequences." His eyes narrowed at me as the blade on his staff inched closer to my skin. "Or perhaps we should just arrest you now for sneaking in? Who's to say that you're not just some assassin who is bent on murdering our lord."

"'Murdering' him?" I scoffed in disbelief. "You can't be serious about this. I would never—"

"Lies!" The paranoid captain called out. "Why else would you just show up? It was a mistake to break in. We are willing to risk our lives for His Highness and will never allow the likes of you to even get near him!" What the? Why didn't these guys recognize me? I was there not too long ago!

With my index finger, I slowly guided his staff away from my body, making sure to maintain my unfazed demeanor. "Look, since you guys are too dense to figure it out, I'm just gonna tell you—I'm Akimoto Tsubaki, remember? Your priestesses' older 'sister'?" I felt the need to illustrate the word "sister" in air-quotes with my fingers. "Ringing any bells? I was here before and we've already done this fun little display."

They all look around at each other as some whispers are exchanged, however they never lowered their weapons.

Once again, the captain spoke up. "How do we know that you aren't lying? You could be an impersonator!" _Oh my f&%$ing gosh! _Either I was gone for a _really_ long time making it so that none of them knew about me, they were just morons/being overprotective, or my less than flattering appearance was throwing them off. After all, my clothes were tattered, and I had various bruises, looking like I had been through some intense battle (I never did get around to healing myself completely, just to where I could get around on my own. The idea of wasting my energy on over healing didn't exactly appeal to me).

Despite all of that, my eyes—my _red_ eyes—should have been a dead giveaway.

Looking into their determined eyes, I could see that they probably weren't going to let up anytime soon. Trying to convince them any longer would have become a bit irritating and I definitely wasn't getting anywhere at that pace. Sighing once more, I focused my energy to my hands, preparing for whatever I had to do to get through. The idea of being thrown into that jail once more didn't exactly sit in my stomach the right way. I understood that they were just trying to do their job, and that they were completely loyal to their emperor, and I respected that. But if they weren't willing to listen to reason, then there was no point in me having to pay for it.

Just as I was formulating a good enough battle strategy, a weird occurrence stopped me cold turkey. In my peripheral vision, I could see soldier after soldier being thrown a good thirty yards away, going both to the left and right by some mysterious force that was storming its way through. The possibility of this being yet another threat flared up in my mind, but upon hearing the familiar voice of the one coming towards me, I stared off at the site with a look of incredulity mixed with a hint of relief.

"Out of my way! Move it!" The feminine voice called out as more men were flung away as if they were rag dolls. "If you don't want to get hurt, then you'll step aside!" It didn't take long before the person made his way to the center of fun, right where I was at. Knowing what to expect, I was sort of happy to see this person again. My life had been filled with much more farewells than hello's or hello again's—my partings were usually permanent, something I was used to but still painful all the same. Being able to see someone's face again after parting once uplifted my spirits quite a bit, even if I didn't show it.

Annoyed, blazing pink eyes stared me down almost like I were their prey. "Aki, you've got some nerve showing up after all this time!"

Nuriko.

"What?" I asked in a slight accusing voice. "What did I do?"

From anyone who didn't know better, they would have thought that the individual standing before me was a beautiful woman with thick, long purple hair which was partly in a bun on top of their hair that shined a bit with the setting sun. The nearly flawless and mature facial features as well as perfectly shaded red lipstick complimented with the feminine pink, orange, and reddish robes would also throw a person off if they weren't informed of the truth. But a small few of us knew what was really up.

Even with his obviously ticked off features it was still good to see Nuriko…who wasn't such a bad person in contrast to what I used to think of him.

"When you left, we all expected you to just be away for a little while—say like a few weeks." He puffed out his cheeks. I couldn't help but notice that ever since he arrived, the guards carefully backed off a considerable amount.

Smart men.

"Yeah…?" Trailing off my question, the goal was aimed at trying to get him to get to the point.

Putting his hands on his waists, he continued. "Do you have any idea how long it's been?" Getting closer to my face, his shouting lecture persisted as he lifted up on his toes at an effort to make himself look taller and more threatening (which was a bit pointless to me since he already towered me by a good two or three inches). "You've been gone for a little over three months!" My eyes widened. _Three months? That's how long I was gone? _The maze had kept us its prisoners for more than a fourth of the year. No wonder my hair had grown that much. Chichiri sure wasn't kidding when he said that time raced on with the world of the outside the maze—it only felt like a few weeks, maybe four at most to us. And for a second, he switched the topic."By the way, what's up with your hair?"

I blinked at him. "My...hair?"

"Yeah...it was much shorter before. How did you grow it out that long in just a few months?" And without any warning, he reached out and took hold of my cheeks with his palm, inspecting my face as he turned it slightly to both sides. _Now I'm getting a bit annoyed. _What the heck was he looking for? "And now that I think about it...something is different about your face too. Is it possible that you matured a bit?"

Pulling away, I was about to tell him off thinking that he had insulted me in some way. But then I was struck with a hunch. Tilting my head down slightly, my hand raised up and took hold of a lock of my hair. It had grown longer...probably like seven inches, allowing it to regain the prominent upwards curl at the ends that it characteristically attained after a certain length, something that would in normal circumstances be impossible for as little as three months. And he said that my face was different? Matured? Hmm...something about what Taiitsukun said before resonated with me a bit. Could it have been that...that maze accelerated our ages when we were in it? The idea wasn't completely random. The old woman did say that time and space differed across the worlds, so why couldn't that be so in some whacked maze? If that was the case, did that mean that I was older than I thought I was?

Putting his hands on my shoulders, thus breaking me away from my thoughts, Nuriko didn't even hesitate to shake me violently back and forth. "Well anyway, I suppose that doesn't matter now...after a month and a half had passed, I started to get worried! People only stay away that long if something horrible had happened. I began to wonder if you were killed or raped or robbed of your innocence." The world kept shaking repeatedly as he refused to stop treating me like a shaken milkshake (him having super strength didn't help at all). "Would it have honestly killed you to at least write a letter, send a pigeon—something?"

Lifting my arms up and out, I forced his hands off of me but my brain still felt a bit rattled up. As I tried to make everything get back into focus, I talked with a rather astonished tone to my voice. "Wow Nuriko, I never knew that you cared so much."

He chuckled bitterly while flipping a lock of his long violet hair. "Normally I wouldn't to that extent, but my conscious could be a real bitch sometimes."

I cocked up an eyebrow. "What does your conscious have anything to do with my well-being?"

His eyes slowly trailed away from mine, ending up at the corner. "Nothing…" he muttered suspiciously. _What a load of crap. You were worried about me. _Maybe he had the notion that his previous horrible thoughts about me (during the time when we were sworn enemies) would have somehow influenced the universe to do horrible things to me. That would have definitely been some inversion to karma that I _did not_ want to deal with anytime soon.

Deciding to just shrug it off, I chose to address the initial issue. "Okay whatever. But if you recall, I did say that I'd come back when Miaka did. And since she has…here I am."

With a blank look on his face, he blinked at me a few times. "Miaka you say?"

* * *

><p>"I apologize Akimoto, but Miaka has not returned to us yet." After the scene in the courtyard, Nuriko and I brought our conversation to the throne room, where the oh-so hot emperor Hotohori, who also noticed my hair growth and complimented me, sat in his royal garments with his arms wide open in welcome. There was absolutely no denying to myself that seeing him again was a <em>definite<em> pleasure. Luckily (for them) the guards backed off completely and left us alone when they found that I was in fact who I said I was—if they couldn't trust the word of a Suzaku warrior (Nuriko) then who could they trust? But seriously though…I still thought they were a bit too anal about their duties. For some reason, it seemed like the security had been bumped up considerably since the time I left.

Gazing into Hotohori's sharp, yet softened and caring hazel eyes almost caused me to practically melt and lose track of the issue at hand. _Oh my gosh did I really just say that? _Getting my mind off of that, I shook my head and tried to focus—I was supposed to be shocked by his news. How could what he have said be true?

"But…I had a vision. She was standing right there," I pointed to the middle of the room. "And she had a way-too overstuffed backpack on…" There's no way that I could have misinterpreted that. But what if…what if the vision was wrong? Was it just possible that my visions were malfunctioning?

Nuriko snickered while covering his mouth with his long sleeve, trying to act like a proper, snooty lady. "Perhaps your brain is out of commission and can no longer produce adequate visions. What a pity." My reflexes caused me to automatically shoot him a distasteful look—he of course, avoided the glare. _Calm down Aki. This is just how Nuriko plays with people—he doesn't mean it. _I had seen his nice side when we were at Mt. Taikyoku—there was no doubt in my mind that he could actually be a really decent guy when he wanted to be. Apparently, though, he still felt the need to put up this snobbish façade.

Shaking his head either at Nuriko's response or my explanation, Hotohori told me, "I am sorry for all of the confusion. I do hope that this hasn't caused you any trouble." Standing up from his throne, the young emperor progressively made his way down a few steps and over towards Nuriko (who was swooning big time—hearts could almost be seen floating around him) and I. "We have been eagerly awaiting her return, but I can understand her long absence. It is my biggest wish to have Miaka be well." A certain look in his eyes flashed for only a few seconds—like he was worried about something. Almost immediately, his demeanor changed back to a rather uplifting one. He probably didn't think that I caught that quick shift in atmosphere. _I wonder what that's about…_A pleasant smile played across his lips. "Akimoto I am very happy to see you again."

Without my consent, my face started to heat up while my eyes involuntarily looked away from his. Making sure that I didn't look like I was melting, I just cleared my throat and forced my eyes back forward—not being able to do anything about the blush. However, his comment sort of threw me off so I had absolutely no idea how to respond back.

Nuriko's jealousy made his body practically blaze in fury as he gritted his teeth and wrung his long sleeve in a comedic fashion. What I didn't expect was for him to snap back into a happier mode as he held both of my shoulders with his hands and brought me in for an awkward side-hug. "Yeah, I sort of missed having you around as well—you and Miaka that is. My days were less boring with you two around." I tossed him a sideways glance in skepticism. Catching my drift, he whispered a bit into my ear. "And it was thanks to you two that I got to spend so much time with my beloved emperor!" A slight fan-girl squeal could be heard in his voice. _Oh brother _was what I thought when I rolled my eyes. The moment he released me, Nuriko's wide, scanning pink eyes observed me top to bottom. "My word Aki! What the heck went on with you while you were gone? Your hair is an absolute mess and your clothes—ugh don't even get me started! I'm almost insulted by the way you look." Feeling instantly offended, my eyebrow twitched as I reflexively clenched my fist._And…the snobbish attitude came back. _"You could have at least presented yourself better before coming into the palace."

Hotohori groaned lightly as he closed his eyes and head fell. "Nuriko—"

"Well _excuse me_ Nuriko for not giving a damn about my looks—'cause you know how easy a thing like that is when you're trying to fend for your life." In a case like this, sarcasm came just so darn easy to me.

The emperor's eyes flashed somewhat wide with concern. "'Fend for your life'? What do you mean by that? I have also been quite curious as to what you've been up to for the past three months."

Beginning with a sigh, I saw no harm in telling them about the adventures that I managed to find—or rather have thrown at me—while I was gone. And with that, I began the long story of the moment I met Tasuki (but using the name Genrou instead) and the troublesome bandits to the meeting of Chichiri and saving the village to the "exciting" conclusion of our battle in the maze and ending with my departure from said bandit. Of course, I left out the tidbit about me finding another Suzaku warrior (for obvious reasons) as well as my realization about Shokyoku (that was a bit more of a private issue). The emotional stuff was also not mentioned and neither was the fact that I was pretty much dead (still weighing whether or not I really died, my memory is still a bit fuzzy about that day). So yeah, I basically just gave them a slightly detailed outline.

Clapping his hands once, a pepped-up and impressed Nuriko spoke with widened eyes. "Wow Aki I gotta say—you're _way_ more hardcore than I initially pinned you to be." He chuckled as he winked at me. "I'm sort of jealous. You've been having all that fun this whole time—it almost isn't fair." _It's pretty darn easy to make this one jealous. _After sighing and putting his hands on his hips once more, he gave me a smile that was both exasperated and amused at the same time. "Well I suppose that you're excuse for the sorry way that you look right now." _Gee…thanks._

"While all of that does sound rather exciting," Hotohori began, his understanding smile forcing the blush to return to my face, "I'm more grateful for the fact that you didn't have to face all of those dangers on your own and that you've come back here safe and sound." Again I couldn't help but look away in any random direction from him to hide my apparent embarrassment. Hearing him say such thing made my stomach completely flip inside out—hearing _anyone _say it would make me embarrassed, but hearing _him_ say it was much, _much_ worse. It was so odd to have someone be that concerned about me like that. The awkwardness I was feeling was completely ridiculous. "It would have devastated me to know that something horrible happened to you and I hadn't been there to prevent it." I was shocked with his next course of action—he extended his arms out and brought me in for a friendly embrace.

By this point, my face felt like it was boiling something fierce. Even my body had turned completely stiff (too stiff to pull back) at the close proximities of our bodies. Being that close to anyone in such an intimately friendly way—with a man no less—was definitely so far out of my comfort zone that you needed a high power microscope to see it clearly (unless you borrow one from NASA I don't think that you'll be very lucky). I was way too occupied with the moment that it was difficult to give a thought about the return of Nuriko's envy.

_Why the hell does Hotohori have to be such a freakin' tease?_ The guy was head over heels in love with Miaka yet he was so nice to me. It was so cruel in a way. I just couldn't understand why he had to be so nice—_that_ friendly—with me when I wasn't even the object of his affections. The guy had been like that since we met—well more like after all the formalities and such were out of the way. But I could still remember that night when Nuriko, Tamahome, and I were eavesdropping on him and Miaka. While it was rather odd to me that he fell in love so quickly and easily, I didn't count it out as impossible. From what Nuriko had told me he was lonely as a kid and had always dreamed of the day when he would meet his one true love—the lady of legend, the kind Priestess of Suzaku. That was how things were. I just couldn't understand why he was so friendly with me though. It wasn't like it would lead to anything.

Ever since Hotohori and I met and became friends, I had been denying what was going on with my feelings, hoping that it would go away like things like that normally did. But they were still there. Turned out that I had no choice but to admit to myself that I did have a little, tiny, _insignificant_ crush on the guy—nowhere close to what Nuriko felt for him. No, what I was feeling was one of those silly teenage infatuations or stirrings a girl could get when they meet and befriend someone who is attractive to them (and boy was he). I had really been hoping that the three month separation would help me get my priorities straight and make the crush go away. But considering my luck he just had to be so sweet and good looking!

The moment my brain managed to function again, I immediately seized the first idea that popped up. Stepping out of his embrace, I summoned the beautiful silk scarf that the village Tasuki, Chichiri, and I had saved a while back. Holding the smooth material in my hands, I marveled down at what was probably the most exquisite hand-made cloth I had ever seen in my life. The scarlet material which had glittered swirls of gold and silver practically emitted the warm and thankful feelings of the citizens we rescued. Something as important and sacred as that shouldn't just belong to one person.

Nuriko's pink eyes suddenly lit up—sparkles and all—when his gaze caught hold of the scarf in my possession. Before I knew it, Nuriko had the thing in his hands, rubbing his face up against it as he went completely ballistic. Staring down at my hands, I tried to figure out how he even got it out of my hands without my noticing.

"Oh my goodness! This material is to die for! I've never felt anything so smooth or seen any designs that intricate and lovely!" Blushing feverishly, he continued to gawk at it and continuously rub up against it like some type of weirdo. What's up with that?

Swiping it back from him at an amazing speed, I left Nuriko speechless as he searched his hands for the absent scarf. Presenting it to Hotohori I said, "This was given to me by the chief of that village I told you about. It's very old and I'm thankful to them for allowing me such a significant item, but I really have no use for it. So if it isn't too much trouble, please hang it up somewhere for everyone to see and enjoy—for them to get the good blessings from it that that village had. Present it to Suzaku if you wish…"

Slowly taking the present from my hands, Hotohori gave a slight bow before marveling at it a bit. "I humbly accept this in the name of all of Konan and our god Suzaku." Bringing his head up from the bow, he flashed a charming smile once again. "Your bravery is very admirable Akimoto—you never cease to amaze me."

Nudging me with his elbow, Nuriko jokingly told me, "You know…I'm sure that if you kept that, you could have made a real nice dress or something wonderful out of material like that." He cooed as he slapped his hands onto his cheeks and blushed some more. "You'd look absolutely royal!"

"I'm not interested in things like that," I flatly replied as I looked down and searched for a meaningful answer. "That village cherished it so much…Something that sacred shouldn't belong to just me alone—everyone should be able to benefit from it. Besides…" Pretending to act indifferent to my generosity, I added, "It's really no big deal. Like I said, I really have no use for it."

Softening up a bit Nuriko steadily let out a sigh as he patted my shoulder in approval. "I guess you're right—I mean if it really did mean that much to them. You did a good thing for those people and should be proud of yourself." My blush was returning with his comment. Part of me was really regretting telling them about saving those people. When anyone showed gratitude to me like that and made a huge deal out of it, I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable from all of the attention. I just wasn't used to it—it really felt awkward. The sad thing was that I was more used to people blaming me for things and making hateful comments—how else would lashing back as countering come so natural to me (along with sarcasm and indifference)?

"I just did what needed to be done." Scratching my cheek sheepishly, I went on to say, "Anyone in my position would have done the same thing." _So please just drop it…_

Feeling a hand suddenly and unexpectedly pat and rub my head, I raised up my head to see that the hand belonged to Hotohori. "I apologize if all of this praise is making you uncomfortable. But you deserve it—I'm positive that those two men who were traveling with you were very fortunate to have you on their side." Truth was that _I_ was lucky to have them on _my_ side. Even if I didn't want to admit it outwardly very often, they had saved my ass on more than one occasion. Who knew the state I'd be in if I didn't acquire their friendship?

_Speaking of which…_

Since I was already in the groove of taking things out of my "space", I went ahead and summoned the kunai to my hands, only to present the intricately designed weapon to the emperor. "Thanks for letting me use this Hotohori—you can have it back now."

Widening his eyes in confusion, he gently pushed the hand that was holding the kunai back to me. "It's yours Akimoto—I meant what I said before about it assuring me more of your safety. It would make me happier to know that you always have the weapon in your possession." Before I had left the palace three months before, Taiitsukun had informed Hotohori, Tamahome, and Nuriko that I would require their assistance when it came to certain battles. Without my consent, she had mentioned my weakness with close combat fighting and how my physical skills weren't all that great. Those three were experts in that sort of fighting while I needed time in the background to cast my spells. If the flow of energy for a spell was interrupted then it couldn't be executed properly. Having that being said, Hotohori had given me the kunai just in case I got into situations where I had no choice but to fight in close combat with someone. While his gesture was really sweet, it didn't take long for me to realize how unskilled I really was with it. But I was fortunate to have Tasuki give me a few pointers, now if anything _did_ happen to where I needed the kunai, I'd be a bit more ready (however I still felt that I needed some kind of edge to where I'd be at an advantage in a fight to where my kunai was the only option. Unfortunately, I hadn't figured out what that edge would be yet).

A good portion of me counted more on my magic than anything else, so I prayed that I'd never be forced into a situation where my powers didn't work—again.

As I stood there, something suddenly came to my attention in which I was ashamed didn't occur to me prior. Mentally smacking myself, I looked around for the person I had excluded since I had arrived. "Hey, where's Tamahome?"

"Oh, _that_ sorry guy?" Nuriko answered. "After sulking around here for a few weeks, Tama just up and left."

"He _left_?" In an accusing tone, I pointed a finger at the feminine man. "I thought I told you to look after him while I was gone?"

Crossing his arms, he looked away with a smug attitude. "He's a big boy that can take care of himself. Besides, it wasn't much fun watching out for him if all he did all day was plod around like a zombie." Even though he had never outwardly said it, Tamahome had deep feelings for Miaka—it was written all over his face. Ever since she went back to our world, he had been missing her so much that all motivation to do anything had been completely drained from his body. "You see my agenda was getting filled with non-Tama-kins related stuff. So I figured, why not let him go? He certainly wasn't happy moping around here."

"You _completely_ lost track of him? You have _no_ idea where he went?" Something like that could prove to be an issue in the long run.

Flinging his arms up in the air, Nuriko said, "What was I supposed to do? Hang onto his shirt and force him to stay in the palace against his will?" _Umm…yeah? _Out of all the times he had decided to be forceful with someone, why did it have to be this time when he got bored with the idea?

"Why not? You _can_ do that! Does your having superhuman strength not ring any bells for you?" Pinching the space in between my eyes for a second, I tried to sort through my thoughts, making sure I calmed down before I was tempted to blow things away. "What if Miaka had come back right after he left?"

"But she didn't. Even now that _you're_ here, she _still_ hasn't returned. So there's no point in making a big deal out of it." He spoke with a matter-of-fact smile on his face—feeling completely confident about his words and how right he was. Not only that, but Nuriko had this thing to him where he could stay completely calm even when you'd expect him not to be. More often than not, though, his calmness was mixed with obvious smugness.

I, on the other hand, couldn't stay quite as calm as him since I seemed to be the only one noticing the seriousness of the subject. "There is a big deal to be made out of it! Tamahome's a Suzaku warrior and now he isn't here for his priestess!" In order to have the whole summoning Suzaku thing get done—I still wasn't familiar with the whole process—all seven of the warriors were necessary. Tamahome was complicating things if we had to not only search for the others but re-find him once more.

Knocking on my forehead as if it were a wooden door, he spoke. "Hello? Is anyone in there?" Wincing from his more than intended forceful knock, he continued, speaking somewhat slowly to get his point across—almost like he was talking to a little child. "Our priestess isn't back yet. So just calm down for now."

"We don't even know where he is."

"It's not like he's lost at sea or anything. If we need to find him, then we'll find him. Plus," Giving me another wink, he threw in, "we can always use our ace in the hole when she comes back." _Ace in the hole? _What did he mean like that? When he noticed the baffled look on my face, he continued. "I mean Miaka silly! Once she comes back, then he'll more than happily come running back. Give the kid his candy and he'll be performing flips for us!" _I thought we weren't referring to him as a kid anymore. _I sighed, getting irritated of the whole back and forth thing we were doing.

"Akimoto…" Hotohori broke Nuriko and mine's conversation as a rather serious expression was painted onto his face. "I feel that I must inform you of something that has been going on during your absence."

Blinking a few times in confusion, I asked, "What?"

"A little while ago, Kutou, the neighboring country to the east has declared war against Konan." His eyes narrowed. "It's unfortunate, but their becoming greedy with power and wanting to take control over more land is putting my people in danger." _War? Huh…_That must have been why the guards were so uptight earlier—they might have thought that I was from the enemy country and came to kill Hotohori or sabotage or something. _So I guess that their wigging out wasn't _completely_ unjustified._

But still!

My eyes people! My crimson eyes are a dead giveaway to who I am! Everyone and their mothers can recognize me that way!

Three months wasn't exactly long enough to forget my most obvious feature as well as the fact that I was their priestesses "sister". I may have started giving them the benefit of the doubt, but they were still idiots.

However the name of that country, Kutou, sounded somewhat familiar…_what was it?_

"Akimoto? You look troubled," Hotohori observed.

"Kutou…there's something about that country…Is there anything special about it?" Trying to be more specific, I added, "I remember Tamahome saying something about it to me when we were looking at the statue of Suzaku."

Grabbing his chin, the emperor trailed through his thoughts. "If it was the statue that stimulated your conversation, then Tamahome must have been telling you about the other gods. You see Kutou is protected by their god, a great dragon named Seiryuu."

_Which probably means…_ My voice got low as it acquired a horrified tone. "There's the possibility that they could find a priestess as well." If they had that kind of power on their side—if they summon Seiryuu before we could summon Suzaku, then Konan could be in _real_ trouble.

Swinging his arm back playfully, Nuriko slapped me in the back, causing me to almost fall over due to his strength, as he laughed in amusement. "Don't get all serious like that! There's nothing to worry about—two priestesses have _never_ been around to summon two separate gods all during the same time period—it's never happened before! So it's _very_ unlikely." Regaining my balance, I shot him an annoyed look for making me almost tip over. Ignoring my glare, he went on to say, "Having that said, with Miaka on our side almost automatically ensures our victory." _You really shouldn't count your chickens before they hatch. _It always put me in a state of unease whenever someone sounded _that_ sure of themselves. Like I had told Tasuki after we left the maze and Chichiri while we were underground and powerless, the universe is always looking for an opportunity to make a person's life more challenging (mainly mine). So whenever it begins to think that a person has had it too easy or aren't being modest, the universe makes sure that they are given a _much_ harder time. Call me paranoid for thinking that, but I had seen that theory be proved time and time again.

Not to my surprise, Hotohori had voiced my reasonable thoughts. "It would be wise not to get too confident with your words Nuriko." The purple haired cross-dresser had lost his hype slightly the moment his person of interest spoke. "There are still many obstacles in our path and we can't afford to lose sight of our objective—summon Suzaku and keeping as much people safe as possible." It was nice having someone around who saw the important bigger picture when it came to important situations like this. But it made sense—after all he was the ruler of an _entire_ country—at such a young age no less…he had to think rationally, otherwise a lot of people could end up paying for it at his expense. I'd be lying if I had said that I wasn't impressed with the guy, the stress on him must be almost unbearable. _I wonder if that kind of lifestyle ever gets to him._

The truth of all that had been said regarding Seiryuu, Suzaku, and their priestesses started to make me worry about something. Sure, Nuriko did say that there had never been two priestesses before, but the more I thought about it, the more the legend's words had entered my mind. A girl was supposed to come from another world and gather up the seven celestial warriors of that land. She was then to summon that respective god and help save the land.

When Miaka and I had first arrived at the palace, Hotohori had initially assumed that both she and I were the priestesses of Suzaku. I declined, of course, but Miaka ultimately ended up agreeing. That had been all nice and dandy then, but now that a new country and god were thrown into the picture, I was becoming a bit uneasy. Since I had declined becoming the Priestess of Suzaku, the fact still remained that I was from a different world. So what if…what if I was actually the Priestess of Seiryuu?

Shaking my head feverishly, I did my best to snap myself out of that frame of thought. There was something that I was forgetting: a girl can choose whether or not she wants to be the priestess. I said no to being Suzaku's…so naturally, I should be able to do the same for Seiryuu.

I nodded lightly but confidently. _Yes…that's right. I can just say no. _Looking up at Hotohori and Nuriko, I hadn't even realized that they were gazing down at me with concern in their eyes.

Maybe I didn't rely on Suzaku, or Seiryuu, or any of the other gods to keep me protection and keep me well or whatever—I believed in a higher God—but the people I had befriended were fighting in the name of Suzaku for their land, so I'd stay on their side. Fighting with the enemy and against my friends would really be uncool on my part, and I really wasn't one for betrayal.

'_I still don't understand it Aki.'_

_Huh? _Blinking a few times from the random little girl voice, I mentally spoke, _Shokyoku? _Apparently she was completely dropping the older-woman's voice that she used to speak to me with—before I discovered who she was.

'_Yup! It's me! But that's not what we're focusing on now.' _Before I could even ask what she was talking about, she continued. _'You're worrying so much about this whole ordeal when you know just how it's going to end up—they'll just end up hating you no matter which side you decide to choose.' _My expression steadily became grim with the progression of her words—the words I was hoping that wouldn't be stated considering I felt that things could potentially change._'They aren't special Aki—they can't escape your negative energy. Even if you keep it in as long as you can, it will become too unbearable at some point and you'll have to let it out.' _I didn't need her to go on…I felt that she'd somehow bring up that incident with Nuriko (and the innocent bystander Tamahome). For a few seconds, I couldn't control the darkness around me—Nuriko had just made me so angry that I wanted him to suffer. My mind had become clouded and for a few _short_ seconds, I had no problems with doing just that.

I immediately regretted harming the two of them.

The thought of that happening again—or maybe even worse like it had at Ouran with those guys—absolutely terrified me. All of the people I had met on my journey seemed so nice and I felt that I could have potentially really strong friendships (you know, if the whole memory wiping thing wasn't an issue). But there was always a part of me that knew that something could always go horribly wrong. Luckily, nothing had tipped my emotional state so far that no one had gotten seriously hurt—yet. If I just kept a check on my emotions, everything should be okay…

…right?

_I told you before Shokyoku—I'm dedicated to change. I won't hurt these guys. _And with that final thought, Shokyoku just kept quiet. From what I gathered about her when we had met, I knew that she really wanted to look out for me—she wanted to make sure that I stayed safe and didn't get hurt. Although I appreciated her for that, she didn't quite grasp onto the fact that I wanted things to be different. She thought that it was impossible and maybe at a time, I would have thought that too. But after all of the things I had been through in the past almost year and a half, if anything, I was starting to understand that barely anything was impossible. Pushing past those barriers was hard work though…the question was whether I was up to it or not—or whether my curse would weigh me down just like it always had.

Telling myself my new signature self-chant, I repeatedly thought, _Just one step at a time. Just one step at a time. Just one step at a time._

How long would I be able to continue believing that?

"Akimoto?" Blinking hard, a familiar voice knocked me back into reality and out of my thoughts. When I observed my two companions, it finally dawned on me that I must have been off in Aki-land for who knew how long. Feeling a blush wipe onto my face due to embarrassment, I reflexively looked down. Hotohori gently put his hand on my shoulder. "I can tell that you're tired—you've been through a lot and had to consume a bunch of new information. Don't worry about anything at the moment, alright?" Nodding slightly, I still felt bashful for zoning out completely like that. _If only they knew about Shokyoku—perhaps it wouldn't have seemed so weird and spazzy. _That was so uncharacteristic for me. Sucking it up, I scanned back up into the emperor's tender hazel eyes. "Why don't you go and take a bath and get some rest. I'll also see to it that you have some replacement clothes."

Chuckling nervously, I thought, _I can only imagine how beat-up I must look to them. _Unfortunately I wasn't able to heal all of myself completely after getting out of the maze. My main objective was to get myself able to walk, fly, fight, and cast spells again—which I was able to do (thank God). After I found that I could do those things again, I didn't find it necessary to waste anymore of my energy (times two) just to get rid of bruises that my body was naturally able to heal. And it wasn't like they were all over the place making me look like I was the object of the "what's black and blue and white all over" sort of joke. It was just in a few places—a few patches on my legs, arms, and one on my forehead that was covered by my bangs.

Not only that, but my jacket was destroyed by that sadistic little brat, not to mention that my clothes were really tattered—the clothes that Miss Emiko gave me. They looked like I had been wearing them for years while living in the wilderness.

I felt pretty bad for not taking better care of them. But…that maze showed no sympathy towards anyone for anything whatsoever. Unfortunately nothing could be done to make them new again. Oh well. I'm still a girl after all—so like I said before at Ouran: new clothes were _always_ appreciated!

And don't even get me started on the state of my hair.

Traditionally, I'd tell someone "no thanks" to someone going out their way to helping me like that, but… "Thanks Hotohori—I appreciate it." Smiling back at him, I acknowledged that I hadn't had a proper day or night of rest in a really, _really_, _REALLY_ long time (passing out with my drunk friend on the side of the bed _did not_ count as a good night's sleep). Finally getting cleaned up was just the icing on the cake.

* * *

><p>When I was dismissed from Hotohori and Nuriko's company, I was once again led back to the room that I had used when I had first arrived to the palace three months prior. To see that everything still looked fresh and kept up, I was rather impressed. Really, it was like I was living in a Chinese themed hotel that had room service twenty-four seven. The canopy bed had a few layers of sheets and covers made of some kind of seemingly valuable material, and the pillows looked so incredibly plush that they were filled with the feathers of angels (not realistically of course). There was even a slight flowery scent floating around the room, tracing back to a few incense that had been lit and were slowly deteriorating.<p>

Every fiber in my being wanted to just plop right on down that majestically prepared bedspread, but I still had the slightly higher desire to become clean_and then_ plop down and knock out.

One of the royal servants thoughtfully led me to the somewhat intricately constructed outdoor bath. By "intricately" I mean that there were a series of mini waterfalls, fountains, and even the water had healing minerals in it, giving it a slight greenish color.

Of course I was a bit uneasy about bathing outside, but it wasn't like it was any different from what I did back in the maze. Actually it was better since there was a wall of boulders ensuring my privacy.

Having my hair up in a high ponytail (it was actually long enough now for me to be able to do that) to avoid it from getting wet, proceeded with my cleansing. The moment my bare body made contact with that wonderfully hot water, I honestly felt like I was in heaven. Every single bone and muscle in my being literally started to sing in pure joy. When the majority of my body was submerged, I just sat there reveling in the momentary lapse of every single bad thing that had ever happened to me—it all seemed to just wash away. On a still relatively sore body, the water was really doing wonders, even though I hadn't even been in there long.

Lying back, feeling more relaxed than I had been in a while, I stared up at the now night, midnight-blue sky. The stars were like diamond dust drops that were scattered in a beautiful pattern up above. Steam from the high-temperature water flew up and swirled around, almost as if it were dancing, up until it disappeared completely.

_If only I could feel this at ease all the time—I don't need Shokyoku to remind me how much of a delusion that is. _The memory of that night when Tasuki and I were in the hot spring ran across my mind. It was during our first trial in the maze when I had to learn how to see past the illusion of seeing Hikaru who was really Tasuki. To add to it, Chichiri had bound us together with a spell at our hands to make it easier for me to learn how to see auras.

I couldn't help but allow a small chuckle to escape my lips. As the memory continued to play out, I thought, _I have no idea why I'm laughing at that. At the time, I was miserable and there was absolutely no reason to be laughing. _Yet a slight small remained.

_Crazy how much time had gone by..._

Sitting there in the bath prompted me to lift my arm up, inspecting my skin as droplets of water rolled off and dripped. The veins from before—the silver ones—were completely gone. Once Shokyoku had been sealed due to the sacred powers of the maze, mysterious silver, vein-like lines covered my body—my skin—from head to toe. They had an odd magical sense to them, glowing brightly whenever a surge of energy coursed through me. To add more of the truth onto it, I felt completely free and it was like me and Wind was one. The way I was with those veins felt so natural. But why were they there?

And once Shokyoku came back, the veins disappeared. The question was, were they still there—just…unseen? Or was that just a one-time thing? I sighed._That should have been something to ask Shokyoku when I had the chance. _With that one though, she probably would have given me a hard time or said that it was a "secret". Either way, I still wanted some answers. _Why is it that after I get answers, more questions pop up and I want more answers?_

Trying to get that out of my head (mostly because I knew that I'd _never_ be able to figure out what the lines were on my own—not with all the holes in the mystery), I turned my attention towards other things. Like whether or not Tasuki managed to get that flower back to his leader. _He better have after all that we did to get it. _I just hoped that he didn't get there too late—we were gone for three months after all. Actually…I had no idea how long he had been searching for a cure. He was out and about looking for one when he met me… _I just hope that everything turned out okay…_

In the interest of things turning out fine, I was also praying that Miaka was alright. True, Taiitsukun had said that the flow of time was different between the two worlds—time in our world was slower than it was in the _Universe of the Four Gods. _But still…I had a vision about her coming back and usually my visions signify something that was going on at the exact same time that I had it. What if something bad happened to her? The whole screwy vision regarding Yui was still a huge mystery to me.

When (or if…hopefully when) Miaka came back, she would have to deal with the responsibility of being a priestess and summoning Suzaku to prevent Konan from being destroyed. Not only was the pressure unbelievable, but who knew about what things she had to go through in order to get the job done? And what if something went wrong? Miaka was such a sweet girl—a bit of a cry-baby and reckless, not to mention she's a spaz, but a sweet girl. She's innocent, for the most part, and always relied on me, Yui, or her brother to keep her safe. The girl had never done anything this big before and I really hoped she would accept.

But she did.

I just couldn't understand why she wanted to mix herself up with something so dangerous. To make matters worse, I'd have to continue looking out for her (just like when we were kids) and I'd have to deal with my missions, plans, and destiny either being put on hold or mixing with hers. _Now how is this going to complicate things?_

What also seemed to unsettle me was the fact that the Shadow Maidens haven't showed up in forever—which sort of made sense, I suppose. Shokyoku said that the sacred powers of the maze were too much for the element of Darkness—that was why she couldn't be active there. When Chichiri and I faced those Heartless and Hellhounds, they were just creatures formulated by the maze—they weren't affiliated with the Shadow Maidens in any way. The last time I fought off anything Shadow creature related was at that village with the Shadow-kissed women who were given siren-like abilities. And before that, Nuriko, Hotohori, and I went up against more Shadow-kissed women in the throne room. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I hadn't actually fought a legitimate Shadow Maiden since...I gasped.

Since that day in the park in Miss Emiko's world!

On that day, I used the biggest wave of Light that I had ever used in my life. Of course I had the help of Inuyasha, Kyo, and Hikaru, but it still made a huge impact on my enemies. Taiitsukun even said that my power pushed them back and forced them into a corner.

Ordinarily, a person would feel happy and confident to know that their enemies have been recovering from a pretty bad blow—perhaps they were even cowering in fear. But I knew better. Knowing them—as much as I did know anyway—they were planning something: their comeback. They were probably just waiting until the right moment—regrouping and gathering up their strength for some unbelievable wave of revenge and Darkness.

_Can't wait._

If only I knew who was controlling them and why I had to be their victim—why those girls turned Shadow Maiden in the first place. What really discerns regular girls from us? And what was the Shadow Maidens' ultimate plan—

An unfamiliar and unnatural swishing in the water several yards away from me automatically tore me away from my thoughts. Ceasing everything for a few seconds, even slowing my breath, I tried to see if I could hear the sound persist any more. And there it was—a swishing that seemed to crescendo. Standing up in the shallow waters, my body tensed up, ready for whatever was coming closer. _What is that? _My heart-rate started to increase, not knowing what to expect from the intruder.

I had suddenly found that squinting my eyes to see past the steam was in vain when I heard a voice sing, "Oh Aki~! Where are you?" My eyes widened the moment my brain processed who was near. "Aki?"

"N-N-Nuriko?" I stuttered as my face rose to an even higher temperature than the water. Quickly squatting down into the water, my swift movements causing a huge splash, I covered my bare cleavage with my arms and shrieked, "What the hell are you DOING HERE?"

Ignoring the rage and surprise in my voice, he still progressed closer even though I didn't see him yet—he was most likely around one of the boulders in front of me. "Well I knew that you were out here and thought how much fun it would be for two girlfriends to wash each other's backs!" He said happily.

Slowly scooting backwards, I countered in a still relatively loud voice, "We are not _GIRLFIRENDS_! You have to be a GIRL in order for that to work you dumbass!" Even if he were a girl, I still would have thought that it was weird for them to wash each other's backs or anything together in a bath. "Just go away!"

"Aww…" Disappointment could be heard in his feminine voice. If I had never discovered the true identity of his gender, I would have been convinced that it was a woman talking to me. "You know that I'm a woman on the inside—this body really means nothing!" His voice started to become excited. "We could gossip and talk about what a great couple His Highness and I would make!" The moment I saw a hint of his violet hair, I used my energy and manipulated Water. Swinging my arm back, I released it forward, causing a huge wave of the mineral water to rush upwards and overwhelm the progressive Nuriko. With a large thud, I was sure that he landed somewhere outside of the bath.

One of the woman servants called out to me from somewhere beyond the boulder wall. "Miss Akimoto? Are you alright?" She must have heard all of my shouting along with the other commotion from my freak-out.

"Y-Yeah!" I cried out as un-shakily as I could. "Don't worry about me!" Right as I heard her footsteps become progressively weaker, I faced the direction that Nuriko was in with a blazing fire in my eyes. "What the hell you stupid cross-dresser?"

He became defensive. "Why're you saying that to me? And why did you kick me out of the bath? That was incredibly _rude_!"

"Rude? Who are you to talk about being _rude_?" _I swear if I wasn't naked, I would kill him! _"What you were trying to do wasn't classy at all!"

"I was just trying to be nice! Isn't that what you and Miaka wanted?" The volume of his voice got higher. "What's so wrong with one woman giving another a back-wash?"

"You. Aren't. A. Woman!" I called out to him, never letting back on my obvious annoyance and anger. The whole time, I still made sure that at least one of my arms was covering my bosom the best that I could. Realizing that my attack caused the bath to lose about two and a half feet of water, I made sure to manipulate it back before anyone could see anything they weren't supposed to. Sure, he wanted to be a woman, but there was still the plain fact that he wasn't one. I couldn't allow him to see me without any clothes on—I just wasn't ready for anything like that.

Hearing faint sobbing come from his direction, he said, "That's cold Aki—here I was trying to be a good friend who just helps another friend out. I'm crushed Aki, really crushed." I rolled my eyes. _Oh please. _That wasn't the first time he faked crying like that—he would have fit _perfectly_ in the Host Club.

* * *

><p>The argument persisted even after I got out of the bath. At least I was given a silky white robe, allowing me the opportunity to yell at Nuriko face-to-face. He had lost that sad attempt at making me feel bad about lashing out at him, so he continued to try and rationalize his actions.<p>

With my fists clenched at my sides, I stormed down the hallways and toward my room—Nuriko circling me like some kind of satellite. During my mini silent treatment, he suddenly gasped, running in front of me to block my way. "Oh I see what's going on!" He snickered. "You thought that I was trying to make a move on you." Inching closer, a sneaky, amused look morphed onto his face. "Did you think that I was going to steal your virginity Aki~?"

Steam practically escaping through my ears, I stood on my tip-toes as I leaned toward him and yelled, an apparent blush on my features. "OMG get over yourself!" Calming down a bit, I just let out a huge exhale and walked around him.

The sound of glee still hung on his every word as he followed me. "Oh, so not only have I found out that you're still a virgin, but also that you have a rather naughty way of thinking—" On an impulse I put all of my force (plus the help of Wind) into a ferocious punch, putting a huge crater into the wall next to me. Gawking in my display, Nuriko chuckled nervously and asked, "You seem mad—is anything wrong?"

Slowly turning my head back towards him as best I could, I glared at him out of the corner of my eye—a huge vein popping out near my temple as I tried to ignore the pain shooting from my knuckles. I growled, "_What do you think?" _At first, I wasn't really all that mad at him. After all, he was gay and was under the impression that he was a woman in a man's body, so he most likely didn't have any sexual desires towards me. Okay, I got that. But what was pissing me off the most was how irritating he was—he just kept pressing and pressing at my temper. And that…was _never_ a good idea.

Closing his eyes and backing off a bit, he smiled uneasily as he held up his hands to fend me off and in defense. "There's no need to get angry." Relaxing, he lowered his arms as he put one of his hands on his waist. "Honestly, a lady knows when to control herself." _Oh yeah, you're one to talk. _"Leave it to a little girl to not be able handle talking about such adult things." Hearing his pet name for me tempted me to punch at the wall again. I would have punched Nuriko if I honestly thought it would do some good. But having a punching match with someone with super strength didn't exactly seem wise. "Sex is a part of life Aki and is a very beautiful experience. You see with His Highness, my fantasy—"

Shuddering from the "s" word, I immediately blushed and turned around to face him with incredible speed to cover his mouth with my hand. It wasn't exactly a topic that I was the most comfortable talking about. The whole idea of it embarrassed me and I didn't even like saying the word. It still amazed me how I managed to go through all my school years—high school especially—without having to say it—not even in health class. "Don't you _dare_ finish that sentence—I _do not_ want to know. And I am _so not_ having this talk with _you_."

Taking my hand off of his mouth, he said, "And the rudeness and immaturity persists." Laughing softly, his pink eyes stared right into mine allowing me to, for a second, see a certain depth to them that I had never seen before."Although," he winked at me, "I do find it cute how innocent you are—the way you responded to the things I did and said was absolutely adorable! Who knew it would be so easy to get you _that_ worked up?"

With the blush still on my face, I did my best to fish through my mind to find an appropriate response. "I—well—you—uhh—umm." Clearing my throat, I straightened up, crossed my arms, and chose a default answer since my brain was pretty much fried at that point. "Whatever." Seeing that the door to my room was right next to me, I placed a hand on the knob and closed my eyes as annoyance still rained on around me. "I am so done with this conversation." Turning said knob, I entered my room, which was now only being supported by only several candles for light. It gave the place a real homey feel that I couldn't help but feel relaxed to. As I scanned around, something on my bed happened to catch my eye. Walking over to it, I picked up what seemed like folded robes of some sort. "What's this?"

The question was initially meant for me as a thinking out loud sort of thing, but I had so absentmindedly forgotten to close the door behind me. So there Nuriko was to speak up. "Well, I found it fitting to be the one to pick out your next outfit." Before I went into the outside bath, I had no choice but to scrap the clothes that Miss Emiko gave me. In the state they were in, I'd say that they were grateful to finally be put out of their misery. Hotohori did say that he'd see to it that I'd get new clothes, but I certainly didn't expect to get them from Nuriko. The snobby tone returned to his voice. "Otherwise, who knew what kind of rags you would have ended up in. Only _I_ can really see the detail in things and know which style goes for what people. And that is definitely your style!" _I'll be the judge of that. _Having the garments in my hands, I couldn't exactly say for sure what it would look like on me, but I did notice that there were other components that were off to the side, consisting of an intricate sash, another sash-like attachment, and some other things that I didn't exactly feel like figuring out at the moment. _Jeez, why does the clothing in this world consist of so many parts?_

"Thanks I guess," I told him. When I finally had a chance to put it on, I'd have to make sure that the guy didn't purposefully give me a clown suit or anything—this kind gesture of his seemed too out of character for my liking.

"Do you want me to help you put it on?" Before I shot him another deathly look, he added, "I just want to make sure that your person is worthy of my genius fashion sense."

Drooping my eyelids, I responded with, "No thanks."

His eyes becoming wide with curiosity, he asked, "What's wrong? All of your answers suddenly became short and unexciting." In my mind, I could imagine myself tying a noose and putting it around my neck, ready to finally end my misery. Things had just been so exhausting for the longest time and all I wanted to do was rest. Having to deal with Nuriko made that dream practically impossible. It was hard to tell what required more energy: arguing with him or having him as one of my "girlfriends" (as he would put it). The fact of the matter was that I still wasn't quite used to being around people all of the time—certainly not people who always wanted to talk to me either. For so many years, I had been left alone and eventually that became the lifestyle that I was most used to and comfortable with. When I began this journey, I certainly didn't expect to be shown so much attention.

Not feeling like answering his question, I walked over and sat down on a chair that was stationed in front of a small dresser and a tall mirror. Looking at my reflection, I observed my features. There I was, Akimoto Tsubaki—still nothing all that exciting to look at. I had always considered myself rather average looking which made it sort of ironic that whenever someone called me plain, I'd get extremely ticked off. The only real interesting thing I, or anyone, found about me were my irregular crimson irises. Although I had already met two people from different worlds who had red eyes like I did, it was still _extremely_rare. In my world, no one had seen it before. Many people saw it fitting for me to have irregular eyes like that—with my negative powers in conjunction with them, I was seen as a demon. The thought had always been ridiculous to me—not to mention downright ignorant. But considering everything I had been through, the abilities I possessed, those silver lines that were on me, and my discussion with Shokyoku, the idea wasn't sounding so farfetched.

Gazing into the mirror, I tried to find anything that would seem other than human. But what if I really was a demon or some type of monster?

"If you're going to go out in those clothes, whenever you decide to, you might as well have your hair be decent," Nuriko stated. Taking hold of the brush that was only an arm's length away from me, he held it up in the air—as seen in the mirror. "How about I brush your hair for you? I promise not to make it any worse than it already is." Grinding my teeth feverishly, I thought to myself, _Restrain yourself Aki. He's a Suzaku Warrior—Miaka needs him. You can't annihilate him just yet. _Still remaining silent, the guy went on ahead and decided for me. "I'll take your silence as a 'Yes Nuriko I do want you to do my hair since I lack your sense of style and will be pitied if I choose otherwise'." He giggled like a little girl. "Wow Aki, I never knew you thought so highly of me. Perhaps it should have been you that I made my servant instead of Miaka—"

Shooting up out of my seat, which happened to knock into Nuriko and push him down to the floor, I took out my giant toy hammer, which, I will remind the audience was almost the same size as me, and held over my head prepared to attack—comical fire blazing in the background and in my eyes. "Nuriko, meet the Hammer of Justice—Hammer of Justice, meet Nuriko's pretty face!" Swinging it down with full force, I was surprise to find that my attack was immediately interrupted by some other force. Shifting just enough to see what was wrong, my eyes widened when I saw that Nuriko had effortlessly stopped my toy hammer with one finger. Not wanting to give in, I let up, only to swing at him from the side, but again, he stopped it without any problems. Repeating this process a few more times only to find that I would undeniably fail, my body remained in a position where Nuriko clearly had the upper hand, not allowing me to move anymore. Panting vigorously, I realized how useless this feat was. _You know, this isn't quite as effective (or fun) when it isn't with Tasuki. Nuriko having super-strength kills the point of the attack entirely._

Yawning in a tauntingly way, he flashed a snooty smile. "Nice toy you have here Aki. Did you use it to _play_ with your little boyfriends?"

Cocking my eyebrow up, I asked, "Boyfriends?"

His face became playful and mischievous. "You were traveling with two men whose hormones are on the rise. Really, you can't expect me to not know what you three were doing that entire time—"

Putting away the hammer, I swiftly picked the brush up from the floor beside Nuriko and sat back in the chair. Holding it out behind me, I quickly said, "If you're going to brush my hair just get it over with already!"

Without any further pushing, he stood up and combed through his long, luscious purple hair with his fingers before tossing it behind his back and proceeding towards me as he laughed. "You are so easy and innocent! Oh I can't believe it! Did your other friends ever find you this entertaining?" Only the people back at Ouran really—the Hitachiin twins in particular—but for a completely different reason. It had taken me years to set up a tough front in order for people to think of me as intimidating and independent. Who would have thought that it would take some purple-haired, pink-eyed, super-strength cross dresser to completely make my image crumble before me? _When Suzaku is finally summoned, Nuriko dies._

As he took the brush into his hands, I released my hair from its binds in the ponytail, allowing it to fall down free on my shoulders, still curling up at the ends in a distinct way. It didn't take long before I felt the soft bristles of the brush press onto the top of my head, trailing down repeatedly and firmly almost like a massage. Closing my eyes, I reveled in the pleasant shivers running throughout my body with every brush stroke.

"Your hair is a lot smoother than I initially thought it would me," Nuriko commented, being real gentle as he handled my locks. "Perhaps if you kept it tidied more often, that would be more obvious to others." Feeling the urge to lash out again, something became apparent to me at that moment. I noticed that he had the habit of either insulting me then complimenting me or vice versa. It was difficult to tell whether or not he was doing that on purpose or if that was just his personality. I was having an incredibly hard time trying to decipher what his personality was. Really, you wouldn't think so, but Nuriko was turning out to be one of the most complex people I had ever met in my life—perhaps he already was. There was almost no denying that he was going to be more difficult to understand than Hikaru and Kaoru were.

Brushing down on my bangs, which were long enough to just barely cover my eyes, he spoke up again. "You know, you should think about showing off your eyes more often. Their color, I'll admit, is unique and women are much more attractive to men if they can show off one of their best features. They do say that the eyes are a window to the soul after all." Getting more excited, a blush ran across his face. "That is definitely going to be one of the many reasons why His Highness is going to fall head over heels in love with me!"

Still keeping my eyes shut, I finally gave one of my calmest answers all night. "It's not really my concern if I'm attractive in that way or not." _Not at the moment anyway. _There was just way too much to think about and crap that I had to deal with to worry about my looks to impress some guy that might not even come along.

Gasping, he told me, "Well it _should_ be your concern!" All of a sudden he stopped brushing and put on a lecturing voice as he waved the brush at me (as a substitute finger wagging). "If I'm going to go out of my way to find you a man, then you have to step up your game."

Opening up my eyes in an instant, I turned my head to face him. "You mean…you're still going to do that for me?"

Closing his eyes, he showed me a bright smile. "Of course I am! I don't go back on my promises, and I gave you my word. Just leave everything in Big Sister Nuriko's hands." He may have been a confusing guy, but I still knew that down deep, Nuriko was a considerate person—I'd seen that person back at Mt. Taikyoku.

I couldn't help but be a bit jealous of him, Miaka, Tamahome, and Hotohori. Each one of them knew who they wanted to be with and that all had the opportunity of going for it without having to worry about being forced out of their loved ones world, leaving said loved ones to have their memories wiped. They also didn't possess the intense fear of harming their loved ones in such an awful way—_they_ didn't have a curse that made their lives so messed up. Still I couldn't push myself to hate Shokyoku—none of this was necessarily her fault. She was, after all, just doing what she was pretty much programmed to do.

By her mother.

When Nuriko felt that he was done grooming me, he offered to walk with me to dinner—saying that it would be more exciting than just boringly walking all by ones lonesome. Not feeling as hungry as I could have been, I declined, wanting to get as much sleep as I possibly could before Miaka did come back and we'd end up having to work night and day in our efforts to summon Suzaku.

The moment something crossed his mind, he got a rather sour look on his face. "You do know that His Highness might end up getting upset if his favorite isn't there to enjoy dinner in his company…"

I couldn't help but scoff at the comment. "Please. I am _so not_ his favorite—you know that just as well as I do. Both you and I know perfectly well that he fancies Miaka more than anything." The two of us, along with Tamahome, all heard Hotohori confess his love for the young girl as well as ask her to marry him. You can imagine how that whole ugly scene caused some uneasiness between the four of them for a while because of the whole love rectangle type of thing that was going on. Knowing how much it meant to Nuriko to be with the emperor, I had a feeling that it didn't exactly make him happy to hear what I said. But he had to face the cold, hard truth if he was planning on doing anything about it. "I'm sorry Nuriko, but Miaka is the object of his affections right now."

For a moment, it really seemed like he had lost all of his spirit and pep. A frown lied on his scarlet lips as he looked down and away, thoughts going through his head as he processed my words. The dark place he was in—it was so bizarre to see him in such a vulnerable state. I didn't exactly know what to say to make him feel better. Telling him that he had a chance with Hotohori might have given him false hope—not to say that Hotohori wouldn't, but he's head over heels in love with Miaka. But who would have thought that Nuriko felt _that_ strongly for the emperor? All of these intertwining feelings between my friends will, I'm sure, either create even stronger tensions or dug up old ones and bring them back with a vengeance.

Hmm…shadow creatures and deep drama. Can anyone else see a problem happening somewhere down the road? If so, please map it out for me so that I can find an escape route. Thank you.

Holding up a fist, Nuriko's fire suddenly burned again, putting an intense look of determination in his pink eyes. "No matter. I'll just have to try even harder to win his heart—I saw him first, therefore he will be mine!" This was followed up by a somewhat snobby and high-pitched laugh. _So much for me worrying about him—this guy bounces back _extremely_ fast. _In fact he continued laughing all the way to the door as he took the knob in his hands. Waving me in an excited fashion, like he suddenly consumed gallons of caffeine, he shouted, "Goodnight Aki!" then slammed the door behind him. Even after he was out of my sight, I could still hear him laughing down the hallway until it completely decrescendo.

Continuing to stare at the door with an "oh brother" expression on my face, I tried to recall all of the crazy antics that were just pulled in the last hour or so. _I'll definitely give it to Nuriko—he is _quite_ the character._ Shaking it all, away my mind, for some reason, started to focus back on the Hotohori topic. Finally reaching a rationalization to why he acted so nice to me, I figured, _He just knows how to talk to women, that's why he's been like that this whole time. _That was just like how Dark was in the little time that I knew him—a smooth talker who could pretty much swoon any woman in a ten mile radius in combination with his mysterious essence. Of course, Hotohori was much less of a playboy, but the principle was still pretty much there. It made sense though, right? I mean, Hotohori was the leader of an entire country—he had to be diplomatic and charming in order to make treaties and talk to important people and such.

Now hopefully continuing telling myself that would help stifle my crush on the guy.

Floating over to my bed, I didn't wait another second to drop myself on top of the warm, soft comforters. My whole body just sunk deeper into the heavenly material as my tensed up being finally had a chance to relax. I was way too comfortable to move a few inches forward towards my fluffy pillow. But there was no use—the position I dropped into would be my haven until I decided to wake up after my hibernation. Not wanting to fight it off any longer, I lowered my eyelids, and quickly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p>My body was once again covered with the silver veins as I stood over what seemed like some type of crystal clear liquid that had shimmering golden crystals at the bottom. Somehow, they beautifully glowed on their own, illuminating a light that was just so wonderfully brilliant that I could just bask in it all day. The ripples in the water caused by passing winds made the light coming up towards me seem as if it were elegantly dancing. Up above, the sky was a goldenrod color, complete with twinkling stars—many of them feeling the need to move on as they raced across the vast canvas. Even as I looked all around, there weren't any signs of life or land anywhere. The shining gold ocean stretched on as far as the eye could see. Sure, I was alone, but there was a sort of serenity that made me feel calm and collected.<p>

For some reason, I didn't even question why I was there or why the veins had mysteriously came back. All that I wore was a simple, loose white spaghetti strap dress that went all the way down to my feet. Every time there was a swirling gust of wind, the dress fluttered around as my body felt weightless and free.

It was when five mysterious figured surrounded me that the realization of not knowing what was happening finally impacted me. Quickly turning myself in different directions, I found that the five figures were actually in the shapes of men—assuming by their distinguishable structures anyway. Something was obscuring my vision enough for me not to be able to really tell the identities of the five guys. None of them said anything though—they just stood there looking into the center—at me.

_Who are these guys? And what am I supposed to do? _It sort of bothered me that I couldn't decipher who they were as well as my reason for being there. Their hidden identities let up a bit, allowing me to realize that all of them were different—their features, such as heights and overall outlines were diverse from one another. Yet, I was still kept in the dark about who they were.

An idea randomly popped up in my head. _Am I—Am I supposed to choose one of them? Is that why they are staring at me? Is that why they are here?_

Rushing over to one of them, I reached out, anticipation riding in my heart. When what I expected was to make physical contact, my hand just went right through, as if that person wasn't really there. As my hand just sat there, feeling nothing, the figure instantly evaporated into a wispy, smoke-like substance. Then it was completely gone.

Four guys left.

Changing directions, I tried the process again, but found that he just disappeared before my very eyes just as my hand phased beyond his chest. Eyes widening from the phenomenon, I attempted my luck twice more, frantically trying to make some sort of progress. But no luck.

One guy left.

I was afraid to turn around and face him—frightened that if I went to him and reached out, he'd just evaporate like the others. It was I who made them disappear…If I had never come along, they'd probably still be there—all because of my selfish desires.

Holding my hand up to my face, I observed the glowing lines branched throughout my body. It was nothing I had ever seen on a human before—nothing like I had seen on anyone before. Were these hands only meant to cause pain?

Hugging my arms, I shivered as a cold sensation blew throughout me. _Should I turn around? Should I try again? Would it be worth it? _If I made him disappear too, then I'd be all alone. And this time, I wasn't okay with the thought of that at all. Was it better for me not to turn around at all? If I had continued doing that, then what would have been the difference between me being alone from him evaporating and me being alone due to isolation?

Taking a huge gulp, I slowly turned to face him…Only to find that he was already standing so close to me that our bodies were practically touching. The mysterious guy was about seven inches taller than me, so I was forced to look up to get a look at his face. For some reason, I just couldn't register in my mind who he was. But…oddly…I felt secure, warm even.

Feeling the impulse to speak to him, I froze, seeing as how my voice didn't seem to work. It didn't matter. In the blink of an eye, he put his hands on my shoulders and brought his face down to connect his lips with mine.

My body stood immobile from the kiss, completely stupefied, but filled with wave after wave of pleasure and happiness. I didn't feel the need to break apart from him though. No, I wanted to stay there and enjoy the bliss while it lasted.

Soon, even he slowly faded away, however never causing the incredible feeling of the kiss go away. But instead of his smoke going up into oblivion, it transformed into a golden mist that surrounded my body like a veil. The sensation was empowering, a bit overwhelming, but it made me feel better than I had in a long time—perhaps even in my whole life! It was like…It was like my mysterious man was still with me, staying close to my heart and always being the shield I needed.

Just when I was swimming in incredible satisfaction, I sensed a disturbance in the serene environment. Snapping my head to the side, my eyes progressively widened at the horrible sight before me. Off in the distance, the golden sky was being polluted by an ominous dark cloud. The waters beneath the monster pushed back a considerable amount, only to morph into some kind of pitch-black wave that rose up and rushed towards me with incredible speed and power. The ferocious clouds immediately flashed bolts of lightning, the thunder encouraging the huge tsunami to rise up even higher, swallowing the golden water underneath to be converted into the tainted Darkness.

Completely facing the wave, I told myself to not look away. Evading it was impossible, and running was out of the question—there would be no point, not with the incredible power that that thing was giving off. I had no choice but to face it.

Something told me that I had a chance to face it, survive, and protect everything precious and beautiful. I had to protect the Light.

Gathering up all the energy I had, the golden veil around me blossomed into a blazing halo, the intense force of it caused the liquid below me to open up and reveal the crystal gold—the liquid itself fanning to the sides. As the wave hovered over me, threatening my existence, I stood firm and released my hidden energy—there was no holding back.

* * *

><p>Opening my eyes and panting hard, my upper body shot up like an arrow. Reliving the vivid scenes of my dream, as well as reacting to a sudden urge, I presented my arm before me. Rolling up the sleeve of the white robe I was wearing, a gasp escaped past my lips. The silver veins were still there, flickering away steadily, but they were definitely there. Before I could even process everything that happened, the veins disappeared altogether, going back to wherever they went before. And of course, Shokyoku's ring came back with a vengeance.<p>

Sighing, I thought, _there's no doubt about it—those lines definitely mean something._

Straight rays from the sun shone through the skinny, long windows that were built near the ceiling of the room. The candles from the night before had long since burned out but it didn't really matter, the space had been well lit by the time I woke back up.

_I wonder how long I was asleep? _Swinging my legs over the side, I stood up, feeling refreshed from a good night's slumber. Finally prepared to put on the clothes that Nuriko picked out, I walked over to them, holding the garments once more in my hands. No matter what my actions seemed to be, though, I just couldn't figure out what that dream of mine was about. _Everything that happened seemed so real. It also seemed like there was some sort of meaning to it, but what? _That dark tsunami that was consuming everything and headed towards me…did I defeat it or did I lose? What caused it to happen exactly? None of the things that unfolded in that dream made much sense, and yet…it felt natural and like it was meant to be.

Finally being able to see the clothing in a well-enough light, I got a good look of the features, the colors, and what it consisted of. The primary garment was basically an open, cross-collared robe that was, for the most part, a deep navy blue. The cuffs, collars, and hems or the entire ensemble was an orchid color, a shade of purple that was almost near Nuriko's hair color. There were also a pair of loose pants that were also the same purple-ish color. When I took a look at the white undershirt that I was expected to wear, I quickly frowned. _So not my style._

There was something that I sort of lied about before when I said that I had scrapped all of my torn up clothes. Well, truth was that I still kept the black tube top. It was just so easy to move around in and the damage to it wasn't _as bad_ as I made it out to be—just a few tears here and there. Since I was technically going to wear a silk robe over it anyway, no one would see all of the scratches and rips in it. I also found it wise to keep my strapless bra and panties around. The moment I discovered that this world didn't believe in either one (and by "didn't believe in" I mean that they hadn't really been invented yet—or rather the use of them wasn't widely used yet. This was an ancient Chinese-like world after all), I thought it wise to have them handy. In the bath I had a chance to clean them off and make those things fresh again.

As I slipped on said underwear and tube top, I stepped through the loose pants and slid my arms past the sleeves of the blue silk robe. That was when I hit a snag: a long sash (also the orchid color) was involved and I had absolutely no idea how to wrap it around me efficiently. Groaning, I remembered how Nuriko offered the night before to help me out—this must have been one of those things that I needed assistance on. Weighing my options, I thought to myself, _Okay, I could ask Nuriko to do that. But after last night's performance I can definitely see ridicule in my future. I could also wait until one of the maids/servants walk by to help me out. But then that would be a bit frustrating having to wait and make sure that it's a woman who passes by. I'm certainly not going to walk out of this room halfway dressed just to look for someone. _Crossing my arms, I started to get irritated with the miniscule problem at hand.

Snapping my fingers, I came up with a reasonable solution. _Got it! _By simply wrapping the long sash around a few times backwards, I was able to tie a somewhat okay bow from the front. Then I slid and turned it around backwards onto its appropriate spot.

Observing what the outfit looked like so far in the mirror, I found that there were golden-yellow flower designs on the exposed spots on the outside. Seeing as how I could still see the majority of my arms, I was surprised to find that the sleeves were actually pretty short. Usually with the traditional wear in this world, extremely long sleeves were the main style, but these ones, although really baggy and consisting of _a lot_ of room, only went to about where my elbows were. Seeing the whole outfit in detail, though, something seemed to be missing.

Due to my paranoid side, I searched all around for something else that could possibly complete this ensemble. At the foot of the bed, I did indeed discover parts that I might have left out. There were long, thin black gloves that had the thumbs, index, and middle fingers cut from them, leaving only my ring finger and pinky to be covered with material. _Oh…so that's what Nuriko was getting at. _Giving me a shorter-sleeved robe, he picked out long gloves to make it seem like my arms were still completely covered.

The other component of the outfit perplexed me a bit. There was a shorter, skinny sash-like thing that had connected to it a longer, wider and more intricately designed sash that hung down on its own. On the sides of it were two long golden yellow braids that almost reached the length of the more prominent sash in the middle of them. _The piece is pretty and all, but where does it go?_

Tick…

Tick…

Tick…

…

…

…

Ding!

The light bulb finally went off in my brain, leading me to groan once more. I ended up having to take off the sash I had already worked to put on and putting on the more complicated one that I had just discovered. _Then_ I put on the previous sash on top of that one to cover the top where the other attachments met.

Praying that I wouldn't have to do anymore of that unnecessary taking off, replacing, and putting back on, I finally got a chance to see the end results of my efforts.

_Wow._

I really looked like I belonged in the _Universe of the Four Gods. _When Miaka and I had first arrived, my fashion conspicuously stood out like a sore thumb. It was same story for when I was in Feudal Japan with Inuyasha and the others. When you're wearing clothes that aren't from the same era that you happen to be in, you'll most definitely turn some heads. But now, it actually seemed like I'd visually fit in—which relived me since I couldn't stand it when those people continuously stared at me like they honestly had nothing better to do with their lives. Holding up my right wrist, I never failed to admire the beautiful bracelet that Hikaru gave me when we were still together. No matter how much time had passed, I would always cherish the gift since it was the first real one ever given to me by someone other than Kajou.

Making sure that I didn't get stuck floating along lethargically in memory lane, I shook my head and looked at the overall picture, smiling at the result. _I've got to give him credit—Nuriko sure did know what he was doing when he picked out this outfit. It really is my style! _I gave him extra points for giving me an ensemble that I was able to move around easily in—one that made fighting non-restricting in any way. _And the gloves? Nice touch._

Beside my bed on the floor was a pair of black pompes to wear on my feet. They were simple, but were pretty much the equivalent to the convenient ballet flats that were so popular in my world.

Feeling that I was decent enough to leave my room and catch up with Hotohori and Nuriko (and after gawking at my new outfit for a nice number of minutes), I walked over to the door to open it. Just as I was walking out, something that was lying before my doorstep happened to catch my eye. There was a pretty flower with larger magenta petals on the edges and a bunch of light pink, skinnier petals on the inside that had more well-defined points at the ends. Tied around the greenish stem of the flower was a scarlet ribbon, wrapped on neatly, as if it were a gift.

Blinking a few times, I tried to figure out why there would be a flower—that was clearly meant for someone—on my doorstep. There was the possibility that someone dropped it…_No…it was placed down way too nicely for that. _Then again there was also the chance that it was meant for someone else and the deliverer got the rooms mixed up. _But all the people who live and work here should know the palace by heart. They shouldn't have made a mistake like this. Unless…_

_Unless it was meant for me!_

Why would someone leave me a flower?

It was impossible—no one had any reason to leave me something like that. Don't get me wrong, it was a beautiful flora, and I was sure that any woman who received one from somebody wouldn't be anything less than joyful, but I just couldn't understand why it was me.

Bending over to pick up said plant, I couldn't help but notice the sweet and refreshing aroma emitting from it. Even though it wasn't intentional, I smiled at the gift—its loveliness and scent just flipped on some sort of switch that made me somewhat happy.

As I sniffed it again, the question as to who could it left it there reminded me of the other events that unfolded in my dream. More specifically, I was directed to that kiss that that mysterious guy gave me. The very thought of the idea made my face instantly heat up. I had never had a dream like that in my life, so it sort of took me off guard. That guy was more distinct from all of the others—he didn't leave me. But that doesn't mean that I wasn't curious about who those four other guys were either. The more I thought about it, the more baffled I became.

Maybe I was thinking too much about it. After all, the majority of the time, dreams were only things thought of by ones subconscious. They rarely meant what people thought they meant. That was why psychologists or whatever came up with dream dictionaries—so that people could interpret their dreams a bit more accurately. So really, my dream probably had no meaning to it at all.

I sighed. _Maybe I'll just ponder more about it later. I don't exactly want to spend the rest of my day trying to interpret something that might end up being nothing._But knowing the routine of my life, there was a chance that this was way more than nothing.

_I am going to hope that this is nothing. And if it is something, then would it be too much for the universe not to bother me with it until after I eat? At least? Thank you._

Absentmindedly bringing the flower along with me, I continued to stare down at the plant with skepticism. From my point of view, I only accepted the flower because I was still pondering on the meaning of it—not necessarily because I actually believed that someone gave it to me for some sentimental purpose. There was always the chance that everyone got a flower and I was just one of the last people to get up that day. Perhaps that was the reason as to why I didn't see anyone else with one. _Argh! _I just couldn't figure it out!

It…It really was a nice flower though…

The ribbon made it obvious that it was meant as a gift, and that was what perplexed me the most. If the ribbon weren't there to present it as a present, then the scenarios I came up with earlier would have made much, much more sense. But I just couldn't see why someone would give it to _me_.

Being lost in my thoughts so much, I hadn't even realized that I had gotten myself lost in the palace—again. So much for finally knowing my way around.

_God dammit!_

The place was just too big for a person to fully navigate their way around when they had only been a resident there for such a short time. Of course, it was sort of my fault for not paying attention…

Screw it.

Levitating myself into the air, I planned on getting a birds-eye view on the whole structure of the palace—which was vast, but made it simpler for me to work around. From up above, the majority of the roofs from the many different buildings looked very similar, and I didn't particularly have the patience to check every single one for the particular room I was looking for.

The moment my nose caught the scent of something that smelled delicious—like of meats and seasonings—I was instantly drawn in like Miaka in an all-you-can-eat buffet. If my knowledge served me right, then I knew that the banquet hall was near the kitchen and both were near the throne room. _Okay! We have a plan. _Allowing the scent to pull me in all on its own, my body just sort of floated on the tasty currents. I didn't mean to seem like a Miaka clone or anything, but for the first time in a while, I was actually hungry—which was sort of irregular for me. I didn't know why, but I had never exactly been a big eater. Nothing looked appetizing to me the vast majority of the time (and yet…I had slightly more curves than most of the skinny girls I knew—in other words, I wasn't a scrawny chick due to starvation). To be more accurate, I had this thing were I suddenly craved food for just one day.

Usually I ate my fill, then I no longer required big meals to support me for weeks, maybe even months. It was like my body was able to store in the energy of the food for long periods of time, and then distributed said energy in even, small amounts, making it so that I wouldn't need to stack back up on energy until later. Quite oddly, Kajou, Saru, and Kyoko were the same way. Huh. Maybe it was those reflective cells that I had heard about somewhere in biology class.

This was one of those times—I was _hungry_! I guess using up all of that energy and having to go through all of that crap with the maze and other stuff finally made my metabolism and stomach go "Hey! Our fuel gauge is on empty! Do something about it!"

Once I landed, I rushed into the well decorated banquet hall, completely ignoring the well-lit crystal chandelier, fancy drapery on the walls, and incredibly long table that seemed to be crafted out of the finest wood, and focused mainly on the multiple bowls of breads, meats, pastas, and a bunch of other wonderful things.

With the biggest smile on my face, I folded my fingers in a prayer style as huge sparkles took refuge in my eyes. _It just looks so darn beautiful! _Luckily, no one I knew was around to witness my closet giddiness. I'd be so embarrassed if someone saw me being anything other than tenacious, intimidating, and sarcastic. For the most part, I was most comfortable acting in those normal tendencies, but every now and then, I should be allowed the freedom to go outside the norm.

* * *

><p>After I finished eating the food that made my taste buds sing, I was perfectly content—knowing that I wouldn't have to fill up again for quite a while also settled me a bit. I could have thoroughly described the magic that was being unfolded with every bite of food, but not only would that have required a long paragraph for each item on my plate (and words wouldn't even have been able to describe how I felt), but it all went by so fast, like some sort of blissful dream, that I couldn't exactly remember it all happening in the moment. Before I knew it, my plate was empty and the dream was over. Oh come on, you all know that you've had dreams like that.<p>

Upon entering the throne room—this time no guards attacked me (we'll see how long that lasts!)—I wasn't surprised to find Nuriko hovering around Hotohori as he sat on his throne. A blush flashed on my face for only a second when I first caught sight of the emperor in conjunction with a sudden flip in my stomach. Mentally slapping myself, I forced myself to get a grip. _Damn this stupid crush! _Even in his full emperor attire he was still attractive! _No stop thinking that way! You're not interested! It's just a stupid crush—practically nothing. _Taking in a deep breath and releasing it, the heat in my face went away and I walked into full view.

I was about to say good morning to them when I suddenly remembered that I still had the flower in my hand. _Why do I still have this with me? _Leaving it in my room had definitely been an option, but for some strange reason, I chose not to take it. _Why oh why didn't I take it? _While the origins of the gift didn't intrigue me, I didn't exactly need it to be the new conversation topic. Who knew what thoughts would be going through Nuriko's head if he saw it? That wouldn't have necessarily been a problem if the guy didn't have the incredible tendency to say almost everything that was on his mind—especially if it were for his own entertainment.

Right as I swiftly hid the plant behind my back, Hotohori looked over at me and flashed a charming smile. "Akimoto, it's a pleasure to see you this morning. I trust that you slept well?"

Trying not to ask suspicious, I responded with, "Yes. Thank you Hotohori. I appreciate you allowing me to stay here in your palace even though I'm not the Priestess of Suzaku."

Shaking his head lightly, his smile never faltered. "Think nothing of it. You are very close to our beloved priestess—being seen as her older sister and all. So we—_I_ am honored to have a wonderful woman such as you in our presence." Shifting uncomfortably in my spot, I restrained the temptation to look down or away bashfully like I usually did whenever he complemented me with that smooth voice of his. I was really _beginning_ to wonder whether or not he was aware of how I acted around him. Hopefully, I was hiding my reactions a lot better than I thought I was. Being the "emotionless robot" that people thought I was back in my world for so many years sort of gave the reassurance that I was hiding my feelings _pretty_ well. Judging by Nuriko's obliviousness to it (and by oblivious I mean that he wasn't trying to kill me yet), I'd say I was doing a pretty good job at concealment.

Eyeing me from top to bottom, Hotohori commented, "That ensemble really suits you—"

"And for that you can look to me since _I_ was the one who picked it out for her!" Nuriko blurted out in an excited fashion. "I didn't want you to go through the trouble of having to dress the guest Your Majesty, not when you already had so much on your plate. So I took the initiative to take the challenge on myself." An offended expression wiped onto my face. _Challenge?_ Leaning over the emperor with an apparent blush on his face, he pressed on further. "Of course it wasn't the simplest task since I had to acquire an outfit that satisfied all of her needs, but everything came out perfect in the end—just like I thought it would. You have no idea how happy it makes me to know how much you approve!" Just by looking at him I could tell that Nuriko wanted to give Hotohori one of the biggest hugs and hog him all to himself. "You can tell that Aki here absolutely adores it as well!" Turning to me with a look that said "you better agree with me before I strangle you", he asked, "Right Aki?"

Witnessing the whole scene, I used a flat voice to give my answer, unfazed by his deathly glare. "I'd like to say that but your lack of modesty is steering me towards a different answer." His glare intensifying, I could have sworn that he was close to shooting a laser from his pupils just to punish me for not cooperating. The emperor noticed the visual and silent interaction happening between Nuriko and me so he quickly turned his head to see what was up. Automatically, the cross dresser's expression became pleasant and sparkly with the attention of his interest. But the moment Hotohori faced me again Nuriko's face went back to demonic. The fact that he was able to hide his angered face from Hotohori was pretty comical for the most part. Snickering softly, I subdued. "Fine, I was kidding. These clothes are actually very nice and even I have to applaud Nuriko for his choice."

Switching his focus onto the guy next to him for a moment, Hotohori expressed his gratitude. "That was a very selfless thing to do Nuriko—I appreciate you helping Akimoto out. I completely agree with her when she says that your choice for her clothing is rather impressive and well thought out."

Practically floating on his own Cloud Nine, Nuriko blushed so much that there was steam coming out of his ears and nostrils. "Thank you so much for thanking _me_ Your Highness!" He squealed. "I will cherish your gratitude for the rest of my life!" Realizing the eccentric scene that he was making, the femininely dressed guy immediately hyped down and cleared his throat. "You are very welcome Your Highness—I would be honored to assist at any time that I can." _Classy, huh?_

"Yes…well…" Still confused about Nuriko's spaz attack, Hotohori shook it off and faced me once more. "How long have you been awake Akimoto?"

"Hmm?" Thinking about his question, I answered making sure that the flower was still behind my back and out of view. "Oh! I'd say about an hour or so—maybe a bit longer."

Surprise struck him as I gave my reply. "You don't say! Well how come you didn't say anything? I would have been more than happy to supply you with some company." Using his hand to present the fellow next to him, he said, "And I'm sure that it would have been no trouble for Nuriko to join you either."

Pleasantly, and with a sweet smile on his face, Nuriko added in, "Why yes! There's _nothing_ I would have enjoyed more than to spend a _delightful_ breakfast with someone who _isn't_ my true love. Wouldn't that have been casual and _enjoyable_?" _Gee, what a subtle way of him saying "you're not His Highness, so don't even bother". _Couldn't there have ever been a time whenever that guy wouldn't hand out cheeky answers by the dozen? I mean, sarcasm was _my_ thing!

Both of us ignoring Nuriko's obvious sourness, I responded while fighting the temptation to reclaim my spot as the Sarcasm Queen. "No it's okay, really. I had some time to think about stuff while being on my own."

Rushing over to me, Nuriko hooked his arm around my neck as he inconsiderately pinched my cheeks in a playful matter with his free hand. "Think about stuff, huh? What kind of stuff? Daydreaming about who _your_ true love might be?" That wittingly outward comment only made me blush slightly—not that it was true, I just didn't want someone—let alone _him_—say anything like that out loud. He giggled. "Or perhaps you're deciding on which one of those men you traveled with suit your desires the most~."

Addressing the one person in our audience, I pushed him away and quickly explained to the emperor. "His words are _completely_ unwarranted—I wasn't even thinking about that!" Making sure to keep the flower concealed, I forcefully grabbed at Nuriko's collar with my free hand and brought him in close—not caring whether or not Hotohori was looking. Speaking in a low tone, I demanded, "Why the hell do you _always_ have to cause trouble for me wherever I go? I'm getting sick of you and your stupid hijinks—our 'friendship' is becoming _completely_ baseless thanks to you, so knock it off already!"

Mumbling under his breath, he said, "So impulsive for a young lady…" Pulling back, he adjusted his robes to fix the wrinkling I caused as he spoke to me. "Does it really bother you _that_ much?"

I nodded. "Yes—it really does. So could you please quit it altogether?"

Pretending to think on it, he put his finger under his chin. "Hmm…" Pointing up, he came out of his train of thought. "Nope!" I couldn't help but sigh. _Figures._"But…" Seeing that he lightened up a bit, I listened to what else he had to say. "If this is really risking our friendship, then I guess I can ease up. It would be foolish to let something as stupid as this ruin something we worked hard at." That was definitely something that I didn't expect to hear from him. Then again, this was probably that hidden, considerate Nuriko that I was talking about earlier. Making his way back over to Hotohori, he looked back at me with a smile playing on his ruby lips. "But don't think that my fun will cease altogether—you're way too entertaining to not play with every now and then." _Oh freakin' joy. _Well, I had to give him credit for being mature and acknowledging that he was really getting under my skin and resolving to fix the problem—more or less.

"Nuriko," Hotohori scorned with a stern tone, "it's not very proper to trouble our guest in such a way. Your constant slandering of Akimoto here will not be tolerated!"

The cross dresser cowered down in shame, tears forming at the corners of his bright, pink eyes. "B-But Your Highness—"

"It's fine." I interrupted. Nuriko turned his head towards me for a second before going back forward. "Nuriko is just showing one of his many faces and for the most part, I have accepted the complete bizarreness—not to mention ridiculousness—of it all." I felt the need to defend him at this point. Due to his promising to attempt better friendship habits, I figured that I might as well have done the same. "The particular way he responds to things is sort of _worth questioning, _but I suppose that that is just the way he does things." It was troubling indeed, but it wasn't like I could use some spell to change the guy's personality—that was simply how he was—how he expressed himself. Although irritating most of the time, it never hurt anyone. I was just thankful that he wasn't a complete bitch like he was when he first met.

"Aki…thanks…" Nuriko breathed a sigh of relief as I vouched for him.

Switching glances from Nuriko to me, Hotohori had a questionable look on his face. "Well if it doesn't bother you—"

"Oh no it bothers me—I just have a tolerance for it." We had to make sure that I had that established before going on which, of course, earned me a bittersweet expression from the one I just protected. _Take it or leave it dude. _"In all seriousness, though, there is something that I wanted to talk to you two about…" Feeling the need to change the subject, I recalled the dark elements from my dream as well as the conversation between Shokyoku and me. Something had to be said and I felt that this was the best time to just go ahead and do that.

"What is it Akimoto? We're listening." Concern hung on Hotohori's voice, most likely automatically alarmed as my tone changed.

Fishing through my mind for the right words, my eyes steadily moved around in conjunction to the search. "As you might have guessed, things are probably going to get really serious, not to mention dangerous. I can honestly say that I have absolutely no idea what the universe has in store for us. And with me on your side, it's a pretty safe bet that things won't exactly roll by smoothly for you." The two of them listened intently for me to explain the reason for my argument. "I have…a deep feeling that somewhere along the way, something far more intense than a war between humans will break loose, even though I don't exactly know what it is yet." True, I was skeptical as to whether that dream meant anything, but if it was foreshadowing something—an overwhelming darkness threatening all that is beautiful and pure—then I deserved the right to warn my allies. It was just a gut feeling that my had, regardless of the fact that that was only a small portion of the dream and the rest of it made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever when it came to the bigger picture. Whichever way things ended up unfolding, I knew that somehow, I might not only be involved, but at the center of the disaster that was still in its developmental phases.

Gosh was this really one of those instances where I truly wished that my gut was wrong.

Recalling the talk I had with them, Tamahome, and Miaka once before I said, "I apologize again for anything we might face because of me—or any pain that you might feel." What I really wanted to ask of them was to not hate me when or before this whole thing was over. I wanted them to be able to hold off on their hatred and sadness until I could finally find a way to break free from my curse. But even I knew that sometimes, the effects of Shokyoku and my Darkness were just too strong—too overpowering. Burdening them or anyone had never been my intention. I tried to reassure them, almost as if I completely believed myself. "Once I figure things out, I promise you that things will be alright."

How many mental wars and barriers (the physical ones as well) did I honestly have to fight through before the universe was satisfied? When I made my wish, I _deeply_ hoped that things would be simple and that things would change for the better. Instead, even more problems arose. Was my wish really as impossible as Shokyoku had told me? And was all of the trouble I went through and dragged people through worth it? I might have been given more answers than when I began this whole thing, but I still had no idea why a bunch of things were happening and why they were in the first place. For example, why were there Shadow Maidens in the first place? What really made us girls who went on the journey that much different than normal girls? What made us different? And the identity of Shokyoku's mother was also of real interest to me. Who wouldn't want to know about the _skank_ who ruined her life? I definitely knew that I wanted a few words with her—pay her back for her pleasant _favor_.

That would be my newest, potentially most important mission: find answers. I'd never be satisfied, and things probably wouldn't improve if I didn't know the truth about things. My happily ever after would have to be put on hold.

Admittedly, being alone wasn't exactly something I enjoyed or loved. Who really did? I had learned to live with my sad reality over the years, so if I failed with my quest, I'd be okay with things going back to how they used to be before I had my powers unlocked. People refusing to be near me as well as a life filled with misery, emptiness, and disappointment used to be my day-by-day lifestyle that I had adapted and accepted. At the time, that was simply what was and I didn't question why.

But now that I've tasted a more satisfying lifestyle, I knew that I wanted better for myself—that I _could_ have better for myself. My heart would have been filled with nothing but hate and regret for myself if I didn't at least make an effort to change my destiny. Bringing myself to just sit idly by and watch the rest of my life race by, watching as I fell deeper and deeper into despair simply wasn't something that I could bring myself to do any longer. Keeping negative energy inside, awful memories, harming others—I had to find a way out before it drove me insane or lead to unnecessary deaths and other disasters.

Shokyoku may have considered wanting companionship as a weakness, which may have very well been true, but it was a need that I was born with. So I could not, for the life of me, throw away my emotional desires, no matter how much I denied them.

Somewhere along the way, I'd figure things out.

'_Aki, you shouldn't try so hard for those humans—it's not a hopeless effort. _Well…Shokyoku returned to include her _lovely_ and positive input on the situation._As long as your Darkness remains on the outside, people will continue to suffer. No doubt about it. If you just lose the need to be accepted, then you'll find inner peace.'_

Marinating in her reasoning, I told the little girl, _It isn't necessarily about being accepted. _My situation wasn't like some high school where you want to be accepted by the cool kids and have everyone you know think that you're awesome. _No, it's not about that_. I just wanted to know that I can love, and can be loved—that someone actually wanted me around, that I could do so much more than just cause despair—a reason for my existence. Otherwise, what reason would there be to live? I had to find a reason to live.

The woman who put the curse on me—or rather _assigned_ Shokyoku to me—had a twisted sense of the word protection if she thought that she was doing me a favor.

Whatever.

There wasn't much point in continuously complaining about it if I didn't do anything about it. But believe me, when the opportunity came where I would meet this woman, I'd take action—no matter what it took.

_One step at a time._

Seeing as how I was falling deeper and deeper into the abyss that was my thoughts, Nuriko and Hotohori gave me looks of concern and sympathy. There was no way to tell what they were thinking regarding my words, but I prayed that they understood.

Just as one of them was about to respond to me, a powerful energy filled the room in great amounts. Each of becoming alarmed with the switch in intense atmospheres, we stood at the ready for whatever presented itself before us. Collecting in the center of the room was a bright crimson light, flashing somewhat repeatedly with bolts of what seemed like red lightning. _What the hell? _The energy began to take a human form before too long, the light eventually dimming down as the process was completing itself.

Appearing out of the light was what seemed like a young woman with familiar olive eyes and an Odango hairstyle. Wearing her signature brown middle school uniform and an overly packed yellow backpack, the girl blinked a few times as she assessed the situation—probably making sure that she had completed her transaction. When she caught sight of us, she gave a wide smile, one that could brighten even the darkest of rooms.

Miaka Yuki had returned.

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><p><strong>Well, there ya go! I hope you liked what you read—PLEASE REVIEW! My motivation comes from knowing that people are still out there who read this. Reviews make me feel good and LONG reviews add another year onto my life XD Jk, any word from you guys would make me happy. But please, I like to year ur thoughts, predictions, hopes, etc. And even tell ur friends who might be interested =))<strong>

**And be on the lookout for more pix in Deviant Art. There will be some new pix of Aki, as well as Shokyoku, the Suzaku warriors, and even Saru and Kyoko! (so that you guys see what they look like). Feel free to comment on those as well (but I won't force u to get an account X))**

**BTW the pic i drew of Aki with Miaka, the clothes you see her in isn't the one that she received in this chapter. It was going to be, but someone informed me that that outfit wasn't historically correct so i had to change it. So expect a pic of the actual outfit (i.e the one in this chappie) in the future!**

**Love you all! *hugs***

**Until next time~**

**C ya!**


	33. Assurance

**Hey everyone! Welcome to this next chapter of my fic! I had an epiphany that my author's notes have become longer and more in detail ever since Season 2 began…huh. **

**Anyway!**

**SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! Speaking of seasons, I feel that I must tell you guys something that I have decided. Remember how a while ago I told you all that this story would be 3 seasons? Well the more I thought about it, I realized how incredibly LONG Season 2 would be if I stuck to that format. SO! I've decided to instead have 4 Seasons to this story. Don't worry tho, Season 2 isn't over yet. However we have hit a milestone, we are now in Season 2 Part 2 of _Love Hurts 5 Ways _(actually it's been Part 2 since the beginning of last chapter). But let me tell you, I've had the season finale planned for a while and I hope u all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed thinking it up. But once again, we haven't hit that point just yet.**

**Enough about that. Thank you all so much once again for continuing reading this story! ^_^**

**Here ya go: the multiple of 11, Chapter 33!**

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><p>Once the red light dimmed out completely, the three of us who were already in the room continued staring at the unexpected guest. Deep down, I was sort of glad that the phenomenon decided to happen when it had. After giving that mini speech back there, I wasn't completely sure if I really wanted to hear Nuriko and Hotohori's answers. It already felt awkward as hell to talk all sentimental like that to people, so it wasn't really a conversation topic that I wanted to go into depth on. And there was absolutely no chance of me asking them about the flower. So…alright—I had to give the universe <em>some<em> credit for its timing there.

With all of us still surprised, Miaka decided to speak first, the perky smile never faded away. "Hi g-guy—!" Shrieking, she instant fell backwards thanks to the gravity that was heavily impacting the way-too stuffed backpack. The moment her backpack hit the floor, taking her with it, she immediately flailed around—legs kicking and arms waving wildly as she tried to stand up again. "Get me out of this please! I can't get up its too heavy!" I sighed, smacking my forehead once and giving it my all not to scream out asking why she idiotically packed so much. _Just take your arms out from the straps you spaz. _As if she were reading my mind, she did just that, resulting in her sitting on her knees as she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. Giggling uncontrollably, she said, "Oh yeah…I forgot that I was able to do that. Everything's alright!" _Note to self: ask her what the hell is in that poor abused bag. _Yeah, it made sense for her to bring along a few things from home to make her stay in a foreign world more adaptable, but it almost looked like she either packed her whole room or the whole kitchen in that thing—perhaps both.

Standing up from his throne, Hotohori walked down the steps as he raised his arms with praise. "Our beloved priestess has come back to us from her world beyond the stars!" The few guards that were at the entrance to the throne room each faced the Odango-headed girl and kneeled to her, bowing their heads out of respect. On a more personal note, happiness flashed in Hotohori's gorgeous hazel eyes, probably ecstatic that the woman of his dreams had finally returned—however he was way too put together to jump around throwing a mini welcome-back party. He did, however, not hesitate to get down on his knees to pull her in for an intimate embrace—his hand resting tenderly on the back of her head to bring her in even closer. You could practically touch the warmness in the air from all of the affectionate feelings floating around. "You have always been in my thoughts Miaka—I am overjoyed to see that you are well."

Reacting like any sane girl would with a hot guy saying something like that to her, Miaka, who was proposed to in the past by said guy, blushed as she responded, "I'm feeling much better Hotohori, thank you!"

Just as Miaka was standing up and breaking the hug, Nuriko giddily ran over to her and took both of the girl's hands, swinging them up and down. "Miaka! You're back! It's about time—I was hoping you'd come back and see your best _girlfriend_ Nuriko again." I knew that that extra emphasis on the word "girlfriend" was meant for me regarding the incidents from the night before.

Not being suspicious of Nuriko's usually uncharacteristically welcoming attitude, Miaka just closed her eyes and returned the cross-dresser's upbeat essence and smile. "I missed you too Nuriko—I'm very happy to be back with all of my friends!"

The whole performance that that purple-haired chump was playing instantly put a sour expression on my face. "Yo, Nuriko!"

Still holding onto my kohai's hands, the guy quickly turned his head to me as his grin transformed into a sly one. "You called?~"

"Why is it that when _I_ showed up, you grilled _me_ for being late—but when Miaka comes along, you treat her _way_ more hospitably?" Not only did he come storming towards me, knocking away any guard that was in his path, but he began spouting nonsense about not writing a letter to tell him, specifically, that I wasn't raped or molested.

Chuckling, he told me, "Simply because she's way more sweet and a significantly better sport than you my dear Aki." While I couldn't wipe the still bitter look on my face, I had to admire his honesty.

"Onee-chan?" Looking over at Miaka, I realized that I once again had to get used to the honorific she had given me thanks to my rescuing her and her teddy bear when she was just a little girl. It didn't bother me as much as it used to, but it still did to some extent. Every time she would use the "older sister" honorific on me, I'd just recall all of those times she had been incredibly clingy and dependent. "I felt really bad for just leaving you here when I left—you could have come home with me."

_Believe me, there really wouldn't have been much of a home to go back to. _Besides that, the portal would have most likely dropped me off with her in Japan, when in actuality I was staying in America. Sure my parents were still in Japan, but there was no way in Hell that I would recreationally make a visit to them. Waving my hand at her in a "don't worry about me" style, I gave a small smile. "I wanted to stay, remember? So it's really no big." There was definitely enough going on around the world of the _Universe of the Four Gods _that kept me busy for a while.

"Well…if you say so." Her eyes trailing up and down my form, something lit up in her optimistic olive-green eyes. Her intense observance made me only cling onto the flower's stem even more to make sure that I wouldn't accidentally drop it. "I just noticed your new outfit! It's really awesome looking—like you're at some Chinese festival or something! Something that cool could only really look great on you Aki-nee-chan!" I didn't really want to think about it much, but something about that last comment reminded me all too much about the somewhat dimwitted and too-easily swooned fan-girls from Ouran. Before I even had a chance to thank her or even respond, I noticed a slight change in her tone—almost melancholy—as she let go of Nuriko's hands. "And your hair…it's longer. It's not as long as when we were younger, but I can see that you're growing it out again." She gave me a meaningful look. "I remember when you first cut short…after _that_ happened…with Senpai…."

Unlike every person that I had met on my journey, Miaka was the only person who had known me long enough to be aware of some of the things I had went through while growing up. The girl knew Kajou, even though my older sister wasn't too fond of her—she would tell me that Miaka wasn't really worth my time. However, I was still in Japan at the time and she was around when Kajou died—she knew that I had cut my hair in mourning, never allowing it to grow out for years. Seeing as how my hair was getting longer again, there was a chance that she figured that I was finally over her death. Truth was I'd probably never be over it, but I didn't see a legitimate reason as to why I shouldn't grow my hair out again.

Spazzing out again, Miaka laughed nervously, probably figuring that she hurt my feelings. As long as she didn't reveal more than she had to about my personal life, I didn't necessarily mind what she said. "I'm not saying that it looks bad! I'm just surprised is all! Unless it offends you that I'm surprised! It looks nice! I think it's cute! I—"

Putting my finger over her lips, I decided to end her mild freak out before it became too eccentric. "Miaka, take a breath, and calm down." Feeling the vibrations from her chest rising and falling, I was fortunate in seeing that she took my advice.

Drooping her shoulders, she hung her head low and said, "Sorry about that…" Finally, by brain clicked as I observed this whole situation: Miaka arriving from a flash of red light with an outrageously huge backpack? That was exactly what I saw in my vision before leaving Tasuki behind! Absolutely everything was the same. Before, I had originally thought that my visions were of events that were occurring at the time of the vision. That was how it worked all of the other times (minus the Yui incident). But this particular situation was leading me onto believe that I was also capable of premonitions of the future as well! _Huh…If that's the case, then it's going to be a real pain when it comes to deciphering whether or not what I see is in the future. _There was a chance that I'd just be scrambling around for something that I thought was happening presently but wasn't actually happening until later.

Boy did I wish that this was the sort of ability that was more consistent.

With the topic of visions coming up, I decided to just go for it and ask her the question that had been bothering me for a while. "Hey Miaka? Did you happen to see Yui at all while you were at home? Just curious…"

She shook her head as the sullen expression returned to her. "No. And I tried calling her house and even looking for her—she wasn't even in the library anymore." Yui Hongo had been Miaka's best friend for quite some years, though I didn't know exactly how long since I didn't particularly care at the time. Although, I did know that they became friends a little after I came along to her rescue. While I was thankful that she did find someone else to be clingy with, it never exactly failed to get her _completely_ off of my back. Yui and I hadn't exactly been close, but she acknowledged that Miaka looked up to me and I was grateful to her for looking after the girl when I either wasn't there or didn't want to. "I heard her voice before I got back—when we were at Mt. Taikyoku. But when I was leaving, I thought I saw some blue light fly past me in the opposite direction." _Blue light? _What could that have been? "I didn't think anything of it at the time. But as I got more and more worried about where she could be, I started to think that maybe…maybe…"

Maybe she was trapped somewhere in the _Universe of the Four Gods. _So…Miaka was thinking the exact same thing I was. Turned out that she was a bit more perceptive than I initially made her out to be. But of course that brought up the question:

_Why can't I be wrong about these things? _

If that blue light had indeed been Yui who was exchanged for Miaka, then that would have meant that Yui was stuck in this world for three months! _Oh my God… _Who knew the sort of things that could have happened to her in that time? Seeing as how distraught Miaka was about the whole thing, I decided to just not inform her about the vision I had—the same one that turned out to probably have something to do with Yui's being in that world.

And I did absolutely nothing about it.

Praying silently to myself, I put my hopeful thoughts out towards the universe. _Please let her be alright!_

"Miaka…" Hotohori's serious voice came through while the two of us got misplaced in our thoughts of the lost girl. Both of us and Nuriko all turned our attention to the emperor. "I am very sorry that you have not been able to locate your friend—had our country not been in danger at the present moment, I would dedicate myself to search high and low for her."

With a blank look on her face, the girl asked, "Umm…danger? The country is in danger? What kind of danger?"

Nuriko answered with, "Our neighboring, not to mention _rival_ country Kutou had declared war on Konan a while ago." He shrugged. "So things are probably not going to be very pleasant for a while—you know, country wise."

Eyes growing wide, Miaka grasped, continuously turning her head to both Nuriko and Hotohori. "Are you serious? A war? A real _war_ war? "

I couldn't help it—the opportunity was too great—she set me up _way_ too well for what I was about to say. Scoffing, I told her sarcastically, "No Miaka, when he says war, he just means a huge global event on World of Warcraft—'cause you know how big a game that is in a world like this."

Just when I thought that she couldn't get any more gullible, she instantly perked up and completely went along with what I said. Wiping the sweat off of her brow, she clapped her hands once and started talking quickly. "Oh wow, you guys really had me worried there! Let me tell you—I really loved playing WoW. A few years ago, I would play it almost all of the time—even at school when the teachers weren't looking. Yui forced me to stop playing since my grades were slipping even more than they were. She literally grabbed me by the ear—"

"They aren't playing WoW you ditz!" I yelled in her face, praying to myself that she wasn't actually serious about thinking that this world had an RPG let alone the kind of technology for computers to be possible. "Focus Miaka—of course they are talking about a real war. Does Hotohori really seem like the type of person to kid about something like that?"

Putting an innocent finger over her lips, Miaka's eyes slowly trailed over to the emperor (who was probably staring at the two of us due to our futuristic topic conversation). "No…I guess not." _Nuriko? Probably. But Hotohori wouldn't do that._ "Really Onee-chan, you got me worked up over something like a game—when in reality, things are much, much worse." Narrowing my eyes at her, I thought, _You got yourself worked up._ "Now I sort of wish it was a game…if a war is going on, then that's awful…"

Clearing his throat rather loudly, the attention of the room quickly switched back to Hotohori. "Yes well…now that that is out of the way…" Realizing the show we must have put on for him, a small blush appeared on my face. If my self-control weren't intact, I'd probably burst out laughing from embarrassment. "I must stress the importance of the situation towards Miaka." He looked directly at her. "I don't mean to pressure you but the country desperately needs you to complete your celestial duties in order for our future too look bright. I feel that situations might become dire so you must summon Suzaku and ask of him his power to ensure the safety of this land." Not to mention the fact that the threat of another priestess was rearing its ugly head. Now that we knew that the probability of Yui being in that world was pretty darn high, it was also a pretty safe bet that she was in line to become the Priestess of Seiryuu just like I was (except my answer to that would have been a big fat "hell no!").

Realizing how calamitous the situation may turn out, I knew that I had to do something before things got out of hand. If I just looked for Yui and brought her back, then everything would be fine and there would be nothing to worry about (except the war…but really, focusing on one problem at a time was best). Considering everything that was going on, and because of the new priestess threat, Kutou wouldn't have been a bad place to begin my search.

Nuriko may have said before that two priestesses at once wasn't possible, but I preferred to be a bit more on the cautious side of things (which was pretty smart when it came to my luck with the universe). The vision I had about Yui three months prior may have been hazy at best—not to mention completely interrupted by some outside force—I had to act on it in any way I could and try to prevent anything horrible that might happen—or take responsibility for it.

In the end, my decision had been to temporarily dismiss myself from the group when I had the chance and go look for Yui. Right when we were able to get Tamahome back, I'd be surer of Miaka's protection—so that would be when I'd leave.

"I made a promise to you guys…" Miaka proclaimed, determination sparkling in her eyes. "So even though it might be harder than taking the entrance exams to Jonan Academy—which I hadn't even taken yet—I will do my best to help you all out." Scanning the room for the rest of us, she smiled. "After all, you are all so kind and have been so hospitable—I wouldn't want anything bad to happen." It was then that her atmosphere turned to confusion as she seemed to be looking for something—or _someone_—in the room. "Huh…I wonder…"

"What is it Miaka? You seem bewildered…" Hotohori observed.

"Well," She started, "if it's necessary for me to summon Suzaku, then I need all of the warriors, right? Then we're gonna need Tamahome!" The emperor, Nuriko, and I all exchanged glances to each other. While it did take a while for her to even notice that he wasn't around (not that it wasn't her fault, she was distracted), the three of us had failed to even bring up that he wasn't there or anywhere in the palace. We should have anticipated her wondering his whereabouts sooner or later. Right when one of us was about to explain what was going on, she completely turned her body around and faced the doors. "No need to go anywhere guys, I'll just go find him and bring him back so that we can plan our next action." Running at top speed, you could faintly hear her say, "Be back in a flash!" The three of us just stood there, staring at the spot she just suddenly dashed from.

Sighing in exasperation, Hotohori said, "Miaka…"

Heading towards the exit myself, I held a hand up to him to signal that he should just stay in his spot. "I'll take care of it."

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><p>"Tamahome! Tamahome!" Miaka ran up and down the hallways, making sure (the best that she could) to not bump into anybody and cause them to fall down (it was actually hard to tell if she actually knew where she was going or not. After all, she had just as much experience with that place that I had (okay, maybe I had a little more time) so she was probably just acting on blind instinct—which usually didn't work…not for her anyway). The girl had been looking forward to seeing him the most and it somewhat (probably) shocked her that he wasn't there to welcome her back like the three of us had been. Luckily, though, she had enough decency to not barge into every room—without knocking—while looking for him. "Tamahome! Where are you? Come out come out wherever you are!"<p>

Being the person that I was, I had been sitting on one of the roofs for a while, ever since I located her, and decided to just see how long she was willing to keep up the meaningless search. This kind of dramatic irony was pretty entertaining to me—yes, I could be evil sometimes and I admit it. But also being quick to boredom, I put it on myself to stop this feat before the poor girl tired herself out and demanded a truckload of food. Oh wait—she'd do that anyway.

Making sure not to make the same mistake twice, I quickly took a trip back to my room and set the flower near my mirror, just in case I wanted to ponder more on its origins later. Those particular answers just didn't seem important enough at the moment.

Flying down right in front of her, the absentminded Miaka didn't look where she was going and ended up crashing right into me, resulting in her falling right to the ground. I, on the other hand, hand the opportunity to brace myself before the impact so all went well.

"Oww!" Rubbing her bottom, she looked up at me with baffled eyes. "Aki-nee-chan! I can't find Tamahome anywhere!"

Nonchalantly turning my head to the side, I scratched the side of my cheek. "That's probably because he isn't here…He left a while ago."

"What?" Jumping onto her feet, the volume in her voice rose. "Onee-chan! Why didn't you tell me before?"

Putting my hands on my waist, I retorted with, "Well you sort of bolted out of the throne room without warning—how could I have gotten a chance?"

Out of nowhere, Nuriko's feminine voice came in from behind. "I'd say that you had _plenty_ of time to tell her what was going on." Appearing at my side, his tone had a somewhat know-it-all edge to it. "After all, you _were_ watching her for quite a while, weren't you?" With my mouth gaping out at him from disbelief, fantasies of me driving him into the dirt in a plethora of ways played blissfully in my mind.

Eyes growing larger with tears forming in her eyes, she gave me a pitiful expression while biting a white handkerchief that came out from some mysterious spot. "Onee-chan?"

Not particularly feeling as if I should justify myself in this situation, something occurred to me. Extending my arm out towards him, I accused Nuriko. "Wait a second…the only way you could possibly know that I was doing that would be if you were looking at me from a well enough spot. Which probably means that you had a pretty nice view of Miaka as well."

The young girl turned to the cross-dresser, her teeth never letting go of the material. "Nuriko?"

Taken aback, he quickly tried to come up with an argument that would assist him in this situation. Looking down into Miaka's big, pouting eyes, his eye twitched in defeat since he had absolutely nothing to really respond with. Now ordinarily, I was sure that Nuriko would have had plenty to say, but with the look that Miaka was giving him, he pretty much broke down like most people would. Yui and I were more used to her doing things like that so it didn't affect us as much as it could have.

Finally coming up with something, he scoffed and replied, "I don't have to justify myself to _you_—I could have been just rounding the corner for all you know." What I didn't expect was for him to flick me in the forehead like he had done before (happy that he held back on his monstrous strength)—the stinging sensation led to me instantly reaching for my head and tended to it, giving him a "WTF" look. "Besides, we need to focus on the issue at hand—"

"Yeah!" We hadn't even noticed it, but the handkerchief had already disappeared back from wherever it came from. "Like the fact that Tamahome left me…" Miaka sullenly noted. "Why would he do that? Why wouldn't he wait?"

Hearing the sadness in her voice, Nuriko held up from his attitude and softened towards her. "It's not anything worth worrying about Miaka—I guarantee you that Tama-kins is absolutely crazy about you."

Skepticism still hanging on her words, something occurred through her mind as she tried to think things through. "If that's true—"

Grabbing her by the back of her collar, I began to drag her back towards the throne room. "We can discuss the emotional and psychological reasons regarding his actions later. But now, there are some things that need to be discussed with Hotohori."

Following not too far behind, Nuriko decided to have his word in with Miaka as she was being forced against her will. Amusement could be heard as it was slathered onto his tenor. "You see how touchy she gets when it comes to talking about matters of the heart?"

Miaka shrugged and gave a smile, never resisting or questioning my abrasiveness. "She's always been like that—but I don't mind. I still look up to her as my older sister and I love her for that!" Ordinarily, I'd cringe or react in an awkward manner (like lose my composure) if anyone ever said something like that about me. But this was Miaka—who was the same little girl all those years ago who became my substitute shadow. There was one thing she was right about though: I never really talked sentimentally with her—I barely did with anyone. But since it had usually been my goal in the past to "lose" her somehow, I never exactly thought of her enough as a friend to have heart-to-heart conversations with her. Oddly enough, she was never really offended by that characteristic about me and accepted me anyway. While it would have been relatively easy to get rid of her, some part of me decided to just keep her around since, at the time, it was only her and Kajou who could stand being around me after long periods of time.

Once we returned back to the throne room, I released my kohai, only to cross my arms and face the awaiting emperor with indifference. "I apologize for the wait Hotohori. Miaka can be…overly _zealous_ sometimes."

He actually chuckled at that a bit._ I wonder if he found all of this funny. _"It's quite alright Akimoto—I sort of missed these instances of high energy as well as the antics that went on here with you all around." _So this is how he gets his kicks, huh? _

"Well on another note," I began, "I'd like to make a request—if it isn't too much trouble."

His eyebrow cocked up. "I'll see what I can do…what is it?"

"I know that Miaka has a bunch of priestess stuff to do starting probably as soon as possible, so before she has to do whatever needs to be done—or even before going on the great trek for the other warriors, can't we take some time out to find Tamahome?" Glancing back at her hopeful eyes, I continued with, "I'd say that that would be top priority for her before getting into how to deal with the war and other Suzaku stuff." Not only that but she'd have a horrible time trying to concentrate if we had decided to put off this Tamahome thing much longer.

Stroking his chin, Hotohori answered with, "I do suppose that that would be the wisest way to accomplish things more efficiently." He nodded. "So it's decided then—I will assist you on your search—"

"Your Highness! You mustn't!" One of the ambiguous guards from behind called out, reminding us that there were other people in the room besides the four of us. "Your country needs you to remain here just in case something unfolds with Kutou." Well that made sense…where would they be without their emperor after all? If an enemy country ever heard that the one they were fighting suddenly walked away from their post, of course they would take the opportunity to attack.

Disappointment riddled onto Hotohori's features, Nuriko was probably the first to notice since he spoke up eagerly. "Think nothing of it Your Majesty! You shouldn't be troubled with such a small task anyway. I'll tag along with Aki and Miaka to get dear Tama-kins back!"

"Are you sure Nuriko? I wouldn't want to trouble you…"

Nuriko giggled like a little girl before his reply. "Oh it's no trouble at all! I'd be happy to do it! Plus traveling with friends makes it all the more fun." Snapping his head back at Miaka and I he asked, "Right girls?"

Miaka nodded genuinely. "Of course! I'm happy to have you come with us!"

I, however, nodded slowly and gave a more sarcastic answer. "Uh…huh…'Fun' was _exactly_ the word that I wanted use when describing an outing with Nuriko."

Ignoring my stab at him, the feminine guy put his attention back onto the emperor. "See? Everything will be just fine!"

"So be it then," Addressing all of us, Hotohori had decided on the way things were going to go. "You shall leave first thing in the morning—that way, you all will have time to prepare."

"Prepare?" I spat out, not caring about how unprofessional I sounded. "No disrespect Hotohori, but I don't think that it will really take _that_ much to do what we need to do. I mean, yeah, Tamahome left the palace. But I really doubt that he went far if he was positive that Miaka would be back eventually." Knowing how much he cared for her, he would have anticipated her return even without knowing how long it would honestly take. "We can take some stuff with us, but I don't think we'll be gone that long—call it a hunch. And also, why should we put off something for tomorrow when we can just get it done today?" The faster we got that guy back, the faster we could finally start getting things—such as summoning Suzaku—done for real.

"You seem really eager to go through with this mission Akimoto," Hotohori said in slight surprise.

"Yeah…" Nuriko came up to me and eyed me in a suspicious way. "A little _too_ eager. I'd expect Miaka being a little more optimistic with this plan—not you. So what do you have _planned_?"

Making sure that my expression remained unfazed, I simply replied, "There's no hidden agenda—I just want him back soon, safe and sound, and so that he can be happily with our priestess is all." Giving the cross-dresser a slight, almost unnoticeable glare, I added, "Nothing wrong with wanting that—is there?"

Before Nuriko could be predictable and start an unnecessary scene, Miaka cut in. "Of course there isn't! It makes me really happy to know that you want to help me out this much Onee-chan! Thank you! I also think that we should leave quickly!" Right when we managed to re-recruit Tamahome, I'd be able to go off on my own and find Yui. It would have been best to have Miaka worry more about her duties than to be constantly wondering about her friend. If she were to just leave that to me, then things would be just fine. "We really need Tamahome back—not just 'cause I want him back, but with his help, I know that we can save everybody…especially Yui…I'd hate for her to get caught up in the cruelness of a war…" I knew for a fact that Miaka really cared about Yui—they were kindred spirits. She may have put up a cheery demeanor, but she was probably _real_ torn inside for not knowing where the other girl was at…

Facing Hotohori once again, I asked, "So how's about it? We leave today?"

He pondered on it. "If everyone is in agreement, then okay. I didn't exactly condone Tamahome leaving at such a significant time, but it wouldn't have been moral to confine him here against his own will for my own personal standings. And now his priestess calls out for him—it is his honored duty, so retrieving him as soon as possible would be best for everyone." I nodded, triumphantly, along with his ruling. It was only a matter of time before Miaka and I would see Yui again, but I wasn't there yet—I had to be patient. _But great. Once this is all over, I'll have _two_ underclassmen that I have to look out for while being in this world—two girls that shouldn't have even been here in the first place! _

_Whatever._

At least I'd be more at ease when I knew that that girl was alright and out of harm's way. _I'll complain about how I have to put my own personal mission aside for the survival of two other girls later_.

* * *

><p>"Wow Nuriko! I didn't expect you to dress like that!"<p>

About an hour or so later, the three of us who were planned to go on the trek to take back our missing comrade met up at the entrance of the palace. We were only planning on taking a few essentials to sleep with as well as one of Hotohori's thoroughbred horses which he graciously offered to us. With my levitation ability, I didn't need to ride on the dark grey-furred, black mane animal, but Nuriko and Miaka needed to get around quickly and that was the way to do it.

Right as things were getting prepared, Nuriko suddenly showed up appearing in a _completely_ unexpected way! For once, he was wearing a man's outfit—it was a magenta long-sleeved Chinese-type shirt that went down past his knees but was slit on the left side. The lining was both white and green except for his cuffs which were just white. At his lower torso was a yellow wrap that tied in the font. He wore eggshell yellow pants that hugged his legs a bit and was wrapped with a green ribbon near the ends on both legs. His shoes were burgundy flats, making it easy for mobility. We were also surprised to see that his violet hair wasn't all fancy and done like it had been in his harem clothes. It was just in a simple, loose braided ponytail that went past his waist which he had sported in the front—his bangs still remained pretty styled, however.

Overall, I was impressed since I didn't exactly think it was capable for him to purposely dress like a guy. While his face still looked pretty feminine, this particular get-up revealed that he didn't in fact have any curves or a prominent chest like a woman would. He wasn't even wearing lipstick anymore!

Miaka seemed more than thrilled to see her companion look the way he did. Rushing over to him, she hugged his arm. "We hardly recognized you now that you decided to dress more like a boy!"

With indifference, he just shrugged it off. "I thought that I'd be less obvious if I went around dressed this way. Besides, it would be harder to really get anything done like defending you if I went out in my palace clothing." He tossed me a look. "The idea was mostly inspired by the outfit I chose for Aki—why should she be the only one with the advantage?" It was true—Nuriko had given me an outfit that made it much easier to move around at times when I really needed to. The feminine robes he used to wear probably would have made fighting a bit more difficult.

Coming up from behind, Hotohori gently put his hands onto Miaka's shoulders, slowly turning her around to face him. Gazing down into her eyes, he said, "Miaka, I sincerely pray that you stay safe. Even if we are not going to be apart for a significantly long time, I still worry about you constantly."

"Don't worry Hotohori, I'll be fine," she said with a sure smile. "I have both Nuriko and Aki-nee-chan to look after me and I have faith in them. We'll bring Tamahome back in no time! I guarantee it!"

Giving her shoulders a slight squeeze, he went on to inform us on something with slight reluctance. "We have been given reports about Kutou spies that have been sent here for sabotage—no doubt that they'd come after you as well. So be extra cautious…"

Leaning against one of the walls with my arms crossed as I watched the exchange of words between my friends, I finally decided to speak up with my input. "To be honest, I never exactly expected everything to go completely smoothly—in fact, I'd be a bit suspicious if absolutely _nothing_ happened." While I was never completely sure on how the universe would make things more difficult for me, it almost _never_ failed to do something to make my life more _eventful_. I'd just have to keep an eye on Miaka to make sure that nothing or no one snatches her up. The thing was, I wasn't exactly all that worried about facing a bunch of powerless humans who thought they stood a chance. Compared to the things I dealt with in that maze as well as dealing with Shadow Maidens, the thought of some "spies" didn't really come off as a threat.

"Jeez," Nuriko tsked in response to my words. "Leave it to Miss Optimism to jinx us before we even leave." _I was just being realistic. _

"Don't worry Nuriko," Miaka smiled over at me, "She means well."

Next, Hotohori felt that he should have some parting words for me as well. "While I do hope for you to stay safe Akimoto, I also ask that you take good care of our priestess—you _and_ Nuriko that is." _Well it is sort of his celestial job. _Instead of giving a reply, I just nodded and gave him a knowing glance—I didn't exactly need him to give me such an obvious command (I mean, _of course_ I'd look after her), but I supposed that it was sweet of him to want his love to be looked after.

After Nuriko got up onto the tall creature, taking the reins, Hotohori took Miaka by the waist and helped her up in the back of our purple-haired companion. To hide her identity until we successfully left the city and most residences around the capital, the emperor gave Miaka a dark beige cloak to conceal herself from potential enemy eyes.

"Miaka, make sure that you keep your eyes on the item that I handed you," Hotohori told her in a somewhat hushed voice. This peaked my interest a bit. _Item? _"It should help you on your quest."

"I will, thank you."

Noticing me all by my lonesome on the side, the considerate ruler of the country decided to walk over to my side. "Are you certain that you wouldn't like to ride one of my horses as well? I would be more than happy to lend one to you."

Appreciative of his thoughtfulness, I couldn't help but let out a small giggle. "No it's okay—I'm more used to flying around anyway." To add onto that, I wasn't all that comfortable with horses—something about them freaked me out and/or bothered a bit. It was their size, their smell, or the somewhat freakish way they looked close up. Far away, they were fine and majestic (I supposed) to look at. I just didn't want them near me if I was able to avoid it.

"You sure Aki?" Nuriko called back to me. "Miaka's wearing a cloak, and I had to change my clothes to avoid turning heads. Don't you think that a flying person will grab the attention of a couple…_thousand_ people?"

Thinking over his actually rational reasoning's, it didn't exactly take much to come up with a valid solution. "I'll just fly high enough so that no one can see me—or high enough to where people wouldn't expect _to_ see me. And once we get far enough, I'll fly low enough to assist you two." The more I thought about it, though, the more it came to my attention how even my liftoff would turn some heads. Someone somewhere would spot me and probably end up pointing, causing an annoying domino effect where everyone would once again stop what they were doing and look up. My flying upwards in combination with a royal horse trotting at full speed would have definitely looked suspicious to any enemy eyes that might have been observing.

Damn he had a point.

_But I REALLY don't want to ride on a horse! _

"Come on Aki! What's the holdup?" Nuriko called out. "We have to get a move on if we're gonna find Tama-kins!"

"Yeah…" My eyes uncomfortably trailed away as the thought of me riding a horse crossed my mind. There was a reason as to why I was keeping a well enough distance from it.

Hotohori offered, "Akimoto, if you would like me to fetch a horse for you—"

"No, no!" I uncharacteristically shouted out, earning me questionable looks from my three companions. To hide my obvious anxious attitude towards the beast, I quickly thought of a beneficial solution. "H-How about I just conceal our parting?" Before they could even ask how, I continued. "I have a spell that can make an area covered with fog, and only the people who I wish will be able to see past it. Once we're out of range, I'll let it up." The people might get a bit confused from the sudden weather change, but at least they wouldn't know the origin of the phenomenon. Anything to make it so that I wouldn't have to get near that unnaturally faced animal.

"Umm…doesn't that measure seem a bit…extreme?" Hotohori asked. Hopefully he wasn't catching onto why I'd rather take the long way around. "It'd be no trouble to just—"

"No, no—I'll handle it…" Focusing on the millions of droplets of Water in the air, I gathered my energy as I scanned the area to estimate just how far the spell should cast. _To where all of those people are coming in and out would be an appropriate place to cut-off. _The spell I was about to use was one of the first ones I had come up with before becoming a Master but after becoming an Element Tamer during my magic training—before I even had that spell book that Taiitsukun gave me to study. I had decided to be somewhat clever and use the planets as a sort of basis for the names of the attacks—it was an astrology thing (you know, how they are supposed to be in relation to an element). Looking back on it, the idea was sort of lame (even if I was fond of my creations), but far be it from me to change their names after all this time. This particular spell centered around the planet closest to the sun. _"Mercury Bubbles!" _Cupping my hands together, magical bubbles grouped themselves together in my hands mixed with a ball of light. Shifting to make my arms cross in front of my face, the ball of light that contained the bubbles floated in front of my lifted hands before I completed the spell. _"Blast!" _Right as I said that, my arms stretched out wide to the sides as the bubbles released themselves across the land, each bursting suddenly to form a dense fog, seen by only the people of my choosing.

Having a hand visor on her brow, Miaka switched her head in different directions, sort of like a bird. "I don't see anything."

"Yeah, the light show was nice and all, but I think your spell was a dud," Nuriko added on plainly before perking up a bit. "But nice try though!"

Sending a deathly look his way, I persisted while trying to not let him get to me. "Like I said before, the spell is based on my preferences, so obviously I want you guys to have perfect eyesight. _They_ on the other hand…" Pointing my thumb to the civilians, I said, "are completely confused in a thick mist and have absolutely no idea. So now would be a good time to go." Lifting myself into the air, I felt that if I didn't finally take the first step (in the figurative sense) towards our destination, then we'd still be in that same spot listening to the somewhat over-protective Hotohori. Ascending more and more, the fear of people seeing me with the spell still intact completely nullified, I yelled down to them. "See you guys on the other side!"

* * *

><p>The three of us were successfully out of the city, allowing me to finally release the fog and let the people wallow in their own confusion. If they had only learned to mind their own business and not gawk at every little unnatural thing, I wouldn't have had to charm them.<p>

For the majority of the day, we had just traveled on the road, going wherever we thought would be more productive. With all of the people out of the way, I was able to fly low enough to communicate verbally with Miaka and Nuriko who were speeding on that well-trained stallion. It was hard to say exactly how many miles per hour we were traveling at (I could have gone a whole lot faster using _Ray Wing_ like I had before), but we were probably making good time. As Miaka clutched to Nuriko by the waist, she made sure to be careful and do her best by trying to make sure that the cloak stayed on. Personally, I would have thought that she was in the clear to where she could voluntarily take it off, but I supposed that if she wanted to add some extra caution to the mix, that was good too.

Off in the distance the sun was beginning to set, setting a warm, off-orange-ish tone to the world around us, causing our shadows to trail constantly behind. The greenery was steadily increasing all around us the farther down the trail we went, eventually leading us into a somewhat lush, yet easy to manage through forest. The rays from the setting sun shone through the branches providing a pleasant guide on our path.

Ever since we left, there had been something that was growing increasingly on my nerves. Turning my head to the side to face Nuriko, I revealed in the feeling of the pleasant wind flying past my locks. "Hey Nuriko, just wondering, but how exactly are we supposed to find a person when we actually have absolutely no idea where they went?" Of course, the guy could have asked Tamahome before he left, but I sort of doubted that he did. "Because I don't know if you noticed, but your whole theory about Tama coming back the moment Miaka did was sort of disproven."

Since he was the one controlling the fast-paced horse, he couldn't exactly switch his full attention to me with complete body expression and all, so he just flashed me a slight look with his pink eyes to show me that he acknowledged my talking. "Well apparently, we have to put a bit more of an effort into it than that." He chuckled as the conversation topic seemed to amuse him. "A little kid may be able to smell the sweets, but you have to be in range for it to work effectively and draw him in." This was pertaining to the little reoccurring inside joke that he and I had about Tamahome being a little kid. Of course he wasn't—in fact he looked _all_ man to me, but in many situations, the little kid metaphor worked—Miaka usually acting as the candy or sweets. "He'll show up."

Even with her face somewhat hidden, I could tell that the girl hanging onto him had a melancholy to her. "I still can't see why Tamahome would just leave like that…when I need him…"

Nuriko's smile widened a bit. "I'm pretty sure that he didn't want to leave—after all, he is in love with you."

Her grip around his waist tightened a bit. "No he doesn't…He told me flat to my face that he didn't feel that strongly about me…" _Huh…I sort of remember that…_Even though I wasn't there to witness her confession and his rejection, I saw it in a vision that ultimately led to her becoming sick. The vision was there, most likely, to warn me of her health and get her some proper assistance. But the primary dramatic scene did reveal that the guy didn't want to have a relationship with her at the time. However it was even more obvious how much in deep denial he was.

"He only said that because he was probably working through his own feelings," Nuriko told him. "There's a good chance that Tama-kins didn't know what love felt like and it sort of hit him kind of fast. You can't completely blame the guy for not being able to acknowledge strong feelings like that." He looked over at me slightly, who was rather surprised at how sensitive and sympathetic he was being towards Miaka's feelings. "Hey Aki, tell her the kind of condition he was in before you two left."

Recalling the pathetic memory tempted me to almost laugh out loud. "Oh yeah, that boy was so, so-so _sad_. I mean, messed up can't even describe how out of it he was when you left. It was like his whole world went all screwy 'cause you weren't there to set things straight."

A tint of hope could be heard in her voice as her head snapped up eagerly. "R-Really?"

I gave her a confident smile. "The guy chewed on plates Miaka."

"You see? He does love you—more than you know!" Nuriko guaranteed.

Miaka's face soon fell again. "But still…" I sighed. _Of course there is a "but". _"It would have been nice to have his smile be the first one I saw when I came back." For some reason, my mind instantly traveled towards Hotohori. He was thrilled that Miaka had returned, and yet her thoughts and affections were really centered on Tamahome. Does anyone else see any more drama headed our way anytime soon? If you do, please tell me so that I can find a route around it all.

"Well Miaka," I began, tearing myself from my thoughts of the emperor and the impending drama. "To be truthful, you weren't exactly here _to_ need him. Besides, dude isn't psychic—he couldn't have possibly known that it would be three months until you came back."

"Whoa! Three months?" She shockingly exclaimed, practically jumping off of the fast-paced horse. _How else did she think my hair got so long?_ Nuriko and I must have been thinking something similar at that loud assessment of hers. None of us had informed Miaka of the time that had gone by since the point of her return—it wasn't exactly surprising that she'd react like that.

Nuriko nodded. "Yeah, three months went by while you were gone—seems like a long time, doesn't it?" I wouldn't exactly have known, after all, the way time flowed in the maze was a bit skewed in comparison to the _Universe of the Four Gods _as a whole—then again, mine and Miaka's world was supposedly _more_ out of sync with the time flow of the world we were presently in.

"I can't believe that it's been three months! No wonder he left…" She was probably referring to Tamahome. "But who would have guessed? I mean only about a day and a half went by in my world."

My head snapped to face her. "Seriously? Just a day and a half?" _Man! Even the maze had us go through a few weeks…but just barely two days? _A part of that reality was kind of funny the more I thought about it. Because technically, I'd barely been missing any school at all! Catching up would be a breeze if I ever ended up going back. "Well, like myself, Tamahome obviously needed to pass the time somehow—probably making a quick buck somewhere."

"Like…yourself?" Another thing that I had forgot to inform the girl of before was of everything I had been through while I was gone—I had to remember that she wasn't there for the debriefing I gave to Nuriko and Hotohori when I returned. "You mean that you went somewhere too Onee-chan? If you weren't staying in the palace, then what exactly have you been doing in all that time?"

For the longest time, I had been in some stupid, universe formulated maze that tried to kill me on multiple occasions while looking for some flower that never seemed to get any closer the deeper we went in. Reminiscing on those "happy" times yet again didn't exactly sit right in my stomach, not when I had just relived the whole thing to Nuriko and Hotohori the day before. So I simply told her flatly, "I'll tell you about it later." The headache wasn't worth it at the moment.

All of a sudden, the woods we were in began to get darker and darker without any warning whatsoever. The rays from the sun seemed to have lowered all the way down as if they were one of those dimming light switches. _Okay…that's…odd…_The road ahead of us was becoming more and more discernible as the last bit of light was completely consumed.

Nuriko also apparently thought the whole situation weird. "What's going on? It doesn't usually become dark this quickly…" It wasn't just dark—it was becoming pitch dark. Last time I checked, the earth wasn't traveling so fast around the sun that it would set so darn suddenly—if it had, the days would only be about five hours long, maybe shorter.

Gathering a small amount of energy, I brought my hands together, leaving about a foot of distance in between. _"Light of life, brighter than flame, Let thy power gather in my hand." _Immediately after, a small sphere of white light formed in mid-air as I completed, "_Lighting!" _ The sphere grew to about the size of a softball, but the light it gave off paralleled the luminescence of a well-powered flashlight, allowing us to be able to see the path ahead once more.

"Good job Aki! See I knew we keep you around for something!" Nuriko praised. I, of course, grimaced at the comment. _You keep saying that…_Becoming slightly more serious, he added, "But really, we shouldn't have needed you to do that—something is definitely up." My internal alarm system had been triggered by this point, leading me to think that not only were we about to face something, but that we were probably no longer alone.

"What do you think is going on Nuriko?" Miaka asked, as she looked around.

Instead of him answering, I responded in his place, offering a valid argument. "It probably isn't wise to keep going on blindly like this Nuriko—it's not safe." Even with whatever was happening, the guy still persisted with having the horse go further and further into the unknown. Since he was actually a pretty thoughtful guy, despite the way he normally acted around me, he was probably trying to mull over in his mind why the atmospheric tendencies altered so abruptly and how to deal with it.

But before he even had a proper chance to pitch his ideas to me, some foreign object whipped past me, just barely missing my skin, but I could clearly feel the sharp wind that followed along with it. Having my concentration completely interrupted, I stopped immediately mid-flight as the ball of light fizzled out, levitating above the ground as I scanned around to try and find whatever the heck that was.

Still able to hear constantly fast gallops, I knew that Nuriko and Miaka were still on their way forward, not able to stop their horse as quickly as I was able to stop with my magic.

"Aki, what's wrong?" Nuriko yelled back at me right as something spooked the horse, prompting it to neigh uncontrollably, followed by a loud thud on the ground beside it. _What happened? _It was much too difficult to see with the lack of lighting in the area. It didn't take long for Nuriko to call out, "Miaka! Are you alright?" My eyes widened at the thought of the girl being hurt. _Miaka! _If the horse was scared by something chances were that it went back on its hind legs and kicked its front ones as it tried to fend off the danger. Whenever I saw something like that in a TV show or movie, the person riding said horse would fall off. Perhaps…that was the thud I heard?

Through the darkness, I heard Miaka try to fend someone away from her. "What's the big idea? You'd better stay away!"

Then a voice replied threateningly, "Who are you? You have no purpose here—either leave or be prepared to fight back!" _Not unless you wanna deal with me! _Dashing over with levitation, I rode the air currents to bring me to our unrevealed enemy. Focusing on Fire, I clenched my fist to collect my flaming energy. Yellow and off-white, reddish lightening bolts surged around my hand. All at once, a spherical flame ignited in my palm, right as I wound it up with my arm extended back to prepare for the blast. The glow from the condensed energy lit up the spot I was in, giving the place a dim scarlet lighting, helping me to navigate towards my victim.

Landing in back of Miaka's potential assassin, I brought my arm forward, ready to attack—the whole process seeming like it was happening in slow motion. Just before I could release, I began to say, _"Fireba—" _I immediately stopped in the pose I was in, careful not to do anything rash as I got a good look at the face of the person I was about to attack. The radiance from the _Fireball _gave off just enough light for me to fully discern who he was. Even with the red luminescence, his dark teal hair and violet eyes still managed to find a way to click through my brain.

"Aki?" He breathed through a gasp.

"Tamahome…" Miaka said quietly as more of a statement than a question.

"Miaka?" Facing down at her once again, the light from my spell give him a way to see her more clearly.

Holding back and relaxing my muscles—the danger level lowering—I brought my hand in and said in a hushed voice, "Tamahome." Extinguishing the flame in my hands, I allowed the darkness to once again emerge all around us, causing clear sight to be a rarity. However, with my pupils widening, I was able to see only slightly as my eyes adjusted to our darkened surroundings. With that, I was able to more or less discern Miaka, Tamahome, and Nuriko who was getting off of the horse to see what was up. Crossing my arms I returned to my nonchalant attitude. "You know, a split second later and I would have toasted your ass."

Much to my annoyance, the guy didn't even hear my jab at him. While I couldn't exactly tell what he was doing, it was plainly obvious: he was taking in the fact that Miaka had finally returned to him—which was probably why Miaka was also muted a bit.

"Miaka…" His voice was gentle as he spoke with increasing inner joy at the reappearance of his beloved. "You're back…I—"

"Tamahome I've…I've—" The young girl breath out to relieve her anxiety. "It's good to see you again…" _Oh my gosh! _I thought with a rather frustrated mood. Not only was it aggravating hearing those two—who obviously cared deeply about each other—hold back on their feelings, but this was exactly the sort of scene I hated being around. It didn't matter which world it was in, watching couples get all mushy around each other made me absolutely nauseous (hence the beginning of that situation in the mall with Saru back in my world). I didn't mean to be bitter—I mean, deep down I knew that I was supposed to be happy to see them happy—but the reality of it was that there probably wasn't a high likeliness of me ever being in that position, given my personal circumstances. While being aware of all that, I just couldn't help but growl and curse those couples that outwardly advertising the bliss that I might not ever be able to have. For other girls, it was probably unjustified, petty jealousy, but I had a perfectly valid reason for being sour.

"You have no idea," the man went onto say, "how agonizing it's been for me all this time…not having you by my side. Every day I doubted whether or not I could go on without at least hearing your voice…Miaka." _Oh yeah, and Nuriko and I are virtually nothing, right? _Thought it wasn't directed at me, I couldn't help but feel my stomach continuously flipping on its own—my face going hotter as the seconds went by. For the most part, I was pretty content that I couldn't see them clearly—the mushy audio was all I could honestly stand. My arms tightened around each other as they remained crossed, putting slight pressure on my stomach to attempt to cease its reactions.

Miaka swooned over his sincere words. "Oh Tamahome…"

Fortunately, my mind was taken off of things when my ears caught onto some movement around us. I was perfectly ready to use my aura vision to estimate the severity of the situation, but it was all in vain the moment a group of men with torches emerged from the dark forest, some holding torches that enlightened the area with a soft glow. Were these enemies? Should I have been springing into action? None of them looked hostile even though some were wielding hoes and sickles. For the most part, they were just stationary and murmuring to themselves.

Figuring that they probably weren't the sort of threat to put too much of my focus on, I turned my attention on the couple who happened to be pretty much perfectly visible at that point. Much to my displeasure, the two of them were caught, eyes closed, in an extended embrace which was mutual for both parties. Both of them seemed like they were in perfect bliss as the world probably seemed to disappear around them—which would explain why they didn't even budge when so many people were catching the free show.

Blush returning with a vengeance, I uncomfortably shifted in my spot, snapping my head to the side in irritation. "Hmph!" _Don't they seem _comfy_? _

Out of absolutely nowhere, Nuriko popped up at my side, leaning his elbow on my shoulder. An amused smile played on his lips as his face stood only inches from mine. "Jealous~?"

Scoffing again, I switched the position of my head to the opposite side, avoiding his gaze. "As if!" Limping the shoulder he was supporting himself on, I walked toward the two lovers while clapping my hands several times to get their attention. "Okay you two break it up—we didn't come all the way out here for you two to get cozy." Both of them broke they hug and blinked at me a few times. I sighed. "We're on a mission remember? Do this on your own time people." The moment they realized how much of a spectacle they were, they instantly jumped away from each other, completely embarrassed.

Nuriko chuckled while putting his hands on his waist. "No use in being bashful about it now you two—you're busted!" _Can we please just stop talking about this? _Trying desperately to put my mind on something else, I focused back onto our captive audience who were standing idly by. Which, of course, started to get on my nerves.

Or rather, I _let_ _it_ get on my nerves.

Grinning evilly, I spouted, "I'll give you guys something to gawk at if you _really_ like." Calling Wind from every direction, a whirlwind began to circle around, brushing past the bushes and larger leaves and branches in the trees. The fire from the torches began to flicker with the influence of my power, earning me questionable, somewhat frightened looks from the men.

"Aki calm down!" Tamahome told me as he grabbed my wrist, allowing him my attention. Once he let go, he began to explain everything. "There's nothing to worry about—these men are with me. We were just scouting out this forest for potential dangers when we ran into you guys."

Cocking an eyebrow up, I slyly asked, "You all look like you're a mob hunting a witch or something. Don't you think that having this many men for just a scouting thing is a bit excessive?"

"Nah, actually it's understandable," Nuriko chimed in. "With the war happening and His Highnesses warning, it would make sense for villages to be cautious about things like this." Hotohori did warn us that there were spies from Kutou, so it was actually a smart idea for scouting parties like that. But for the most part, I figured it was something like that, I just _really_ wanted an excuse to vent my frustrations out on someone.

Confusion struck Tamahome as he eyes Nuriko. "I'm sorry sir but who exactly are you?"

Holding a hand over my mouth, I tried to stifle my laughter. Nuriko, on another hand, was doing his best not to clobber Tama. With a vein popping out from his temple and cheek, he stomped over to the guy with a faux smile on his face, wrapping his arms around one of Tamahome's as he held on tight. "Why Tama-kins! You don't recognize me? That really _hurts_!"

While attempting to escape the usual cross-dressers grasp, he stuttered. "N-N-Nuriko? Is that really you? I couldn't tell—" Nuriko tugged even harder, bringing apparent pain to the poor guy.

"How rude Tamahome! To forget the person you had such chemistry with at the beginning of all this!" Him referring to the torture he put Tama through back when we all still believed that Nuriko was a woman. His jealousy over Miaka and me for being so close to Hotohori prompted him to toy with Tamahome in efforts to get the emperor jealous (which didn't work by the way since Hotohori saw Nuriko's coldness to Miaka rather appalling).

This was when Nuriko suddenly decided to wrap his arms around Tama's neck, squeezing for all he was worth. The guy looked like he was about to burst (courtesy of a superhuman-strength Suzaku warrior). "I-I was just referring to how you look now! You're not dressed like a woman, so I didn't expect it!"

"Now, now Tama-kins' it would be proper for you to apologize, right~?" Nuriko really wasn't showing any prisoners with this one.

Miaka and I slid into the scene as we both crossed our arms and narrowed our eyes at the tormenter. "_Nuriko_," we growled in threatening voices.

Catching our drifts, the violet haired guy gave the two of us a sympathetic look while pouting. "Aww come on…we're having so much fun! This is how we play—"

"Nuriko!"

He sighed. "Fine." Then dropped Tamahome to the ground like a rag doll—the guy's soul almost seemed to be coming out of his mouth as he twitched uncontrollably.

It didn't take long for him to jump up to his feet and explode at the playful Nuriko. "What the hell?"

Nuriko teased him by sticking his tongue out and winking. "Oh you know you liked it—all is forgiven Tama-kins!"

_Okay, I think that we've just about wasted all the time we possibly could on this little comedy show. _Here I was, itching to get Tamahome back and settled so that I could do the country a favor and go and retrieve the one girl who could give our enemies a significant edge over Konan. Not that it wasn't nice to be able to have kooky antics with these people again—I just knew that there was business that really had to be done.

"So Tamahome," I started to ask curiously, "what's up with you and these guys? What I'm wondering is if these people are from your home village or something."

He shook his head, "Not exactly—I'm more like hired help to protect the village." Not a second later, a huge, greedy grin ran across his face. "The pay is pretty excellent too—I'd be making more wonderful money than I had in a long time. Isn't that great? I've hit the jackpot!" Drool could practically be seen coming from the side of his mouth—sparkles pretty much floated around his head as he went off somewhere in la-la land. _This boy has some serious issues if he's fantasizing over cash._ I was really starting to wonder if—according to Nuriko's theory—Miaka was Tamahome's candy, or if money was.

Shaking my head in shame for him, I opened my mouth to explain to him why exactly we were there, but all of a sudden, each and every one of the torches went out—there wasn't even a strong enough breeze to do such a thing. The darkness had been brought once more, putting every single one of us in a huge sense of alarm. But instead of staying in a clustered group (which I thought might have been smarter), the miscellaneous men in Tamahome's scouting party spanned out, each trying to figure out what the heck happened.

"What trickery is this?"

"How could the fire have gone out? There wasn't any wind at all!"

"Well what if that girl did it?"

"The one with the red eyes? If Tamahome was correct, then she was the one who caused that whirlwind before, right?"

_Oh sure blame me. _Despite their obvious need for a scapegoat, this one was not my doing at all. I had long since been able to control my powers enough to know when they were and weren't going on.

Crawling its way up my spine, a terrifying chill took full and complete attention of my senses and train of thought. Almost immediately, anxiety consumed my very being while the hair on my arms stood up from the wave after wave of cold, sinister energy. This wasn't the same feeling I received from the Shadow Kissed women—no, this was much more powerful and evident—more…concentrated. The power was so incredibly negative that just the feeling of it had enough power to bring out the worst of your emotions.

Shadow Maidens.

With my eyes scanning around every direction frantically, I tried to locate the source of the disturbance. It had been a long time since I had actually went up against those creatures—those poor girls and women who somehow got consumed by the evil side of Darkness. Unfortunately, it was just too dark for me to really see anything. And I wasn't completely sure if Aura Vision would work either considering its use. Before, it was only used on the Shadow Kissed—focusing on the residue of Darkness left behind. Since it had never once been used on a Shadow Maiden, it was difficult to tell. _Did they even give off an aura? _Still though, I attempted to close my eyes to see if it would even work.

No dice.

Usually aura's come off of living things, emitting different colors based on who they are as well as their personality and inner emotions. While I could see the multiple colored halos of everyone else, any sign of Shadow Maidens was totally off the radar. That was probably because the way I saw auras was slightly flawed—even Chichiri said so. A normal person who learned the technique could do it with their eyes open and see everything. Because of the circumstances during my training, I got stuck with only being able to see them with my eyes closed—which limited me significantly. Realistically, when one closes their eyes, they only see blackness. With aura's I could see the many colors, but there was a good chance that there would be some hues that I couldn't see.

There's something that I would have to ask Chichiri about next time I saw him.

In my case at that moment, nothing besides the chill on my body was leading me to believe that a Shadow Maiden was around.

There was something, however, that I could look for to verify my senses: the yellow eyes. If I could just catch a glimpse of those cold, glowing yellow eyes of theirs, then I'd be absolutely certain.

But before I even had a chance to initiate that investigation, something wisped past me—front and back, so fast that a sharp sound was hard as it went by. One after another, I heard the sounds and just barely felt the concentration of wind that was being forced by the weapons. Then there were completely different sounds following those—the sounds of bigger masses falling to the ground rather repeatedly.

Closing my eyes to check up again on everyone's auras, what I found was rather alarming—many of them were on the ground practically motionless, even more joined them as the wisps persisted. Nothing made sense…what was happening? I didn't know whether or not I should have been more concerned about the sudden ambush, or my irking feeling of knowing that Shadow Maidens were around somewhere. Where the two related to each other?

All around me there was panic and mayhem—the forest was no longer as silent as it was prior. My body started to shake in the dangerous predicament. I couldn't see and something was attacking us at a pretty serious rate. Every single time I heard that sharp sound, my body would involuntarily jump and face what I thought the source of the sound was. And where were my friends in all of this chaos? Had they abandoned me or were they taken?

'_Akimoto!' _All of a sudden, a familiar voice came into my head…and it wasn't Shokyoku. It was that male voice that I used to hear more often, it came back! While I still wasn't sure about who it was, I was somewhat relieved to hear him again. '_You must settle your anxiety and calm down. Focus is the key to getting through this and keeping as many fatalities down as possible.' _ Right as he spoke, a sharp blade-like object wisped by and slashed me in the shoulder—sending a message of stinging pain to my brain. On instinct, my opposite hand raised up to hold the wound, trying to stifle the discomfort.

Growling, I thought, _Okay voice, you win._ Gathering a relatively small amount of energy around me, I casted, _"Seoshi!" _The almost transparent dome of orange-ish light surrounded me as well as four other random guys from Tama's group.

But none of them were from _my_ group.

"You coward woman! Let us go so that we may assist our men!" One of them demanded of me. The others seemed to have agreed with their foolish reasoning's as well—I could sense their negative emotions, no doubt caused by the effects of Shokyoku. Nonetheless, they were acting like huge dumbasses.

Giving them one of the most deadly of glares, I hissed at them. "Assist them? Assist them at what, losing?" They all stared at me with lesser resentment than I honestly wanted to feel towards them. "You are all weak in this case so just stand there and shut up!" Still the onslaught of arrows persisted, a good number of them hitting the _Seoshi _and each of them failing to penetrate as they broke and fell to the ground. "Unless you ungrateful chumps have a better plan or magic abilities, I suggest you just sit tight until the attack is over." Besides the attack, there was still something that was bothering me to no end. Looking around, there was no sign of Nuriko, Tamahome, or Miaka. What happened to them? "Miaka! Tamahome!" I shouted out, still maintaining my focus on the dome. "Nuriko! Answer me!"

The worry inside me was increasing quickly. Observing the aura's on the ground, I was horrified to find that many of them were completely becoming extinguished—the glow just…ceased.

They were dead.

Grinding my teeth, I tried to hold in how angry I was at myself for not reacting much faster. If I hadn't freaked out and froze, then I probably could have saved so much more of those men. Whatever was initiating the attack never hesitated to kill—talking complete advantage over my reluctance. It's just that…it was so dark—things happened so fast and the feeling of Shadow Maidens was all around, I couldn't even remember at the moment to use _Lighting _to give me some insight. And what if I had lost my friends? I'd never forgive myself for that moment of weakness—that flaw in my personality that tended to happen…I just couldn't stand it! There was absolutely no way that my lack of action would have made Kajou proud.

Only expecting Shadow Maidens was a huge mistake—this attack wasn't their doing. They didn't use weapons like arrows because they had no use for them, not with their abilities. No, we were attacked by other humans, no doubt the ones that Hotohori had warned us about. So not only did the presence of the Shadow Maidens distract me (and said sensation wasn't even there anymore—it had completely vanished), but I underestimated other humans and the power of stealth.

Dammit.

Was something playing with my mind to get me to lose focus? Or were we actually in danger of a Shadow Maiden attack when these guys decided to go for it?

Either way, if anything ended up happening to Miaka, Tamahome and especially Hotohori would hate me for the rest of our lives.

After calling out a few more times, I found that the ambush had suddenly ceased. For the longest time it would be wave after wave of arrows but finally they were either reloading or ran out. _Please let it be the latter. _To be cautious, I remained quiet for a few seconds, trying to see if I could hear anything suspicious.

"Hey is anyone out there?" A familiar voice yelled out. I gasped, _Nuriko! _ "I'm over here! Can anybody hear me? I can really use some assistance!" Making sure that our enemies had certainly quit for the time being, I let off of my energy and allowed the _Seoshi _disintegrate. Almost immediately, the four men that I had rescued rushed instantly to their fallen comrades.

Helping to light up the situation, I once again casted a _Lighting _spell, forming the soft-ball sized sphere of white glowing light that eliminated the area—revealing the bodies of those men who fell victim to the unexpected attack. The sticks from the arrows stuck out in fatal spots on their bodies—the sharp arrowheads lodged deep inside, making their crimson blood trickle out and flow steadily to the ground. This horrific scene that I was forced to see made me really want to throw up—never before had my eyes caught sight of a dead body before, and certainly not a massacre like this. Even when my sister killed herself, I never saw her corpse—there was no way I would've been able to since it was burned to a crisp…only ashes were left.

It really felt like I wouldn't be able to keep everything in my stomach contained, but I had no choice. This wasn't the time to break down and suck everything in.

After re-lighting the men's torches, I went search around the surrounding area with my own source of light to find my friends—wherever they were.

"Hey Tamahome! Miaka!" Nuriko persisted on—his voice making it much easier for me to locate his whereabouts. "Are you guys still alive?" Turned out that the guy wasn't as far as I initially thought he was, but boy was the sight an entertaining one! There Nuriko was—pinned pitifully to a tree by several arrows that conveniently missed his skin but pierced his clothing by the arms, making it harder for him to reach up on his own and release himself. Considering the situation, he was pretty lucky to have gotten off so easily by just being trapped instead of pinned or wounded.

Making myself known to him, I smirked as he realized I was there. "I noticed how you didn't include _my_ name to your little roll call."

He smirked back, only his seemed slightly more hostile with a hint of verbal irony. "_Of course_ not. I saw how you fended for yourself over there." Then the sarcasm was really spread on thick. "Oh yeah, by the way, thanks _so_ much for including me in your little barrier protection group. You have _got_ to remind me to pay you back one of these days!"

Resting my arms behind my head, I relaxingly closed my eyes as I spoke. "Hey, don't blame me. I didn't exactly know who was around me and I only acted on an impulse." Recalling my mini freak out with the nightmare of all of my friends getting killed, I asked. "And why didn't you respond to me sooner when I called out for you?"

"Yeah, I don't really know if you noticed, by I'm sort of PINNED TO A TREE!" His sudden outburst while stating the obvious wasn't exactly called for. Usually Nuriko wasn't an irritable person, but I could definitely see how getting bombarded by a barrage of arrows and having them play darts with him would potentially ruin his day. "It took me a while just to process everything that was happening as well as to even realize that _this_ happened to me." Taking a deep breath in and letting it out, his speech became calmer. "Besides, I had a strong feeling that _you'd_ be fine just 'cause it's you—which also lead me to assume that you'd have Tamahome and Miaka's back." At the mentioning of those two, a slight ping of guilt inflicted me once more as I lowered my arms and looked down and away. "But I guess…that isn't the case?"

Just as I was about to inform him of how I had lost track of those two, there was a rustle in the bushes beside us. Not too long later, the infamous couple appeared safe and sound—not even one scratch on either of them or any sign of struggling with the arrow outbreak. _How the heck did they manage that? _A gigantic wave of relief washed over me to see that the two of them were unscathed (and that I didn't cause them to die).

Oddly enough, though, Miaka was carrying what seemed like a wide, circular straw hat that was almost saucer like.

I stared at it with suspicion .

_Huh._

"Nuriko?" Tamahome asked as he eyed his incapacitated friend. "Umm…what exactly happened to you?" _I guess he and Miaka really weren't around at that time…_

"_What_ _happened_? Where were you guys to miss all of that?" Our purple haired companion countered back. He shook his head when he came to my realization as well while his voice became more serious as he recalled that night's events. "Well anyway…everything happened so fast. Once the torches went out, the last thing we really expected was to be suddenly and brutally ambushed. So many arrows came flying out and no one was prepared. Unfortunately, most of the men couldn't have been saved, but Aki managed to save a few. And somehow…" A grimace landed on his face. "_This_ happened to me."

From the corner of my eye, I noticed how Tamahome clenched his fists following Nuriko's explanation. He had told us not too long before how he had been hired to protect the village that those men came from. It was understandable for him to feel a bit frustrated by the happenings of that night. As he felt my eyes upon him, something regarding me caught his eye.

"It doesn't exactly look like you were able to get away from the assault completely." Following his gaze, I was reminded of the somewhat bloodied slash on my shoulder caused by the zooming arrow. After my adrenaline got going, I supposed that I just forgot that it was even there. The wound wasn't really anything serious compared to the things I experienced and suffered during my journey. Unfortunately, not only were the new clothes Nuriko gave to me ripped at that one spot, but they were also stained by blood a bit. _Seriously, couldn't the universe have waited at least a few weeks before messing up my new outfit? _

Shrugging, I put the whole thing off as if it were nothing. "Don't worry about it—I barely feel it at all. But other than that…" Turning my attention back onto Miaka who happened to be carrying rather familiar head gear, I pondered something that I probably already knew the answer to. "Where exactly did you get that hat Miaka? I'm curious."

Instead of Miaka answering, however, the annoyed Nuriko fussed loudly at us. "Hey don't just change the subject like that! I demand that you take me down from this tree dammit!"

Completely ignoring him, I switched my attention back to my kohai. "So Miaka, about that hat…"

I didn't necessarily need to look at Nuriko to know that he was glaring at me something fierce. Considering he never did outburst long, he once again regained his composure and spoke at a reasonable level. "You know you can be real cold sometimes Akimoto." Part of me wanted to stick out my tongue at him, but told myself otherwise. Adding a pinch of pleasantry to his voice, he turned to the other male of the group. "Tama-kins? I know that _you're_ decent enough to take me down from here, right?"

Sighing heavily, the teal-haired guy walked over to the tree as he said, "Yeah, I guess so."

So as he attended to that matter, I decided to try once more with Miaka. Knocking lightly on her head, I probed further. "Earth to Miaka—the hat please!"

Blinking blankly a few times, she literally popped up when her brain got back into gear. "Oh yeah! It was the weirdest thing—some guy with strange blue hair pulled me away to tell me some stuff and then he disappeared into this hat. At first I thought I went crazy, and to tell you the truth, I'm not completely convinced that I'm not!" She held up said hat. "I mean, how could a person even _fit_ in one of these things?" My eyes squinted at it. _I know at least one person who has that ability…_

Tamahome pitched in. "What exactly did this guy tell you?"

"This sounds a bit odd Miaka," Nuriko added in his two cents. "Are you sure that this guy didn't just whack you over the head or something?"

Feeling a bit offended by his comment, the young girl retorted, "Hey! I'm just telling you what I saw…"

Patting my hand on her shoulder, I told her, "Don't worry Miaka, I believe you completely. In fact," Carefully, I extracted the hat from her person—giving it even further inspection as I held it in my possession. Feeling the smooth rows of straw neatly woven next to each other, my sense of reminiscence struck me with incredible force. Smiling somewhat mischievously, I continued. "I've been wondering for the longest time about how a certain monk was able to do some of the things he did."

Miaka's eyes became wide with excitement and curiosity. "You know who the owner of that hat is Onee-chan?"

Holding up the hat for all to see with my left hand, I answered with, "Yeah, you can say that. Now…" Facing the hat, I made sure that my smirk never faltered as I added a hint of smoothness to my tone. "We know how sometimes my powers are a bit unstable with my emotions, right? So who's to say that I won't suddenly slip up with this hat in my hands?~"

Of course, my companions were each staring at me like I was crazy or something—which made total and complete sense. If I saw something speaking to an inanimate object, I'd probably either slap them hard or take out the thermometer and check their temperature for a high fever. But it my case, I had a perfectly reasonable explanation for my peculiar actions. Still, one of them couldn't help but ask, "What the heck are you doing—" To which I held up a finger to cut them off so that I could continue with my work.

"Let's see…Water, Fire, Earth, or even Wind—which one do _you_ prefer?" All I could do was ignore the way they thought I had lost it. "What? _Fire_ you say?" Snapping my finders, there was a sudden ignition of an upward-blowing flame that resembled that of a Bunsen burner. Bringing it close to the very flammable hat, I taunted, "Well if you insist—"

"Wait!" A voice suddenly called out from the depths of my almost inert victim—the hat floating out of my hands and persisted to levitate in front of us for all to see.

_Bingo._

By some unique force that I was still unsure how it worked exactly, a man arrived from the hat, popping straight out as if it were nothing. With light blue hair that was worn as a long ponytail in the back and gravity-defying bangs in the front, the fox-faced man stood there as if traveling through the inners of an article of clothing was perfectly normal.

Smiling with that usual cheery smile of his, the guy rose up a hand and greeted, "Hiya!"

With my friends backing off in the background, grouping together with their eyes enlarged as they witnessed the bizarre spectacle, I spoke directly to the man, for the most part unfazed by his appearing act. "Chichiri, what are you doing here? You told me that you left because of some business that you had to take care of." Out of him and Tasuki, I sort of expected the latter to leave our little group first, but no, it ended up being the one I looked up to almost like a brother. I couldn't exactly blame him for it, I mean, I knew that eventually we'd all have to split up, but seeing him standing before me not too long after we parted sort of made me suspicious as to what his intentions really were.

Going around my queries at first, he mentioned, "That's a very fitting new outfit you have Aki, you blend in much better now! And it's good to see that you've met back up with your friends, ya know?" Sensing that I'd get confrontational if he didn't soon answer my question (he definitely knew me well enough not to go there), he went on to say, "And I sort of am on business, ya know? There's no doubt about that—I just wasn't very specific about it." _Say what? _Couldn't really doubt it though… Looking behind me, the monk waved to my other companions. "Hi there! So Aki, I'd really like to meet your friends, ya know?"

"Oh…umm…" Seeing as how they snapped out of it, for the most part, I introduced all of them. "These two guys are Nuriko and Tamahome." The moment I said "guy" and motioned towards Nuriko, Chichiri had sort of an iffy look on his face, but quickly dismissed it. Most people would have did a double take if I told him that "she" was actually a "he". Ah the memories! "And this girl is the one I told you about before—Miaka."

Being the extremely friendly girl that she was, Miaka extended her hand out to be shaken as a sign of friendship. "It's really nice to meet you uh…umm—"

Accepting her offering of friendship gratefully, the monk smiled and replied. "Chichiri—you can call me Chichiri, ya know?" Getting a good look at her for a few moments, he ended the handshake by bowing slightly. "And it's really great to finally meet the Priestess of Suzaku!"

* * *

><p>Once all of the informalities were out of the way, the five of us as well as they men with their fallen comrades returned back to the village that Tamahome was hired to protect. Luckily, the place wasn't very far away. While our little party proceeded to a small wooden, one room houseshack that Tama was renting, the four men that I saved told us that they would handle the situation with the bodies and inform their respective families. Before they had departed from us, they finally thanked me for saving them, realizing that they should have been grateful for being allowed to live yet another day.

Damn straight!

Pertaining to the situation with acquiring Chichiri once again, I was sort of surprised that he was automatically able to tell who the priestess was. If that were true, then why the heck did he make me go through that whole twenty questions thing right after we left the maze? Was he just testing my knowledge or what? The others seemed to be pretty fascinated by the monk as well—who wouldn't be? This guy had me puzzling something fierce about him since the day we met. Sure, I was more used to him than they were, but there was no doubt that there was just something about him. I was still rather curious as to why he wore that mask of his, but it wasn't exactly in me to dissect him for answers at the time.

The five of us sat in a circle around a warm, crackling fire pit that had been encircled with stone. With that being the only light source in the room, a soft glow illuminated the scene.

Instead of starting off with any small talk, Chichiri immediately got straight to the point. "I just thought you all should know that assassins from Kutou are searching to kill the Priestess of Suzaku, ya know?" _Well duh. _Miaka immediately tensed up a bit with his somewhat obvious bit of information. Facing her, the monk tried to but on the best serious face he could manage with that fox-mask of his. "Just to warn you, you should really start acting much more responsibly with your duties as the situations starts heating up even more, ya know?" Again, this was pretty much implied. The girl had agreed to become the priestess, probably went into it while not even knowing what the pain and consequences would be. When I started my journey, I'd be lying if I had said that I expected every single thing that happened to me. But nonetheless, I was prepared (I thought) for (almost) anything—ready to (pretty much) do what I needed to in order to get my wish (of course learning that my friends would lose their memories was a bit of an intense shock that I much rather not have had).

Regardless of what she thought would happen, Miaka also had to learn to be prepared…and do it fast. Her actions would determine the fate of an _entire_ nation—talk about pressure. But she got herself into it, and the only way out would probably be to do her job. She would have to learn how to think rationally and make wise decisions—otherwise people could end up paying for it. And the very last thing I wanted was for Miaka to bear the burden of being the one responsible of making other's lives worse. The girl didn't deserve to feel _any_ of the pain that I had experienced—she was way too sweet.

Chichiri continued. "While I was traveling around, I had been hearing rumors about how Kutou soldiers had been searching high and low for their Priestess of Seiryuu, ya know?" Upon hearing that, my eyes narrowed as I slowly turned my head to give Nuriko one of the bitterest looks I had in my arsenal. Shortly before Miaka came back, Nuriko got into this whole thing about how unlikely it was that there would be two priestesses as the same time. From the pit of my stomach I knew that things wouldn't be easy for us and now my monk friend just confirmed it.

My gaze at my purple-haired companion literally read "I told ya so", loud and clear—he seemed to catch it almost immediately. Turning to face me, he just shrugged and waved Chichiri off as if what he had said were nothing serious. "You heard the guy, he told us that it was just a _rumor_—don't get so uptight after every little thing." With a quieter voice, he addressed both Miaka and I, almost as if he were trying to keep a secret from Chichiri. "Plus doesn't this guy seem a bit weird to you? I'm skeptical of whether or not we can trust him."

Showing us a somewhat troubled look, Chichiri responded with, "Fine—I'll be weird and _you_ be gay, ya know?" Stricken with mild shock by the monk's comment, Nuriko contemplated his next move.

Deciding to receive some information for himself, Tamahome spoke up to the newcomer, "Is it really even possible for two priestesses to exist at the same time?"

Crossing his arms and legs in thought, the masked one replied, "To tell you the truth, nothing like this had ever happened before, ya know? Although unorthodox, if more than one girl comes to this world from another, then I can't exactly knock the idea of there being both a Priestess of Suzaku _and_ Seiryuu, ya know?" With our worst thoughts recognized, both Miaka and I sat there worrying about the girl named Yui. Now that my theory had been _more_ than enough confirmed by Chichiri, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I had to get a move on and rescue her before it was too late—before her and Miaka were forced against each other in not only a physical war, but a mental one as well.

* * *

><p>Everyone had been asleep for a long enough while, deep enough for me to finally escape and get to that self-appointed mission. The fire went out not too long before, but the room still had that toasty sensation that made it more comfortable to slumber. I, on the other hand, hadn't fallen asleep at all, not while knowing that I had to do something so important. It wasn't exactly my desire to wake up the others around me—especially Nuriko, Tamahome, and Miaka. They would just end up getting worried and deciding to unnecessarily follow me on something that I could accomplish on my own. Besides that, I <em>really<em> couldn't stand the whole "good-bye" and "good luck" process—way too sentimental and time consuming for my tastes. If I were to go off on my own for a while to pursue Yui, then they would be free to presume with their Suzaku duties such as collecting the other warriors. Even though it sort of hurt when Nuriko said it, and even though I knew that he no longer meant it, the fact was I technically wasn't a part of them. All of them were Team Suzaku and I was just all by my lonesome on the side. So my absence from them wouldn't really have affected much of their Suzaku-summoning process.

To settle some of my anxiety some more, I was relieved to know that Miaka had both Tamahome and Nuriko to protect her from whatever would come their way. Who knows? Perhaps even Chichiri would stay around to lend a helping hand.

As I observed everyone in their respective sleeping position, I was relatively confident that none of them would wake up unless I made some loud, obvious, not to mention obnoxious noise. This whole situation sort of helped me recall that night back in the Feudal Era with Inuyasha and the others—moving in the middle of the night, trying to avoid waking people up as I headed into the face of danger. During my training to grasp the elements, I felt that they thought that I couldn't defend myself. So I decided to foolishly go off on my own in order to go face-to-face with that world's strongest being, Naraku. That night, I had to be as quiet as I could in order to go off and prove myself.

Last time, I had decided not to tell anyone—which ultimately failed since Inuyasha technically busted me—but this time, I found it smarter to tell at least _one_ person. This way, said person could at least keep my other friends at bay and potentially tell them if anything happened to me. Or at the very least, tell the others what was up only when I was far enough off the radar that they'd honestly not be able to do anything regarding my actions.

Using Levitation, I easily floated over any possible creek on the floor and avoid hitting anyone or anything. With a smug smile on my face, I felt pretty content with myself for executing my plan so well.

It didn't even really surprise me when Chichiri popped out of virtually nowhere under a crescent moon in a similar fashion to how he usually did (yeah, it took a few times of him popping out and me doing the combo of jump and squeal in order for me to get it right). What could I say? The guy was incredibly clairvoyant at most times—hiding things like that from him was virtually impossible.

Still maintaining a couple feet off of the ground, I crossed my arms in expectance as he spoke. "So you really are planning on going off?"

Nodding my head, I told him, "Yup—what's got to be done has got to be done. If I don't get Miaka's best friend back, it could mean real trouble that I don't exactly have the patience to deal with at the moment." _Or like ever. _

A puzzled look riddling on his features, he stretched out his neck from side to side as he mulled everything over. "It might not be the best idea, ya know? But knowing you I know you'll probably just go off anyway, right?" _You bet your ass on it. _Smiling, he then went on to say, "Then I wish you luck on your feat." Now the only problem would have been trying to convince him to stay and help protect Miaka while I was away. Even if I was only gone for a day or two, there were apparently many villains out there who would go through many lengths just to have her head. Using is somewhat irritating ability, he answered my unanswered query. "I would be happy to protect Lady Miaka if you'd like—it would be an honor, ya know?" Scowling at him, I thought, _What? No prior engagements? _He replied, "Nope—none that I can think of!"

Growling slightly, my annoyance level was rising. "Stop that."

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he laughed. "Sorry about that, I just saw an opportunity, ya know?" With that attempt at an apology, I continued to mildly glare at him to illustrate just how much I didn't exactly appreciate him reading my thoughts. However, that was when he decided to change the topic a bit. "This had kind of been bothering me for a while, ya know? But where's Genrou? I sort of expected you two to stay together for a while, ya know?"

Getting a bit offensive, I retorted with, "Hey! Don't pair us together as if we're a couple or something." The sudden subject change to Tasuki sort of threw me for a bit of a loop—yet I should have seen it coming sooner or later. "Besides Ta—" Quickly catching myself, I realized that I almost revealed my knowledge I had about our bandit friend really being a Suzaku warrior by saying his name. Who would have thought that saying his true name in my head so many times would have made me so used to it that I totally disregarded his nickname of "Genrou"?

Still, though, Chichiri seemed to have just barely caught my little slip up. "'Ta'?"

An apparent blush went across my face as I tried my very best to cover myself up before he saw through the whole thing. Talking unsteadily, I said, "Ta…Ta—Talking…Y-Y-Yeah! Talking! That's what I meant to say."

"'Talking'?"

I gave a fake scoff as my words flowed out rather rapidly. "O-Of course! _Genrou_ was _talking_ about how he and I were partners, right? So regardless of where he went—which was probably off to cure his leader—he and I would end up crossing paths one way or another. Besides, we do have a bond, right?" With hopeful eyes and a shaky smile, I deeply hoped that he bought that whole story (not like the story was completely fiction or anything).

The monk stared at me for a few seconds, trying to decipher if what I was saying was actually legit. Snapping once, Chichiri finally agreed, leading me to do a mental sigh of relief. "That does make sense, ya know?"

Quickly switching the subject back to where it was _supposed_ to be heading, I requested something of him. "Tomorrow, you four will have to head back to Konan's capital. I'll need you to do me a favor and tell the emperor that I'm off on business and will return as soon as I am able to." _Just don't wait up for me. _Lifting myself even higher into the atmosphere, trying my attempt to get out of the whole "farewell for now" thing, I looked above the trees in every which direction. However, a similar problem occurred to me that happened to reveal its ugly head when I left the palace three months before. So this time, I ended up playing it safe. Gazing back down at Chichiri, I asked, "Hey, umm…where is Kutou exactly?" This earned me a slight chuckled from him as he pointed in a certain direction. See? This was another significant reason as to why allowing someone else into the know was beneficial!

He spoke up at me. "Unlike Konan, Kutou's capital city is near its border, so it should be pretty simple to find, ya know?" Nodding in acknowledgement and thanks, I had finally been given some direction to take for my mission. A determined look in my eye, I flew off, silently thanked Chichiri for not making a huge deal out of my leaving.

I didn't see the need to fly at high speeds, especially since I didn't want to overshoot thanks to the intense g-forces. Even without _Ray Wing, _the wind still managed to refreshingly caress my face with a slight, pleasurable chill—my hair managing to feel the magic as the breeze combed through it with ease. The light clothes that Nuriko gave to me made me feel almost as light as a feather when I flew like that. And here I thought that flying couldn't feel any better! Every time my body was whisked into the sky and stolen by the wind, I felt so much at home and at ease with myself—like I was meant to be there, one with the freedom of wind. It was a similar sensation to the one I felt in my dream at that place with the golden sea. If I were able to feel like that all of the time, perhaps I would end up being less of a hostile and slightly pessimistic person.

Being so lost with myself in such a way made me almost completely miss my target. Up ahead, I caught sight of what did indeed seem like a large city—its scattered silver décor allowed its features to glow with the moonlight, the various torches reminding me of either fireflies or stars. _So that's Kutou, huh? _Who would have thought that that country was actually pretty close to that village that Tama was protecting? Here I honestly thought that I would have been searching high and low for the place—talk about relief. Hopefully I'd be able to stick to my simple "get Yui and get out" plan.

While it was difficult to tell if whether Konan was bigger or not, I noticed how this place had a lot more taller buildings than the capital city I had grown accustomed to. The palace especially—even from a respectable distance, I could see the silver and blue themed fortress without any problems. I couldn't exactly place why, but for some reason, I felt that the royals in Kutou tried a bit harder to impress people on the outside than Konan really cared to try. Don't get me wrong, Hotohori's palace is absolutely wonderful and exquisite, but Kutou's palace—with its plethora of taller buildings and designs—sort of seemed to shout at you "hey! We're richer than you and you know it!"

Something did happen to really catch my eye, though. There was a very high and rather evident wall made of what seemed like silver-ish white marble (or some other kind of stone) built all around the border of the country. Not only did they seem relatively thick, but also rather tall. They sure wanted to ensure the safety of that nation, no doubt about that. Or was it that they were hiding _something_? Konan had a wall too, but it wasn't as quite paranoia looking (if you understood that description).

Landing about a mile away, it had come to my attention what great time I managed to make. The night was still, for the most part, young, but nonetheless, a strange woman walking into the capital city to a country in the middle of the night to look around all inches of the place pretty much screamed _suspicious_. One of the last things I wanted was to become public enemy number one—or rather, prime _suspect_ number one—right when I entered a new place. It would have made more sense to just wait it out until morning when people were coming in and out more plentifully—then I wouldn't be so out of place!

Concealing myself into a luscious and well-furnished tree, I used my power over Earth to make a sort of roomy cocoon made of branches and leaves in order to house myself as well as hide me from any passerby's that happened to look up and see something strange. Settling myself as comfortably as I could, the fresh scent of the greenery all around and calming sounds of the night steadily soothed me off to sleep.

* * *

><p>Hiding behind a rather large boulder, I observed the process necessary for entering and exiting Kutou's capital city. Right after I woke up sometime during late morning, I didn't hesitate to immediately get to my post (…okay, it did take me a small while to remember exactly where I was at and what I was doing after sleeping so soundly). Considering I'd be entering into enemy territory, it didn't exactly seem like the best idea to just go crashing in. While I had absolutely no doubt about my ability to destroy those walls and go on a rampage, I figured that if I could just keep a low profile while causally looking for Yui, I could avoid any and all trouble. This whole situation made me appreciate even more the outfit Nuriko gave me since blending in would be such a breeze—at least I hoped so.<p>

There were heavily armored soldiers bordering the whole place—each one of them keeping watch of anything or anyone that attempted to get in when they weren't supposed to be there. These guys had the most serious expressions on their rugged faces—all seeming like they weren't afraid to attack and destroy any sort of threat that would arise.

Too easy.

Still, concealment was the key and fortunately for me, no one had detected me yet. As people went in and out, I began to notice a slight stall before anyone was able to proceed with their business. Upon further observance, it could be seen that each one of them had some sort of passport to be allowed to even go on. While I wasn't exactly sure if Konan worked the same way (when you think about it, I never actually entered the country or its city through the "front door" before), it was the way things went down here. And I didn't own anything like that.

So of course I had no choice but to sneak in.

The problem with that being that there were so many guards posted at almost every wall and corner that infiltration without detection seemed almost impossible. Flying in probably wouldn't have been all that smart either—not with all of those eyes on the lookout.

_What to do…what to do…_

Sitting there for a few minutes rattling my brain, an idea finally came to me. If I couldn't go through them with how things were, then I'd just have to make sure that they weren't there to see me.

Focusing on Fire (huh, just realized how I used that element an awful lot. While I do love Wind, Fire just comes in handy so many times! How ironic considering my early history with it, huh? Besides, in most cases, Wind is really broad and in this one, I needed something more concentrated), I used my energy to condense my power into multiple entities.

Casting silently, I chanted, "_Inferno Array!" _And before I knew it, several dozen fist-sized balls of off yellow light appeared all around me. Without a second thought or hesitation, I lifted my arm towards the sky and soon the spheres followed the language of my body language without question. Soon they were high above the treetops, making sure that the soldiers had the absolute best view of them.

Taking another peek past the boulder, I could tell that they did as I expected and fell for the bait. They all looked at the sky in alarm, watching warily at the mysterious balls of light in the unsuspecting sky. Talking amongst themselves, they probably had absolutely no idea what to do in a situation like that.

Well…I decided to speed up their decisions up a bit.

Flicking my wrists downward, the spheres instantly went flying far off, only to arch downward and descend—bursting instantaneously on contact, the mini explosions seemed to catch everyone's attention. The woods all around me shook vigorously every single time another sphere interacted with another object—be it a rock, a tree, or even the ground (chances were that some innocent insect buzzed along and got disintegrated as well). Nice thing about this spell was that it wasn't a particularly lethal one—in fact, it was pretty tame. The only uses for it were for the means of capturing, not killing, or making distractions. Luckily for me, my plan was executed flawlessly.

The soldiers, while doing their duty, went off to investigate the strange phenomenon, probably figuring it was Konan's warriors making a sneak attack or something—or perhaps even some thugs who came along and decided to cause some trouble. Whichever way you slice it, they fell for it, and I saw my opening.

Going through the front entrance still wasn't an option for obvious reasons, so I rushed over to one of the now more so unguarded walls and used Wind to produce an air bubble underneath my feet, launching me up and over the well-built structure, allowing me to land on the other side, using Wind once more to soften my landing. And there I was…in Kutou.

Looking around cautiously, I did my best to make sure that no one witnessed what I had just done. Fortunately for me, it seemed like I landed behind some shops and booths, so I was pretty much concealed. Walking out of the darkest corners, I found myself in the streets of this country's capital city. Unlike Konan, the dominating colors seemed to be blues and silver—most likely colors that were in correlation with their god Seiryuu, much like how red and gold symbolized Suzaku.

With bustling crowds, inns, as well as other businesses, nothing exactly looked out of the ordinary. Well, except for the small groups of soldiers that marched in sync as if they were off to battle. Most likely they were just in patrol and trying to keep everything in check with their fair city.

Even as I walked past civilians and got caught up under the shadows of some of the amazingly crafted, Chinese-style taller buildings, no one was giving me any reason to think that they were wary about me in any way—I actually fit in. And if I kept my head down slightly, I could avoid people looking into my scarlet eyes by hiding behind my bangs. _Just keep walking and don't make eye contact with anyone. _If my eyes were more of a normal color, then I wouldn't have had to worry about people giving me peculiar looks.

Nonetheless, the mission was to search for Yui, even if I had to search throughout the whole country. I had a feeling that she was there somewhere, the trick was pinpointing where exactly.

Right when I least expected it two suspicious men came up at my sides, walking beside me to where it looked like we were some sort of sandwich. They were dangerously close to my person, both of them leaning their arms against mine almost as if they were trying to keep me in place.

To avoid from any other passerby's shooting doubtful glances at us, I maintained calmness, making sure not to react in any eccentric way.

One of them spoke up. "Now just come with us girly and I promise you that there won't be any trouble." Down near my sides, I noticed how that one had a small knife that he was clutching, pointing the blade right towards a vital spot. He kept it low and discrete so that no one other than the three of us knew what was up. Even with the attempted threat, my face remained unfazed—in fact, my expression was in the middle of bored and irritated. But the irritated side was steadily overpowering the other.

His friend felt the need to put his filthy hand on my lower back—tempting me to completely knock his block off right on the spot—probably attempting to travel more south into dangerous territory. "Yeah, we plan on having some fun with you so you better cooperate or else." I sighed, soon followed by a light groan. _These guys didn't waste any time did they? _

With a bit of force, the two of them directed me into some isolated alleyway in between some buildings. Still I kept my cool, assessing the whole situation as it played out. Right as we arrived near the alley's end, they pushed me up against a wall, the two of them using their bodies to barricade me from freedom.

Or so they thought.

The slimy one with the knife threatened me once more as he jabbed the air in front of me. "We haven't seen you around these parts before. But it's always nice to be getting some fresh meat once more."

"So just slip off those robes for us and let's see what we've got to work with." Crossing my arms, all I did was just scowl at them as I tried to formulate the best kind of punishment that these jerks deserved. Upon further listening, it was obvious that this wasn't the first time they degraded some poor woman or girl. Seeing as how they were still out and about after their dirty deeds, no one had showed them what the true fist of justice felt like. When they figured that I wouldn't budge, he spoke up again. "Well what the hell are you waiting for?"

"We aren't afraid to rough you up a bit." Holding up the knife to the height of my face, he continued, "A flew slashes won't turn us off or anything—we take our women whoever way they come—as long as they satisfy and _obey_." Grinding my teeth, I tried to contain my energy from causing an immediate tornado that could possibly threaten all likes in that city. I absolutely could not stand people like them who believed that they could get away with virtually anything they wanted with whoever they wanted—it was _infuriating_! Sure, I would get annoyed of having to save the victims of these chumps, but I could not find myself standing the crap these guys dished out.

The other one stepped closer. "Or would you like it from behind? We're okay with doing all the work—if it gets done, then we're happy." Chances were that these guys weren't bandits or affiliated with bandits, so I couldn't exactly execute my threat that I made to the Mt. Kaou bandits a while back. However, that did not prevent me from bring the hurt to these two sorry fellows.

"So what's it gonna be _red_-_eyes_?" They taunted.

Switching my gaze from one to the other continuously, their form of judgment had finally come to me. Taking my hand, I lifted a part of my robes, making it seem like I was complying to their whims.

They smirked. "That's right—be a good girl now."

But then I reached in with the other and made my kunai appear in such a way that they didn't notice that I pulled it out of nowhere—making it seem like I had it concealed in my clothing the entire time.

Instead of acting alarmed, they just traded glances between each other and returned back to me with evilly amused expressions. "Looks like our little pet has a toy!" _I am not your pet! _

"Tell us, what do _you_ plan on doing with that?"

Gripping onto the handle with full force fueled with anger, I told them with a chilling voice, "I'll tell you bastards what I will do—I am going to throw this weapon into the air. And before it touches the ground, you two will no longer be able to move your bodies or even flap those disgusting holes you call mouths. Crying out for help won't even be an option."

With cruel laughs they asked, "Are you threatening _us_ woman?"

I shook my head. "Nope. That's a _promise_." Them not taking me seriously was definitely going to make my job a lot easier, with barely any resistance from those two.

Using Wind as a backup, I threw the kunai high up into the air, higher than some of the rooftops even. Just like the idiots I thought them out to be, they stared up at it, thinking that that was probably the only real danger that they'd face.

Manipulating Water, I surrounded myself with a frigid whirlwind, frost even started to form on locks of my hair and the material of my outfit. The two thugs' attention finally came back to me when my power became known to them. Horrific expression hung off of their features as they tried to figure out what exactly was going on.

"The hell?" He attempted to say with a shaky voice.

"What's this broad supposed to be?" I could tell by this point that they had the intention of running.

Like hell I'd let them do that.

Before they could even blink, I brought my hands up to my face, palm facing the sky, as I blew into them. My frosty breath uncoiled the whirlwind around me as it spread out and caught its two victims in the wave. _Ly Breim! _

The kunai had hit the dirt below, penetrating the ground with its sharpened blade. As promised, the spell was complete and my victims no longer had the ability to speak or even twitch—I wasn't even completely sure if they could really see _anything_ anymore. Contained inside a pillar of solid ice were the two morons who underestimated me and made so many girls suffer—probably traumatizing them deeply.

It was sort of ironic—with all of the red, hot fury I was feeling towards those two, I decided to freeze their asses solid. The best part? Unless some other magic user came along, these two probably wouldn't have thawed out before they were dead. Did people die when they were frozen? Or were they just being preserved? In either case, they wouldn't have been able to mess with anybody else for a long, long time.

Walking casually past them, I didn't even give them a second glance. I just crouched down to pick up the kunai and then went on my way as if nothing even happened.

Cruising nonchalantly out of the alleyway, I scanned using only my eyes to see if anyone witnessed anything that went down back there. Of course the trick was not looking like I was guilty of anything because that would have been a dead giveaway right there. But considering it's me, I was real talented when it came to hiding my emotions or my true character.

That plan would have worked swimmingly if two soldiers, standing tall and ready to pounce, hadn't been eyeing me warily. Not good. Even though I was trying to act inconspicuously, I couldn't help by glance at them almost continuously, watching whether or not they would decide to make a move. Their armor looked like it was made out of some real sturdy metal, decorated with the metallic version of Seiryuu's colors.

"Hey, you there!" One of them called out in a commanding and rather intimidating tone. Pretending like I didn't think they meant me, I continued walking down the streets. "Halt!" Reacting swiftly, the soldiers came towards me in a hasty pace. Banging his staff on the ground, he tried to get my attention once more. "Woman! I demand you to halt!" Running would have meant that I was guilty of something, so I had no choice but to do what the Kutou soldier wanted of me.

Acting as if nothing was wrong, I smiled sweetly and innocently asked, "Is everything okay?"

Not even reacting to my smile, he responded as if everything was all business. "Strange happenings have been going on all morning—we've even had reports about someone potentially sneaking past the border."

"You don't say?"

"Upon investigation, there was a pitiful attempt at pulling soldiers away from their posts." My eyebrow twitched a bit. _Pitiful? Who is _he_ calling pitiful? _"It's shameful to be a part of the same army with such disgraceful men who were made into fools in only a matter of minutes." His eyes narrowed at me as he grasped onto his spear with vigor—prepared to attack when needed. "The capital city has been put into high alert as we search for the intruder an potential spy. So I ask you woman…" The guy probably thought he was slick. From different directions, other soldiers started to close in on me, almost like they thought that I wasn't aware of what was going on. It was becoming more and more evident to me that I wasn't as careful as I initially thought I was.

Ninja I am not.

"How long have you been in the country of Kutou? Your face is not familiar to me—or anyone else for that matter."

Smile flickering slightly, I did my best to not just end it right there. "Well with so many people living here, wouldn't you think that it would be impossible to remember _everyone_, right?"

"Our men on lookout say that they never allowed you in here." _Dammit! _Okay, so maybe I was a _bit_ overconfident about my abilities and I _sort of_ belittled them by thinking that every single one of the soldiers in this country were complete nimrods. They were all trained and taught to detect certain things and that was why they were allowed that duty in the first place (this was supposedly the case anyway). So it would probably be best to say that I failed miserably at blending in. "Hand me your passport," he demanded.

Scratching the back of my head, it was soon clear that my bad acting was going to get me busted for sure—if I wasn't already. "S-Sorry, but I must have left it with the family that I'm visiting in Kutou…"

"Ma'am, you're going to have to come with us." Without warning, he grabbed my arm, not caring if he was gentle or not—the older soldiers forming a circle around us to make sure that I wouldn't get away.

Like I couldn't.

I didn't exactly fancy the idea of being arrested—yet again—so as quickly as the idea formed in my head, I found myself blasting all of them away with a ferocious gust of Wind, blowing them all into nearby walls, windows, and carts. People are so much more susceptible to attack when they least expected one. Not taking even a second to hesitate, I broke out in a run, getting as far away from my captors as possible. After realizing who exactly owned them and how, most of the soldiers managed to recover from my attack and immediately began in pursuit.

Lungs burning and legs starting to die out on me, I honestly started to question why I was using this method of escaping when I could have been zooming across the sky without any worry about being captured. _Because then everyone in this city would know that I'm different and that I don't belong here. _All hopes of looking for Yui and keeping a low profile would have been completely dead. There would probably be some sort of warrant on my head and most people would end up trying to fight me and turn me in. I'd end up having to look for Miaka's best friend while fending off people and dealing with more stress than I honestly cared for.

Oh screw it. I'd get Yui back my way.

Lifting myself from the ground, I flew rapidly just a few feet above the ground—not exactly caring if I knocked anyone out of not. By this point almost everyone was trying to see what all of the fuss was about and quickly making the mistake of getting in my way. As fast as I was going, I couldn't discern all of the different faces or really even see the details on the buildings. The only thing that was important to me was ditching those chumps.

Right as I was about to round a corner, a huge platoon of soldiers arrived (_Man they react fast!)_ and pointed their sharp spears at me while holding shields in their other hand (well I had to give them a few points for finally adding _some_ line of defense against me). At the risk of not getting run through with a bunch of pointy weapons, I immediately banked upwards, heading towards the safe sky.

When I figured that I was finally in the clear, my body became consumed by a rapid, yet familiar chill. Before I even had a chance to think on it, a black form emerged out of nowhere and flew straight at me. There was no time for me to avoid it. My brain had my body tense up from impact, but the shape somehow managed to become intangible, going right through my body sending an unpleasant and cold sensation coursing throughout my being. Not only did I feel somewhat violated by something going through me, but my body suddenly became enveloped by a painful black sheet of energy. I no longer felt weightless like I normal had when I flew, but instead, it was like gravity was having its revenge against me, seemingly like it had multiplied almost a thousand times. No matter how much I tried to use my powers to bring me back up, absolutely nothing ended up working.

With my heart racing and lungs near hyperventilation, the ground was quickly rushing up and I just couldn't bear to watch myself plummet to my death. Shutting my eyes tight, I silently prayed that my powers—any power—would make itself known in some way that would help save my life.

Suddenly, I felt fierce winds caressing me and swirling in all directions—I could no longer feel myself falling. Opening my eyes slowly, I found myself being carried in some sort of sphere of fast-blowing winds whose only mission was to keep my life preserved. Feeling a pleasant tingle, I discovered that, by looking down at my chest that once again my silver veins were fading in and out, attempting to maintain its visibility until disappearing once more. Surrounding me was a huge crowd of people, soldiers included, who were gawking at me as if I were some sort of freak or monster—their faces illustrating both fear and disapproval.

As I was gently lowered to the ground, Wind began to disperse and the veins went away like it had those other times. After blinking a few times, trying to soak in every odd thing that just happened, I was immediately in the center of a multitude of soldiers who found it necessary to point their many blades at me (sheesh, déjà vu much?). Seriously, why couldn't I go anywhere in this world without the threat of being arrested?

"Capture the witch!" Some civilian shouted out.

"Take her away before she causes even more trouble!"

"Look at her eyes, she can't be human!"

Oh yeah, these people _really_ knew how to welcome a person.

One of the braver soldiers, or perhaps even the leader made his way through with a long, black-ish metal chain. And without hesitation, he bound my arms against my body as he encircled my whole body, tying me up completely using the whole, long chain.

With my physical strength, there was absolutely no way that I'd be able break free of my confinement, so I didn't even try. At this close of a range between my enemies, I was both out of my element and at a huge disadvantage. Like I mentioned sometime before, using my hands was extremely essential to casting spells and if I'm not able to use them…well…we all remember what happened back during the last trial of the maze—you know, when that kid attempted to control my whole body and I ended up "malfunctioning" by casting a bunch of unexpected spells that had absolutely no direction to them whatsoever, ending up with a plethora of explosions. Not only that, but there was also Shokyoku to take into account. For all I knew, she was planning on releasing a huge wave of negative energy that could end up making people either want to kill each other or themselves. See now, if I did that in this situation, I wouldn't have been exactly sure whether or not there would be fatalities. So going crazy was out of the question at the moment, though it was an option.

Truth was that I could have probably found _some_ way to get out of that mess, but something occurred to me at that moment. Back at the palace in Konan, Miaka and I managed to discover three Suzaku Warriors, two of which happened to already be living there. So if I did end up being brought to the Kutou palace to be presented to their emperor, there was a chance that I could not only come across the more significant enemy (a.k.a. Seiryuu Warriors) but also a potential priestess (i.e. Yui).

Even if Yui weren't there, I could just escape and hope that I wouldn't be heavily pursued. While I _did_ have the power to fight back, it didn't necessarily mean that I wanted to. The only time I really enjoyed kicking someone's ass was either when it was hitting Tasuki with the Hammer of Justice or when someone _honestly_ deserved it (like those types of thugs who like preying on the innocent). Anyway! The underlying message in this whole thing was that just because I _can_ do something, didn't necessarily mean that I _should_.

It was also apparent to me that even if I did attack them, it wasn't like they knew who I was allied with. Since I wasn't from the _Universe of the Four Gods, _I technically wasn't from Konan or any other country, so in a way, I wasn't necessarily on anyone's side. All of this was important to consider in the long run since it made sure that Hotohori and everyone else in Konan wouldn't have suffered because of my foolish decisions, "act of aggression", and inconsistent temper that could have potentially made the war even worse.

Keeping all of this in mind, I allowed them to arrest me and bring me in—ignoring all of the nasty comments that were directed only at me. _Jeez, not even people in Konan were this disrespectful. _Keeping a barrier of soldiers around me, they forced me to walk towards the large, impressive palace. One of them even kept hold of the chain to make sure that I wouldn't escape (again, actually a pretty smart move on their part).

As I walked, keeping my head down once again from judging eyes, something continued to bother me. What exactly was that thing that knocked me out of the sky? It was headed right for me and knew exactly what it was doing. Was it a Shadow Maiden? Everything happened so quickly that I couldn't even tell. While we were in the forest looking for Tamahome, I had a feeling then as well that I was in the presence of Shadow Maidens, yet they never even showed up.

What was going on?

Shaking my head, I tried to get those unpleasant thoughts out of my mind. The only thing I was supposed to be focusing on was saving Yui. If the forces of Darkness were going to send its creatures at me once more, then it would have to wait until I got this mission completed first.

_For once in my _life_ universe, can you _please_ just level with me here?_

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><p><strong>Well that's the chapter for ya <span>PLEASE REVIEW! <span>Ur reviews are like a fountain of youth to me X3. I luv hearing ur thoughts and predictions about the things that are unfolding or going to unfold. Plus they r a good way of me knowing that u guys r still out there and interested. **

**BTW! 3 new pics are up on DA—one of Aki, Shokyoku, and my promotional poster for this fic. I hope u all like it!**

**AND! There is a new POLL on my PROFILE! **

**Well…Until next chapter!**

**~C ya!**

**P.S Classes start again for me on Monday...which means that updates will take a while again ;_; Please bear with me and i promise that I will always update! I wont abandon this story!**


	34. Trail of Tears

**COLLEGE HAS BEEN SUCH A BITCH THIS MONTH!**

**By the way, Happy March 2012! **

**Hey everyone and welcome to the next chapter!**

**Before we get to it, I have something important to say: **

**I'M SOOOOOOOOO SORRY!**

**I know that it take me forever to update and that's because *insert first line here*. Let me tell you: I've had a research paper for my web design class, a project for said class, a big psychology exam, a BioLab test, revising a story for my Creative Writing class, various (and annoying) homework assignment for PolySci and a midterm , not to mention a WHOLE butt-load of reading to do for pretty much each class (that's the thing about college, a lot of the time u have to take the initiative to learn stuff on ur own cuz ur professors don't always have the time). *inhale, exhale* **

**Yeah, so that's why you guys haven't seen much action from me in the month of February. **

**Oh! And there was also an incident where I wrote like 2 hours worth of this story and it all got erased cuz my computer restarted itself and didn't auto-save TT-TT U have no idea how much I wanted to cry.**

**[Moral of today: Don't trust auto-save!]**

**BUT! **

**I promised you guys that I wouldn't abandon this story and I meant it—any certain number of reviews won't stop me from doing just that. I write because I love to write and I'd like to share my stories with the world, whether it is fanfiction or not. And I promise not to be one of those authors who just up and leave. I'm always here ;]**

**Now that that is all out of the way, lets proceed to Chapter 34!**

***On the last chapter of _Love Hurts 5 Ways, _we found that Miaka Yuki had returned to the _Universe of the Four Gods _to continue on with her priestess duties. Even though most were thrilled, both Akimoto and Miaka had become concerned regarding their friend Yui Hongo who was nowhere to be found in their world. **

**Aki had resolved to not tell anyone of her vision of Yui from three months before, but had promised to find her preferably in the rival country Kutou to get her back. After reuniting with both Tamahome, Miaka's love interest, and Chichiri, the blue-haired sorcerer-monk, Aki felt that Miaka was in good enough hands for her to go off on her own and find the missing girl. But in order to do so, Aki purposely got arrested for the sake of getting into the Kutou palace. **

**But who or was that shadow creature that had been stalking her? And will her search be a success?**

**The story continues to unfold…***

Our short pilgrimage to the highly decorated palace of Kutou wasn't exactly an exciting one. Well, technically if a random normal person were to be chased around some foreign city only to be wrapped up in steel chains and then lead to the country's leader, they probably would have thought that their day was pretty darn exciting! This wasn't my description for a couple reasons. One, have you _seen_ what my life has been for the past year or so? I mean, come on! This was probably the most tame when it came to excitement compared to some of the crap that had been thrown at me. And two, this was like the umpteenth that some chumps from this freakin' world had arrested me or taken me hostage in some manner. If this had been _my_ world, no one would ever hire me because of all of the marks that would have been on my record.

Had I been less of a decent person, I'd just burn the place down in order to find Yui rather than pretend like these ordinary soldiers actually stood a chance against me. But since most people didn't deserve that cruel demise, I had no choice but to submit until I was sure that Yui was safe and not the Priestess of Seiryuu.

There was absolutely no possible way to avoid the gawking eyes of the citizens the closer we got to the royal fortress. With the way that those soldiers had set me up, the lot of them forming a seemingly impenetrable barrier around my person, it was almost like I was some serious fugitive that single handedly caused the second Holocaust or something. I couldn't exactly blame them for their judgmental glares since I could have been a potential threat to their peaceful lives—and I could have very well been, it all depended on the next move that they decided to pull. As long as they kept their distance then there was a much less chance of either Shokyoku or me making their lives a living Hell.

For the most part, though, I just kept my head down like I usually did when it came to situations where I happened to be the center of attention.

Boy did I _hate_ those situations.

But before I knew it, I was being leaded up a bunch of stairs that most likely lead to the prestigious Kutou throne room. Just like with the palace back in Konan, there were various banners with silver and blue designs that were incorporated into a picture with a proud and intimidating dragon. With my acquired knowledge courtesy of Hotohori and Tamahome, I knew that that dragon was the Kutou god Seiryuu. While the decorations were nice and all, there was an unsettling disturbance at the pit of my stomach whenever I looked at them. Seiryuu only reminded me more and more of the chance of there being yet another god to make things more complicated with the war. These people were the enemy and if they found a way to make someone their priestess and summon Seiryuu before Miaka could call forth Suzaku, then Konan could seriously be screwed. At this point, I was still unsure of the four god's power and for all I knew, I stood a chance against them with my power alone. However if they had the power to grant whatever wish that their respective priestesses wanted as well as the ability to shake and influence the world as a whole, then I could definitely see a storm brewing off in the distance.

Even though it was true that I was still relatively new to the world and technically allying myself with someone already was a bit rash, I sincerely felt that I should help defend Konan. From what I had seen, the land was scenic and beautiful—the waters were as clear as the pure Hawaiian seas and nature seemed to be untouched by man for the most part. Unlike the world of the twenty first century where Miaka and I came from, the atmosphere was fresh and considerably lacking in any harmful pollutants. When taking in the fact that this world was based around ancient China…_of course_ there wasn't the kind of technology I was used to that had the ability to screw up a world for good. So in a way, there was a chance that every country in the _Universe of the Four Gods _was just like Konan. But still…

I've met people in Konan…People who…meant _something_ to me although I didn't know exactly what.

Besides all of that sentimental stuff, Kutou declared war on Konan so I was really just playing on the side of the victims as part of their badass self-defense. And for the most part, I was happy to help—more than happy to after the Kutou soldiers had the audacity to arrest me. Okay, yeah, the Konan soldiers did too, but at least _they_ didn't chain me up like some wild animal (they may have wanted to, but they never went through with it).

The throne room was nothing less than extravagant—drapery made up of the finest materials and beautiful candle-lit chandeliers that lined the ceiling up until the throne itself. You could tell that the leader of this country wasted absolutely no time in trying to show off to others his aesthetic tastes as well as vast fortune.

Personally, I preferred the palace of Konan—at least _they_ weren't trying so hard to make a point about evident wealth.

"Why do you present this woman before me in chains?" A gruff, deep voice called out from the most predominant area in the prestigious chamber. My captors came to a halt as they respectfully bowed down to the man of whom they served. The emperor sitting on the dignified throne seemed to be middle-aged, most likely older than I was pinning him out to me. While being decorated with various jewels and expensive robes, the hefty ruler of the country stroke his seemingly coarse black beard as he inspected my unexpected arrival. "Is she to be a new addition to my harem? I would have expected you to give me someone whose appearance was more worth my time." My fists reflexively clenched at the obvious insult. _That guy just called me plain-looking! _Not worth _his_ time? Please! I was insulted just by being in his presence. At least with Hotohori I had something pleasing to look at. He smirked cruelly. "But the chains add a nice touch." _Not on your life pal! _This was one of those times when first impressions pretty much meant everything. And already I could tell that this emperor wasn't such an enjoyable person to be around.

It was becoming a good thing that this emperor was both inconsiderate and a pompous jerk. That way, there was no incentive or temptation to staying in Kutou any longer than I honestly had to. Seeing how this countries' ruler acted automatically made me assume that simply asking for the information I wanted wasn't going to be an option.

_Okay, since he's obviously not going to make my life simpler, maybe I should just do this the old fashion way—bust up the place until I get what I want. _At this point, my first main objective had been completed—I made it into Kutou's palace where Yui could have potentially been. So what was honestly stopping me from breaking free and resuming the search without these losers?

Of course, the only way to escape would have probably been more destructive than I really would have wanted. With the metal chains limiting my mobility, I'd end up having to either get creative or just choose to rain Hell all over that sorry fortress.

The thing was I really wished to get this whole thing done as neatly as possible—without any real conflicts or difficult situations. I never usually wanted to cause a fuss anywhere I went, it just happens ending up that way. But my philosophy continuously results in becoming "whatever you have to do in order to get the job done." In this situation, though, I wanted to just get in, get Yui, then get out. Really, that's all I wanted. Was that seriously too much to ask for?

_Perhaps waiting this out and see where it leads would be the least apocalyptic way of reaching my goal. _

After bowing for what seemed like forever, the soldier in charge of my arrest, who was also the same one holding the end of my chain, spoke up to the emperor first. "My lord, this woman has not been brought forth to you as a gift. She has not only sneaked past the border into our country but she has also threatened the lives of our soldiers and people." Scoffing, I thought to myself, _Blame yourself for all that crap dude. If you had just let me keep walking, I wouldn't have had to react the way I did. _Besides, I knew perfectly well that I wasn't anywhere near hurting someone seriously let alone killing them. Exaggeration much?

The emperor gave a deep laugh that's sound seemingly ricocheted against each wall of the throne room. "_This_ commoner woman? You must be joking."

"No sire! It's true!" The soldier tried to convince his ruler. "She harbors powers like that of a Celestial Warrior. I guarantee you that she's a menace and very dangerous—we must take precautions against her to prevent her from—"

"She doesn't look all that dangerous to me," an unfamiliar voice called out from behind my direction of focus. Turning around slowly, I found myself staring into the sharp, deep blue eyes of a man I had never met before. His tone seemed as chilling as ice, yet at the same time emitted charisma and practically oozed power. Some unpleasant sensation managed to swiftly crawl up my spine the moment I was able to take his character in. The sinister vibe he happened to give off nearly made me freeze entirely with intimidation, but his shining good looks nearly blinded me while managing to tempt my curiosity enough to not tear my eyes away. He wore mainly white and blue armor with an equally blue cape that draped over his right shoulder, covering that side of his body almost completely. His radiantly blond hair was long and sleek, the length going several inches past his shoulder blades. The bangs in the front were sophisticated, the locks so long that they almost covered his eyes if it weren't for the parting on the left side. But yeah, there was absolutely no doubt that this guy, whoever he was, had top-notch looks—rivaling even that of Hotohori's.

_Congratulations dude, you managed to capture my attention. _

The guy holding my chain as well as the other soldiers instantly stiffened up out of fear, revering the newcomer as if he were the devil himself. "General Nakago! Sir!" _So this guy's name is Nakago? _

He spoke to them with that same daunting voice that he displayed earlier. "You fools mean to tell me that you were outwitted by this _woman_?" Glaring intensely, he continued with, "What a huge disappointment."

"G-General, sir, sh-she is no normal woman—far from it!" The soldier's words stuttered slightly, showing just how much their blond leader installed terror into their souls.

The guy closed his eyes briefly, showing the shame he had towards his subordinates. "Regardless—I expected more from warriors of your caliber." He eyed me once more, making me slightly uncomfortable from the unwanted attention. The way he was looking at me, it was almost like I was as transparent as glass, allowing him access to each and one of my flaws—my secrets. "You disgraces couldn't even manage to genuinely capture her." It wasn't until Nakago addressed me that I realized how hot my face had become from almost staring at the model-worthy soldier. My eyes flashed wide for only a split second with his statement. Just by inspecting me that guy, Nakago, was able to tell that I pretty much let them take me in. Was it that obvious or was he just really perceptive?

Just as I was deciding whether or not to respond, something—or rather _somebody_—in the same area caught my eye. Poking her head out from behind the mysterious man, the perky and curious girl Miaka peeked to see what all the commotion was about. I immediately gasped, but kept it discreet to assure that none of the enemies have noticed. _What the hell is she doing here?! She is going to ruin the plan completely! _I had left Miaka to Nuriko, Tamahome, and Chichiri in high hopes that they'd keep her _out_ of trouble—not drive her head on into the lion's den! Really, I could have left a kitten with mental disabilities in charge of her and _it_ would have done a better job than them!

Nakago must have noticed the exchange of familiar glances between my kohai and I, which pretty much meant that it was too late to look as if I had never met her before. Deciding to play it cool, he informed me, "I see that you are rather curious about this young woman with me—her peculiar clothes are enough to turn heads, without any doubt. She claims that she is our much awaited priestess that we had been searching for." Other than the fact that I wasn't sure of whether that last part was directed towards me or his emperor, it was that last part that struck me with mild shock. _She told him that she was who?! _ "While I would prefer to investigate her claim a bit more," His piercing, yet fascinating blue eyes seemed to have pierced right through me like powerful lasers effortlessly zapping through their prey. "I am slightly interested in knowing how exactly you two know each other. And don't lie by saying that you don't—I'd rather that you didn't insult my intelligence."

I gulped inconspicuously, trying to come up with an answer that wouldn't foil Miaka's plan that safely brought her to the Kutou palace. She had told this guy here that she was the Priestess of Seiryuu in order to be able to investigate whether or not Yui was involved in the situation or not. It was actually a pretty legit plan—I had to give her some credit on this one. Of course there was that slight flaw where if they found out that she was literally the _exact_ opposite of the Priestess of Seiryuu, then there would have been some serious consequences.

Either she was completely aware of the seriousness of the situation, or she was being totally reckless and making stuff up as she went along.

What I wanted to know was what role I'd put myself as in this plan of hers. But before I even had a chance to think things through completely, the olive-eyed girl spoke up semi-enthusiastically. "She's my older sister so you don't have to worry about her being an enemy or anything!" I literally wanted to comically fall right then and there. _You idiot! Don't tell them that! It sounds suspicious! _

Nakago's eyebrow cocked up with interest as he switched his attention from me to Miaka interchangeably. "Sister?"

Quickly attempting to save the situation, I added in somewhat frantically, "Not biologically—she just calls me that out of respect and…to be honest I really had no say in the matter!"

"So you _do_ in fact know this girl." The emperor profoundly spoke out after assessing the scene below.

"Yeah, but it's not that big a deal—it's a small world after all, right?" _Oh my gosh did I really just say that? _After a certain point, I was beginning to believe that my ability to give more believable answers was being completely suffocated the longer I was forced to be bound in those damn chains.

As he continued to inspect me, Nakago suspiciously asked, "If that is the case, then what exactly _is_ your relationship with Miaka here? And why were you two separated?"

When in doubt, lie like a lawyer. "Well if you really must know," the added confidence in my tone really helped the performance on a bit. "I happen to be a…a…" In my mind, a light bulb finally lit, giving me the just the idea I needed to get out of this mess. "I'm a Warrior of Seiryuu, here to protect my priestess." My lips morphed into an assured grin as I peered over at my kohai. "Miaka."

What I didn't expect was for the emperor to burst out in laughter almost as if I told some hilarious joke or something. "You can't be serious—a weak-looking not to mention insignificant female such as yourself couldn't possibly be blessed with powers from our most powerful god." Okay, though it may have been true that I wasn't a celestial warrior of any kind, you could bet your ass that I was offended by his unnecessary comment. In fact, I was this close to knocking his sorry head off of his shoulders—screw the fact that he was in charge of a country—I didn't give a damn! If he wanted proof of what I could do, then I'd be happy to duct tape him to a wooden chair with needles and make him sit through hours of watching a DVD recap of my life from the past fifteen months.

Still pretending to be something I wasn't, I faked a pleasant smile. "Well you are mistaken _Your_ _Majesty_," _Ugh. _Boy did that leave a nasty taste in my mouth. "I am in fact a celestial warrior that fights under Suzaku." It wasn't until my sentence sank in that I realized what I had just said. Knowing full well that they caught on to my mistake, I pitched back in before any of them had the chance to accuse me. "Did I say Suzaku? I meant to say Seiryuu. Suzaku only came up since I was just in Konan spying on those damn Suzaku worshiping bastards. Yup," Chuckling nervously, my eyes steadily trailed away to avoid Nakago's sharp gaze. My head hung low out of disgrace for myself. "I am going to shut up now." _I was worried about _Miaka_ messing this up? Jeez, if my acting was any worse, Shakespeare may come back from the grave just to slap me with a white glove! _And what the heck was up with me and all of those Freudian slips lately? It was really messing me up.

Part of me just knew that Nakago knew I was lying my butt off—there was absolutely no way that he could have actually bought that whole performance unless he was some sort of moron.

See kids? This is why I am not an actress.

Still convinced that we could actually pull this off, Miaka, with her spunky personality, put in her two cents, "Aki-nee-chan is the best warrior a priestess could find—I can't guarantee that you'll never find another like her. With her help, I know I can summon Seiryuu no problem!" The girl tried to hug me but found it a useless gesture with me being tied up and all.

For a few moments, all of the newly acquired information (though falsified) mulled itself over in the minds of our enemies. Our blonde adversary was a bit difficult to read considering his face never really revealed his inner thoughts—in fact, in this case it was rather stoic. "What a load of crap!" The emperor shouted out. "My incredibly keen eye can tell when someone has the essence of a warrior, and _you_," he accusingly pointed to me, a strained tone hanging off of his words, "are not by any means a warrior."

Nakago gave him a look with response to what he said (better him than me considering I would have probably blown the emperor miles into the air for that rude comment of his…if I wasn't wrapped up in linked iron anyway). "Your Highness, allow me to verify whether or not she is who she claims to be." I couldn't exactly place why, but the way in which he addressed his ruler seemed somewhat insincere. The words were obviously the proper protocol for when a person had to talk to a monarch (I supposed), but there was an—oh I don't know—edge to the way he said it? It could have just been me since it didn't really seem like anyone else caught on. So I just dismissed it. Right as the blond warrior switched his visual focus to me, I could instantly see a snide flicker in his eye that unsettled me a bit. "This would be more my area of expertise after all." Without even waiting for the "go ahead" from his emperor, he briefly bowed to him before walking over to me, ending up only a couple feet from where I was standing. Nakago towered me by almost a good foot and a half, but I was still more distracted with his skyrocketing-above-average exterior. I was almost desperately trying to peel my eyes away from him, but for the most part, my efforts proved in vain.

'_Even roses have thorns, Aki—always be on your guard,' _Shokyoku's voice sprang out at me. But unlike in the past when "the mysterious female voice" showed up, I stayed calm and without question. This time I knew what was up and was allowed much more access to new info than before. One thing was for sure: I had to pretend that no one was talking to me. I didn't need our enemies thinking that I was insane or anything or that I literally had "inside help". _'There is something not right about this guy.'_

I responded to her. _Oh, so you noticed it too, huh?_

Almost immediately she said, _'Of course I did! But at this point it is sort of difficult to determine how careful exactly you have to be.' _Shokyoku already didn't like humans—she made that very clear when we met face-to-face. For her to directly warn me about someone that just popped into the scene (without even getting to know him at all) probably gauged how serious the situation really was.

_Duly noted. _Yeah, Nakago's looks may have been top-notch, but come on! I wasn't _born_ yesterday. Anything this guy was concealing from us was surely going to bit us in the butt later on. There was also the unsettling vibe that I received from the whole Kutou palace in general. Not only did I have that itching feeling that someone somewhere was watching me, but my whole body couldn't shake the unnerving chill that had been plaguing me since the night before.

This far into the game made me perfectly aware of what was up—a Shadow Maiden was lurking around…somewhere. And I'd bet my left foot that it was the same demented chick who had been stalking me ever since we went into that forest to look for Tamahome. It was unclear of whether she was aware of this or not, but I had danced this dance before—shadow creatures spying on me from the shadows waiting for the right time to pounce, it was completely their style and I wasn't surprised at all. The part that bothered me the most was that I had no idea where the sinister feeling was coming from. In fact, I had sensations coming from everywhere, not just centered in one place. Weirder still was the fact that the strongest flares of Darkness energy was emitting off of Nakago. _Why is that? He's not Shadow Kissed and he certainly isn't a Shadow Maiden. _

Who was this guy? And why did he come off to me as a Shadow Maiden?

"Your name is Aki, right?" He asked while keeping a wary eye on me. "Show me your sign of Seiryuu," he commanded. _Oh crap! _I hadn't even thought about that. If each one of the Suzaku warriors had a glowing character somewhere on their bodies, then it would have made sense that the same thing applied to Seiryuu. _Damn. I did not think things through. _Nakago's cold blue eyes seemed to be mocking me in a sense. I felt almost as if he were baiting me in, or rather just stringing me along as he reveled in my sad attempts to keep this game of pretend going.

I wouldn't allow him the satisfaction. The way I saw it, there was only one way to avoid crashing.

"Sorry, but that would be a bit difficult. You see my symbol is near a…uh…private spot if you will. And I wouldn't be very comfortable showing it." I was pretty much hoping that he would just leave it at that and not expect me to do anything so scandalous with as big an audience that we had. Most people would respect one not wanting to bare themselves and potentially lose some of their dignity.

"That answer will not suffice here," The general coolly said. "I'm not really giving you an option—if you don't show me your symbol, then I will be forced to assume that you are deceiving us. And in that scenario," His eyes singed through my skin, making its way towards my soul, "I will be forced to react _unpleasantly_." Sighing, I closed my eyes to think things through a bit—my eyebrow twitching from the added frustration. _Okay, so this guy is hard to break. _As my brain tried to formulate another route I could possibly take, he continued. "Then again, I'm not completely opposed to you and me stepping into a more _isolated_ room in order for you to show me that elusive symbol of yours. That way I'd be the only one you expose yourself to." In my mind I scoffed in disgust and disbelief. _Pervert! _If I weren't pretending to be such a loyal Kutou goody-goody, then that last statement of his would have been the catalyst for an extremely unfortunate accident (courtesy of moi). What seemed to bother me the most was how he said most of these things with a rather serious expression—like how everything that was happening in this whole situation was incredibly trivial—bsolutely nothing on his face or body language made me believe that he was joking at _all_.

Plastering on a fake smile (that probably looked like someone grabbing the corner of my lips and forcing them to curve upwards), I replied with, "As awesome as that suggestion sounds, how about a demonstration instead?" From what I had gathered, people in that world really only had powers if they were associated with one of the four gods in some way. So that should have been a valid enough point to make on my part—hopefully enough to convince them for a while. And as an added bonus, they would pretty much be forced to release me from my binds in order for me to prove myself to them. It was like a win-win situation!

The model-worthy soldier looked down at me while trying to decide whether or not he wanted to go with my proposal. It was almost like the guy was searching past my eyes to see any hint of deception. They say that when one is lying, they tend to trail their eyes to the right since the right side of the brain is your more creative side—the left would be where you access your more logical and factual information. There was two things that I was counting in in this instance: one was that these guys weren't aware of that whole brain thing and two, if they were, then hopefully my eyes didn't trail the wrong way. Once Nakago's decision was made, he switched his attention to the barrier of paranoid guards that were surrounding me and keeping me chained up. "Release her."

With that command, each and every one of them seemed to quite literally jump from their spots in apparent fear and shock. Their leader, the one who was actually holding onto my chain, spoke up with a slight stutter. "B-b-but sir! Are you certain?" In a way, you could sort of tell that he was trying his best to make it seem like Nakago's presence wasn't enough to make him completely wet his pants. "This woman is not to be trusted—"

"Are you soldiers _questioning_ a direct order?" As if on cue, all of them straightened up out of cowardice and respect with the very evident threat.

"No of course not General—"

"Need I remind you, _Captain_, that if she turns out to actually be a warrior hand-chosen by our god Seiryuu, then you would have committed the ultimate disgrace by binding her in these chains?" The soldier he was addressing seemed to almost literally shrink in fear as sweat trickled down the sides of his face from the increased anxiety. "If that were the case, then the penalty for your little mistake would be an _immediate_ death." Even I couldn't help but gasp at the severity of the consequence. _Dude, that's a bit harsh! _Nakago didn't even flinch with that promise he gave—he was really going to kill the guy just for chaining me up (ya know…if I were actually a Seiryuu Warrior). Sure, I intimidated people too, but most of the time I either distributed empty threats or ended up dishing my punishment by the means of mild violence.

_These people in Kutou are a cold bunch!_

I was somewhat surprised when the guy turned his attention over to me. This time, however, he actually had a slightly wicked smile on his face that practically spelled trouble. Somehow, though, that grin of his seemed to lower the chilling temperature in the atmosphere a few more notches. Whoever this guy was, he was definitely not the person you'd want to meet alone in a dark alley.

Without warning, he reached out and grabbed my chin, guiding it over as I resisted, forcing me to look at him straight in the eye. _Bitch if you value your hand, you will take it away __**right now**__. _He spoke in a suave tone as he kept his hand where it was—making sure that I got the point across. "If she ends up doing anything suspicious, I'll make a personal promise now to apprehend her myself…_my own_ way." His smile became darker. "And I guarantee you that it _will not_ be pleasant."

_Bring it Blondie. _

Without further question, I began to feel the chains around me being tugged just as he released me from his grip. The pion soldiers had decided to comply with their leader's command, not wanting to test the guys' patience any further. There was just something about Nakago's way-too-calm-yet-daunting expression that really irked me and, for some reason, installed terror in the hearts of his subordinates. Right at the very evident sound of a click, my arms instantly felt a wave a relief as they separated from being squashed against my body—mobility became possible once again. My bindings felt to the floor as a circle around my feet making it official that I had finally been freed.

Almost immediately, the first thing I did was turn my head slightly and look out of the corner my eye towards the chumps who tied me up—followed by one of the nastiest glares you had ever seen. Most of them took a cautious step backwards and kept their hands close to the hilts of the swords that were on their waists. My focus on them only distorted a little when Miaka strolled over and wrapped her arms around one of mine.

"Onee-chan, you're okay, right?" She was most likely referring to whatever they might have done to me in between the time that I left her with the others and when we met up again. As far as she knew, I could have been mauled by thousands of soldiers just because I looked at them funny (aside from the number being exaggerated, the theory wasn't that far off…). I wondered how her, Tamahome, and Nuriko reacted when they found out that I was gone. Hopefully Chichiri relayed the information in such a way that they didn't do anything drastic (considering Miaka was there in Kutou and away from them, it was a pretty safe bet that they had already gone past drastic the moment they let her get away (hidden message: SHE WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THERE!) Her presence there only complicated things. Sigh).

Nodding my head lightly, I responded to her while still keeping a wary eye on the guards. "Yeah, I'm fine." _A little ticked off, but fine. _

Nakago crossed his arms. "Well?" _Let's see…should I continue playing this game or should I just grab Miaka and come back another time to search for Yui. _I much more preferred doing what I went there to do, I just had to deal with the fact that I had extra baggage and hope to her dear Suzaku that she wouldn't get hurt.

_Okay then…_This time, it was I who smirked, but it was mostly directed as a warning to the soldiers behind me. Focusing my energy, I dug down deep to take full control of the elemental Darkness. _Shokyoku? _

Without delay, the disembodied voice of the little girl responded, _'Right! Whenever you're ready!' _As with the _Dragon Slave, _I found that utilizing the dark ring/Shokyoku better focused the negative energy and amped up the strength of the attack—which was quite useful. Now knowing that Darkness was indeed an element installed in me a bit more confidence that I could more easily control it if I was able to acquire Shokyoku's assistance. With an incredibly dangerous element such as Darkness, you could never be too careful since there was always a high chance that it could somehow backfire on you (in my case, projecting my negative emotions onto others at involuntary times. In the case of Shadow Maidens (and myself if I don't become careful) consuming their souls and completely inverting the person they once were into a monstrous, hollowed version of their former selves. And the list goes on…).

Holding up the arm that Miaka wasn't clinging onto without turning completely around, a dark, almost black-ish purple energy poured out to cover my whole hand, palms up, in a field of negative energy. By this point, the guards were unsheathing their weapons slowly while trying to fight off their curiosity. "What the—"

Before they could even finish their pondering, I closed my hand into a fist as I chanted, _"Gravirei." _Instantaneously, a fierce gravitational field consumed the lot of them behind me and violently smashed their bodies to the ground—it didn't exactly help that each one of them was wearing armor which probably already weighed a hefty amount as it was. If I wanted to invest more power into it, I could have caused a crater under them from the sheer force of pressing them even harder and harder, ever so painfully—allowing the sudden increase in gravity to crush them all into indiscernible goo.

But I didn't.

Lowering my arm and calling back the spell, the halo of Darkness around my hand went away and in correspondence, released my captors from the pain they were previously enduring.

Showing them all a fake cheerful smile, I closed my eyes and told them, "See now? That wasn't so bad—all is forgiven!" _But chain me up again and I'll put a whole new meaning to the phrase "Clean-up on isle 1". _

Miaka, who was still on my arm, looked back at the group of guards who were, at this point, cursing under their breaths and most likely thinking of some way to get back at me (ha). She had an expression of awe as she tried to make sense of what had just happened. "I'm not really sure if I should be scared or really impressed," she chuckled nervously.

The mean-looking emperor, who was beginning to look like some sort of bear/human hybrid to me, spoke up with a version of giddiness and excitement to his voice. "So the woman really _does_ have powers! She managed to bring a group of my finest and highly trained soldiers to the ground in one go!" He stroked his chin in pondering, his mind changing its initial perspective about me. "We can use that kind of power...Yes. With you as yet another Seiryuu Warrior, we can no doubtingly crush our enemies who serve under that ridiculous phoenix. We will bring Konan to its knees! Then we will prove who is more superior! It will all be mine!" The man let out a deep and thunderous laugh that echoed against the walls of the throne room. _Wait a second…did he say "another" Seiryuu Warrior? Does that mean that my hypothesis was right before? _So it was true that with the palace came installed already its very own celestial warrior (other parts not included and may require some assembling. Collect them all! (lol) Okay, I was having too much fun there…). But really, if there was already a Warrior of Seiryuu around, then where would they be? I had to make sure to keep my guard up at that point.

Pointing to the Kutou emperor in triumph, Miaka exclaimed, "See? This proves that we are who we say we are!" Whispering to me in my ear to where only I could hear, she added, "You're doing a great job Aki-nee-chan. I think we can actually pull this off!"

Part of me was beginning to think so as well…before I took a glance over at Nakago, who, unlike Miaka, had a rather unimpressed and unconvinced demeanor about him. There was just something that I wasn't catching onto regarding that guy—he was a puzzle to me. I had the small impression that he was not only smarter than everyone else in the vicinity, but knew that we were lying through our teeth and just building on more and more to our story. No one ever said that either my kohai or I were great actors (in fact I knew that I sucked—why do you think that I never participated in theatre? And here we were doing something that I was especially horrible at: improv—making stuff up on the spot and trying to make it sound believable or rehearsed). For a guy who seemed like he wouldn't take crap from anyone, he sure liked to string us along. I wondered why. But instead of calling us on our bluff, he unexpectedly bowed to us.

Both Miaka and I blinked at the unusually placed gesture. "I apologize for accusing you before—you see we can't be too careful during times of war. Certain precautions have to be met."

Scoffing slightly, I gave a small smile in victory while confidently and condescendingly turning my head to the side. "It's alright—even the best of us make mistakes sometimes." Then more quietly I said, "Some more than others."

He chuckled, a reaction that I did not anticipate as a response to my last statement. "Yes well, I feel that it's necessary to properly introduce myself." _M'kay…_ "You'll refer to me as Nakago—I not only lead the army here in Kutou, but I am also…" His eyes narrowed at me for added intimidation. "A Seiryuu Warrior." Imaginary lightning bolts seemed to flash behind me in complete shock from the newly given information. My eyes grew wide as I deliberated what he just told us. _So that's part of the reason that he's been giving off such out of the ordinary vibes! _Things were finally starting to come together in my mind. The reason why people feared him so much—obviously this guy's abilities weren't just a puff of smoke—no—he had to have had some kind of power that made people want to just crawl under a rock and pray for mercy. Of course this didn't exactly tell me why he practically oozed of Shadow Maiden, but at least part of the conundrum had been solved.

And would it have been wrong of me to state that I was sort of excited and curious to find out just what he could do? It wasn't like fighting was my favorite pastime or anything like that, it more seemed like the challenge intrigued me—not to mention the mystery of just what he could do. _Why does what I just said sort of come off as something Tasuki would say? _Probably because he would say something along the lines of that. Probably like, "Sure, I'll fight 'em! Real men don't turn away from a fight and none of 'em refuse challenges. The more bruises and broken bones shows just how tough you are! Bring it on!" Yup. He would definitely say something like that. _Oh gosh, has that guy rubbed off on me? _I shook my head to clear away the present thoughts. _Focus Aki._

"Just one last thing," Nakago started up once more, this time his words directed at Miaka. "While _she_ has confirmed who she is," "She" being moi, "there is still the matter of verifying if you are truly our priestess."

Sighing, I asked him, "Can't you just take my word on it?"

Miaka's arms tightened around mine to silence my objection, her eyes gazing up at me, revealing a determination to complete her task at any cost. "It's okay Onee-chan." She gave Nakago her full attention. "What exactly do you want me to do? Just name it and I'll prove to you who I am!"

"Very well, Lady Miaka." He motioned over to someone who was apparently standing inconspicuously behind the throne, under the heightened doorway that I hadn't noticed before. "To give you a more accurate diagnosis of the situation, there had already been a girl whom we were already convinced was the Priestess of Seiryuu. But now that you showed up, it's vital that we know the truth…from the _deception_." As he ended with that, a young woman with short, dirty-blond hair and midnight-blue eyes came steadily into view. She wore the exact same brown skirt uniform as Miaka, signifying that not only did they come from the same world, but the same school as well. It was the girl that we had been looking for the longest time…

Yui Hongo.

Slowly, Miaka's arms slid off of mine as the gravity of the situation progressively affected her. An overwhelming flurry of emotions washed over her entire being as her olive eyes locked onto the sight set before them. She tried ever so hard to speak her heart, but the inevitable tears were already choking her up, allowing her to form only one word—the only important sound to her at the time. "Y-Yui…Yui…" Reaching out for her once long-lost soul sister, she watched her in high hopes that she wouldn't disappear ever again.

Yui's widened blue eyes were already filling up with tears as she stood staring at us at what seemed like disbelief—figuring maybe that we were some kind of cruel illusion that was being presented before her (boy did I know that feeling). Blinking hard, she clenched her fists. Upon opening her eyes, a single, gentle stream of tears flowed down her cheek, followed by another as she tried to keep her composure. Taking a careful step forward, the fifteen-year-old hesitated, almost as if she were asking permission to proceed any closer.

Almost by some sort of simultaneous cue, the two best friends ran towards each other and were finally able to embrace after what seemed like forever to them. Between the cheerful sobs and hiccups, Miaka managed to get out, "Yui, I missed you so much! I've looked for you all over the place and I thought that you had gotten hurt or something. If something had happened to you…I'd-I'd—"

"Miaka, you're such a crybaby sometimes," Yui replied with a sympathetic smile, she herself crying from the wave of joyful emotions. "Honestly, you're crying is contagious! I-It's your fault that I'm doing it too." Yui and Miaka had met only a little time after I rescued the girl's teddy-bear from that group of jerk-ish boys some years ago. If it weren't for Yui, I would have been stuck with Miaka (who didn't seem to be affected by Shokyoku quite that much) as a shadow for who knew how long. For the longest time, Miaka made me incredibly uncomfortable (she wasn't exactly Kajou's favorite person either). When Yui managed to retrieve Miaka from my company, I was filled with feelings of great relief and thankfulness towards the girl.

Yui and I weren't exactly the closest couple of people, we were only tied together by the glue that was Miaka. You could say that there was a healthy relationship of respect between us, which was probably the reason why she called me "Senpai". Hell, if Miaka didn't exist, I was pretty sure that I would have never even given Yui the time of day. But she was a good kid. Not only was she a very bright student, but she had a level head on her shoulders, and had a significant level of maturity and responsibility that she displayed a lot of the time—a maturity that Miaka very much…with a lack of better words…didn't possess. This, of course, always made me question why Yui hung out with a crybaby, food-obsessed, not-as-bright, naïve, and clingy girl like Miaka Yuki (I was obviously leaving out her better qualities for a reason). It absolutely baffled me! They were opposites in so many ways yet they cared so much for each other and always stood by one another's side—for almost ten years!

Those two were the model of friendship that I had always longed for in life but could never have. They were so different in many ways, and they their bond was seemingly unbreakable. Despite of how nice it all was, there would always be a deeper part inside of me that absolutely couldn't stand the sight of them. They always had the security that they'd be together—for me, that was never set to stone. I always had the fear of being forced out of a world, and, even before I started my journey, that I'd scare people away with my curse. Those girls were always so safe—it was wonderful and yet incredibly irritating.

Life is unfair…and the universe is such a _bastard (_yeah, I know I usually call it a bitch, but either way, I don't like it). Seriously, if you think that I'm just being some whiny pest and complaining of why and how my life is horrible and such, may I direct you to the story starting at chapter one? Yeah, see my point? Thank you.

Anyway!

As I stood there watching them, a small smile crept across my lips. Regardless of my conflicting feelings, I was happy to see that they had been reunited again. I was even more relieved to find that Yui was okay—finally I could throw all those other fears out the window.

But something was…off…about this whole thing—adding to the already distorted sensations I got from the Kutou palace and Nakago. This feeling was slightly different though.

_Gosh what is up with this place?_

When the two teens decided to break apart, Yui looked over at me and flashed me a meaningful smile. "It's great to see you again Akimoto-senpai—it's been a really long time, hasn't it?" I nodded. The last time I saw her, she was still in elementary school (about five or six years ago) and her hair had been a bit longer then. But I think a while ago Miaka mentioned something about Yui cutting her hair so that boys wouldn't continually gawk at her beauty…or something along those lines. Patting her best friends head, she continued to speak to me. "I want to thank you for looking after Miaka here. If it weren't for you, then I don't even want to think about what kind of trouble this Odango head would be in. She can be such a spaz at the worst possible times."

Chuckling at that statement, I rolled my eyes and thought, _Don't I know it. _Turning my body to the side, I crossed my arms as I spoke. "I guess now that you're back in the picture, I can pass the baton back to you. She's your problem now." Watching them out of the corner of my eye, I grinned jokingly. "I do, of course, expect compensation for my duties."

Catching onto the joke, she played along. "Your shift has been an honorable one Senpai and I salute you—I will humbly take on this task."

Throwing her fists down and lifting onto her toes, the oblivious Miaka exploded at us. "Will you two stop acting like you're babysitting me or something? I'm not that high-maintenance!" When the two of us ended up just laughing at her, she puffed up her cheeks and calmed down a bit. "You guys are so mean." Yui and I may not have been close, but we could both agree that keeping up with Miaka and watching out for her was definitely an adventure in itself. Plus ganging-up on her like that was always fun when the opportunity presented itself. Miaka could be an amusing creature when the right conditions were met—apparently Yui agreed with me. Ha.

"So how is it possible that you all know each other?" Nakago's smooth yet fearsome voice cut through our previously happy atmosphere, once again replacing it with the unsettling one I resented before. As we were in the moment, I temporarily forgot that we were even in the Kutou palace, practically being interrogated by some blonde, vogue-model soldier. It didn't even occur to me that my knowing Yui would actually jeopardize the story that we were trying so hard to get everyone to believe. Judging from the two girls' outfits, _of course_ they were associated with each other in some way. But technically, if _I_ were really a celestial warrior, then I would have been born and raised in the _Universe of the Four Gods. _By that logic, and the fact that I had been around Miaka the whole time, then there really wouldn't have been an opportunity for me to meet Yui let alone get to know her well enough to exchange such banter like we just had.

"Well—we…uh…" Miaka stuttered to come up with a good excuse—sweat staring to trickle down the side of her face from anxiety. She was also catching on to how illogical our story was actually starting to sound. There needed to be only _one_ discrepancy—especially for a seemingly calculating guy like Nakago—in order for us to truly slip up.

Right before my eyes, our semi-elaborate plan was unraveling itself.

My mind was practically screaming, _Just grab Miaka and Yui and bust out of there! _I had what I went there for, Yui was safe and sound and there was really no reason for sticking around. There wasn't much of a reason for me to continue pretending like people were actually buying our crap. If anything, the only obstacle would really only be Nakago who was still a mystery when it came to what his abilities were. Despite his intimidating exterior, I was fairly certain that I could take him. But then there was the issue of Miaka and Yui getting caught in the crossfire.

Hmm…

The general steadily walked up to us, peering down at us in a patronizing fashion. His eyes almost immediately caught sight of something to Miaka's side, a pouch of some sort. It was the same one that she had been wearing ever since we left the palace in Konan. Hotohori had given her something in confidence—something that still made me rather curious. And I had a sinking feeling that that object, whatever it was, was what Nakago found sudden interest in.

Attempting to switch his attention elsewhere, I tried to say, "If you're gonna give the girls a test of some kind, then you should just—" Without warning, the guy reached down swiftly and grabbed the exposed scroll (I was finally able to see what it was) from her without even asking permission—as if he really sought for it.

"Hold on! You don't need to look at that!" Miaka reached out her hand to try and retrieve it, but Nakago gave her no such luck. Instead he grabbed her extended arm by the wrist, forcefully keeping her in place as he unraveled the documents with his free hand.

_Hold on a second…_

I gasped. My brain finally clicked on as it processed just what the scroll could be/probably was. However I failed to understand why the girl had brought it with her—_that_ was the ultimate cheat sheet revealing just who we were and who we were associated with.

Holding the struggling priestess as prisoner, Nakago scanned over the contents of the scroll, ending his investigation with a daunting sneer. "This is Konan's _Universe of the Four Gods. _So you really _are_ the Priestess of Suzaku."

_Damn. _It was what I thought. _Why the hell would Hotohori give something like that to her?! And why would she bring it into enemy territory? Out of all the places to take it, she brings it to Kutou—the biggest enemy to Konan! _That was possibly the most important papers in the whole kingdom and he gave them to Miaka…Miaka?! I mean she left it out in the open for Pete's sake! Bad move Princey…bad move.

Not only that but my suspicions about Nakago were right. He knew that we were lying this whole time—he was just playing us, trying to see what we'd do—perhaps even evaluating us.

Now he was holding onto Miaka, never loosening his grip, pondering about what her fate should be for waltzing into a region where she was almost practically Public Enemy Number One. She was the one thing determining whether or not Konan could win this war—of course she was a target. A look of terror in her olive eyes, the girl struggles and fought in determination to break free and run.

Yui's face didn't look happy. She looked sternly at the blond soldier and demanded, "Nakago, let her go!"

"Lady Yui," he began, without even giving her a quick glance—all the while his focus stayed on Konan's priestess. "You must understand that I can't do that. She is our enemy and must be treated as such."

"We have been deceived!" Kutou's emperor's face was red with fury, smoke practically blowing from his ears like something comical you'd see on the Looney Tunes. Pounding his fist onto the arm rest, he roared, "Take the wench away! Let's see how Suzaku does when his precious Priestess has been put to death!"

The girl looked back at me with plea in her big eyes. She shrieked, "Onee-chan!"

Time to take action.

Leaping swiftly backwards a few times, I called upon the power of Water to be manipulated from the droplets that were always present in the air. _"Dolph Strash!" _A spear-like shockwave of Water went rushing towards Nakago at a flashing speed, giving him little time to respond. He instantaneously backed up and pushed Miaka away, allowing the spell to intervene between them, breaking the ground beneath it in a straight line as it continued on. The guy would have had no chance whatsoever had it hit him (he got lucky). But the most important thing was that Miaka was out of his grasp.

Without even a second thought, she ran over to my side, finding comfort in the fact that someone was there to protect her. Remembering that there was door behind the throne, I yelled out to the two girls. "You guys need to get out of here!"

Miaka blinked at me. "But…what about—"

"This isn't up for discussion! You need to leave. _Now!" _The extra strain in that last word got my point across completely. She understood and nodded, a look in her eye telling me to be careful. Hurrying over to Yui, she took he hand, and the two of them dashed off to the corridor that Yui emerged before. I had no choice but to stay behind. Knowing that Nakago was part of the Seiryuu Seven made me cautious, never wanting him to leave my sight until I knew just what he was capable of doing—know thy enemy. It also boiled down to the fact that I stood a much better chance against him than Miaka and Yui (combined). They needed all the time they could to get away anyway.

So I stood there facing my enemy, ready to dish out whatever I had to in order to achieve survival.

Scowling by this point, Nakago looked back towards the gawking soldiers and commanded, "Why are you fools just standing there?! Go after them!"

Just then, another guard showed up, panting vigorously, as he gave a slight bow to his superiors before relaying his message. "Sire! There are intruders in the palace—they're putting up quite a fight and making their way past our forces!" The coward ran away from his post to tell the emperor the news just so that he could escape. _Pathetic. _But in my mind I was more wondering who the other intruders could be. There was no way in Hell that it could have been Miaka and Yui—not only were the two of them not even in that direction, but, really, like they could _honestly_ take on a bunch of armed, highly trained guys. The only people I could think of who were against them (Kutou soldiers) and making their way to the throne room could only be Tamahome, Chichiri, or Nuriko—perhaps all three! It made sense. After all, they did sort of let their priestess slip from their fingers (so darn easily I might add), and it was their duty to look after her.

Upon hearing the news, Nakago didn't hesitate to act like the general he was and give another command. "Then assemble more men to take care of them all! Having the enemy in two separate places is no excuse for negligence!" Right as they were about to scurry away, he added on with a harder tone, "Be careful of Lady Yui—if she is harmed _at all_, don't expect to leave here without rightful punishment."

Shivering with fear, they all stood frozen at attention for a moment before attempting to go off. "Yes General!"

Not feeling that I should give them the chance, I continued to use the power of manipulating phases of Water. Lifting both arms in the air, palms facing the ceiling, I called out, _"Freeze Rain!" _A medium-sized sphere made of ice hovered in the air above me, ready for me to give the extra push of energy needed to initiate the rest of the spell. Focusing on the area that the guards were headed (to the entrance of the hallway where the girls went), an intense flurry of sharp icicles came rushing out, destined to shred whoever was unfortunate enough to be caught in their path (I was…_fairly_ confident that the icicles wouldn't kill these guys only 'cause they were wearing armor and I didn't necessarily want a bloody mess all over the floor. Macabre just isn't my thing).

But right when I was beginning to feel assured, I found that my spell had been deflected by some sort of force field that was protecting the soldiers. One by one, the icicles shattered upon impact, none of them even reaching the soldiers much to my chagrin. And before I knew it, they had already disappeared down the hall, taking the opportunity that luck had given them.

As I lowered my arms and backed off on the energy flow, half of my brain had been telling me to go after them, but my more curious side wanted to investigate who disturbed my spell so easily. I only had to think it over for a few short seconds before my mind had formulated the obvious answer.

Instead of turning around to face him abruptly, I smirked and addressed Nakago without mentioning his name. "So…what gave us away?"

Without even looking at him, I heard the smugness in his tone. "Would you prefer that I go down the list or would you rather I tell you the obvious reason?" As if he really gave a damn about my reply. "If you knew anything about our world and our legends of the four gods, then you would have known the simplest detail of how each celestial warrior is named after a constellation in the skies of their respective deities." In my mind, I slapped my forehead hard for that mistake I made. What made my fluke even more stupid was how I had friends who were Suzaku warriors and I should have suspected that my name didn't sound divine or anything like that at all. Damn, how could I miss such an obvious factor like that? "'Akimoto' is not a name that one can find in this world, let alone Kutou." All of that would have to mean that he knew we were bluffing from the start—perhaps even when he fetched Miaka from who knows where.

"Nakago!" Face still boiling red with anger in conjunction with the situation, the emperor was practically jumping out of his seat with anxiety and anticipation to have this troublesome dilemma resolved by any means. "What're you waiting for? Kill that woman! I will not be made a fool of in my own kingdom!" _Please. You don't need my help to look like a fool._ Let's notice how he was staying on his throne without any intention of trying fight the problem off on his own—you know, like an honorable leader would. I knew for a fact that if something were going down in his palace in Konan, Hotohori wouldn't have even hesitated to take action to protect his people—it wasn't in his character to wimp out like that.

Rapidly turning around to face the countries leader as well as his perfectly-shaped subordinate, I jumped into the air and called upon the power of Fire to my being—feeling the intense head as it gathered around me. _"Mars Celestial Fire!" _With a finger, I traced a vertical ring of fire around me, only to spread my arms out and let the flames concentrate into seven intense floating discs. Bringing my arms in front of me, I finished the spell by saying, _"Surround!" _Like they were being launched by some high-tech machine, the discs went flying towards the emperor like circular, ignited razor blades.

Yet again, I found my attack had been deflected by another barrier created by Nakago. Kutou's emperor still looked up in horror as his would-be assassins (okay, maybe not "assassins"…'cause once again, I wasn't looking to murder anyone) were being prevented from reaching him.

Now I know what you're thinking: if you knew that Nakago was more of a threat, then why didn't you attack him instead of the emperor? Well, I wanted to one, confirm that he was indeed the one who had stopped my Ice assault earlier and two, I was curious as to how he'd react if I were to try again.

"Th-Th-That fire! You're with Suzaku aren't you?" The emperor stuttered in shock and fear.

Putting a hand on my hip, I gave him a sassy expression. "Dude, you can assume what you want 'cause I'm not gonna tell you anything." Adding a more ominous, yet mischievous tone to my voice, I told him, "You have my permission to run away now."

Practically climbing out of his seat and inching to the exit, he pretended to act tough. "Y-You'll pay for this! You, Konan, and your precious Suzaku will all feel the wrath of Kutou's army and power—" Taking a violent stomp forward, I allowed a single gust of wind to shoot out and intimidate the cowardly emperor once more—he needed no more cues to get the hell out.

Putting my attention onto Nakago, his cold blue eyes narrowed at me as he smirked. "Shall we?"

Switching to a more serious expression, I prepared mentally and physically for anything he could potentially throw at me. However, deciding that I didn't want to be on the defending/receiving end of this battle, I went ahead and took the initiative and quickly casted, _"Infinite Earth, mother of all things. Stone Spiker!" _Slamming both of my palms onto the ground, a plethora of lethally sharpened stone spears emerged from below, each one creating a path that wasted no time in chasing after my enemy. Nakago, almost effortlessly, evaded each one, allowing the pile-on of spikes to pollute the throne room, making it more and more dangerous to even move around. But still I stayed in my spot, busting out more spikes, refusing to let the guy get much closer to me.

It didn't take long before Nakago took note of the dangerously situated battlefield and sought to alleviate the problem. Extending an arm out, a menacing sphere of blue energy with a blackened aura shot out from his hand, destroying the tops of each of the spikes that were already above ground. Then he crouched down and put a hand to the ground, sending out a wave of blue that traveled below the surface of the floor, progressively eliminating the chances of any more of my spears from appearing. The ground below me began to crack and implode from the unstableness, causing me to lose my balance and jump out of the way before completely toppling over.

My concentration had been broken from this, leaving me wide open as I tried to think of what to do next. Nakago didn't give me a chance to even ponder. Before I knew it, he had taken out a black leather whip from his side and began snapping it at me. Really feeling the intense need to not get hit by that thing, I got up and took to the air, if only by a few feet off of the ground. It would have been suicide to turn my back to him, so I had no choice but to face him as I backed up. Snap after painfully sounding snap, he persisted with pursuit—a few times the whip had gotten so dangerously close that if my hair were caught in it, no doubt that it would have been hacked off (…by a whip…that's how intense this guy was).

I groaned. _Okay, so this guy can use spells of some type _and_ he can use weapons? That's so unfair for so many reasons! _As a spell-caster, I always had to be cautious not to get too close to my enemy—my strengths lied with being a ranged fighter. If someone got too close, I'd in no doubt be in some serious trouble.

Suddenly feeling my back hit something hard, I found myself being halted in mid-air by one of the throne room's pillars. The surprising pain made me grab the back of my head with an arm and lower myself a little, increasing my susceptibility to Nakago. In that instance, the whip snapped out and wrapped around my wrist, making me wince from the stinging sensation yet somewhat thankful that Nuriko had given me long gloves for this outfit, otherwise, my skin would have broken for sure. With a powerful tug, Nakago had forced me out of the air and slammed me into the ground. Reeling me in as if I were the catch of the day, I was dragged along the floor of the throne room, which had already been littered with piles and piles of debris from the attacks exchanged.

Still recovering from the minor damage that had already been inflicted, I managed to put up a struggle and resist being brought to him like some sort of present. Putting an arm out forward, I used a defense spell. _"Ma Seshield!" _A large, light pink disk-like shield appeared in front of me in an instant. And without hesitating, I pushed it ahead with my energy, making it hit Nakago and force him back towards a distant wall, consequently causing him to lose his grip on the whip and drop it, allowing me the freedom to stand up, out of his grasp.

Even with the added breathing room I was allowed, I was shocked to discover a huge spike in chi levels in the atmosphere—one like I had never felt before. My eyes grew wide to see that my own _Ma Seshield _had been pushed right back at me at an even faster speed than I launched it at. Finding no other way to avoid it, I hurled my body to the side, falling straight to the ground once more, scraping my knee as I skidded. The _Ma Seshield _had impacted the wall that was behind me not even a second before, effortlessly crashing straight through and creating a huge hole of cracking and falling material.

The whole time, my eyes remained as wide as Jupiter in response to the past events. _He…he flung my attack right back at me—_my_ shield! How did he…? _I didn't know what to be more surprised of: the fact that he manipulated my spell, or the sight I was looking at. There was practically an intense field of energy surrounding Nakago—most likely a result of that spike earlier. On his forehead, behind his long bangs, was a light-blue glowing character (same location as Tamahome's!).

Slowly bringing myself back to my feet, I never allowed my eyes to leave his presence. _So…this is his power. _I could definitely tell why he was feared by virtually everyone in the Kutou palace. Getting a grip on myself, I mentally slapped my cheek—snapping me out of awe and back onto the task at hand. _Alright, so if he wants to play hardball, I'll give him a hardball. _

Suddenly, a familiarly unpleasant chill returned, crawling up my spine, freezing me in my tracks in alarm. While still facing Nakago, my eyes darted all over the place trying to find the cause of this obvious warning. A Shadow Maiden could attack me from anywhere, at any time, and I wouldn't have even known where to start. It was like…the feeling was all over the place—not just concentrated in one area (which would have helped me immensely in pinpointing its location). _What the hell is going on here? _I knew in my mind that switching my focus like that was an incredibly dangerous thing in this battle, so I had no choice but to put the chilling feeling at the back of my mind.

Still though…

_I'll only do this for a second…_Closing my eyes, I used Aura Vision to take a better look at the man standing before me. He was surrounded by a flaring halo of dark blood red mixed with greys. But something was weird…I could sort of see that there was an extension of his aura of some sorts, but I couldn't exactly tell what it was or why it was there—it did unnerve me quite _considerably_ though. _Damn it! _If I had just learned to see aura's the right way, then I wouldn't have been so limited. A certain number of hues were completely foreign to me with my eyes closed. Even Nakago's aura was almost too dark to really see (the red made it slightly easier).

"Feeling so confident that you'd close your eyes in battle with me?" My eyes instantly snapped back open the moment I heard him speak. "You are truly ignorant to the traditions of combat."

Offended by his comment, I blurted out, "I know way more than you think I do Blondie. It will be the last mistake you ever make to underestimate me." _So you got a few lucky hits in…big deal. _

He straightened up as his energy began to fall back down to reasonable levels. "Good to know. And by the way Princess Akimoto…" _"Princess?" Is he mocking me or something? _Not that I didn't ordinarily mind the added salutation, it's just the way he _said_ it. Slowly, almost mockingly, he walked towards me in a casual manner. "I know better than to underestimate an opponent—regardless of you being a woman. You'll find that I'm much more capable than those fools you faced before."

_So I've discovered. _Feeling threatened by his inching closer, I brought my hands out in front of me, one covering the one which palm was out. _"__Wind, crimson flame. Grant the power of thunder to my hand!" _Getting the sensation of an intense surge of energy focusing at my hands, I continued with, _"Digger Bolt!" _A lethal blast of lightning shot out from my palm, heading right for Nakago, this time I was heavily sure that he wouldn't have escaped so easily.

Just as the spell seemed to have gone right through him almost too effortlessly, there was a swift blow of wind that came from behind, making me gasp at what had just happened. Out of nowhere, an arm came from in back of me and hooked around my neck, almost cutting off my flow of oxygen completely, grabbing hold of me tight as it brought me in close, up to someone's chest.

My captor lowered his face down and whispered in my ear, his blond hair rubbing up against my skin. "I've heard so much about you—you honestly expect me to believe that that was your best shot?" _Nakago? But how did he—_I looked ahead to where I thought I hit him. _Was that some kind of substitute or something?_ I continued to struggle to break free and for air—it literally felt like the tubes that normally helped me breathe were being replaced with straws that had been chewed at the ends, making the air that was supposed to come up feel constrained. "You're too reckless with your magic—you barely think things through at all. And the way you assess the situation is almost laughable." Well it did help that the people I fought a lot of the times were morons, so perhaps fighting them was a bit simpler. But still…was I really that reckless and uncalculating? Or was it Nakago? Maybe he was just significantly (and I _mean_ significantly) sharper than I gave him credit for.

Continuing to put up the best fight that I could, I thought of using some sort of spell to get me out of that bind. _I can't do that—I'd just get hit with my own spell being this close to the target! Besides…_I had already used quite a bit of magic that day. If I wasn't careful, I'd hit the red-zone in no time at all. But what choice did I have? There was also the chance that my spell casting would go haywire again like it had back in the maze when the little kid took control of my body. Without my hands and proper focus, I couldn't control the direction of where (or determine when) the attacks would happen—even Tasuki and Chichiri almost got hurt thanks to my doing. Kind of tied to the first reason why using a spell at that time would have been bad, I decided against it.

No matter how much I squirmed, Nakago's arm didn't budge at all—I was stuck there. Remembering what he said a bit earlier, I asked, still straining to breathe. "Wha—you said earlier," I tried to take in a deep breath (to no success). "A-Abou…hearing about…m-me? H-How?" I had never even met that guy at all or even seen him before that day, and I couldn't even think of anyone he could have possibly talked to in order to acquire info about me.

"Speaking right now wouldn't be very wise, Princess. Since I don't want you to black-out on me so suddenly, I'd rather have it so that you don't talk." As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. With my air flow being restrained, I was already becoming a bit woozy in the mind. Images of the world around me were beginning to distort—I couldn't afford to lose any more air. Otherwise, game over. "It doesn't really matter how I know about you—the only thing that's important is the fact that I do. I know about your famous confident exterior and how all of it is just some pitiful façade. You are more fearful and timid than most people think—but that's how you want them to think, right?" I stopped struggling, allowing his words to sink in. _What? _"You act tough to keep people away from knowing the truth about you." Lifting his free arm, he touched my cheek intimately with the back of his hand—slowly caressing it as if I were completely helpless lover of his. Another, sort of different kind of chill crept up my spine in conjunction with my face heating up from the feel of his skin on mine. "How a fragile woman such as yourself has been tormented almost beyond compare. Those crimson eyes of yours alone…show all of your pain." He then went on to comb through my hair with his fingers, even in the awkward yet painful position that he had us in—me still gasping for air and insulted that he thought that he could have his way with me like that. _Where the hell could he possibly get all of that information about me?! That stuff is personal! How dare he talk to me as if he knows—how DARE he! _"I knew that we'd meet eventually—it was inevitable. You could say that was one of the primary reasons I knew for a fact that you weren't a Seiryuu warrior."

"D…amn y-you," I gasped like a fish out of water, being threatened by how it could all end in a matter of seconds. None of what was going on made any sense. What put the thought of me into his mind? Why would he figure that we'd meet? _Argh! _Not knowing aggravated me so much!

Tightening his grip on my throat, I began to kick and flail even harder for my release—Nakago wasn't fazed. "Princess Akimoto, you and I have a lot in common, even if you aren't aware of it. I can open…so many doors for you." _Bite me…you bastard._ "Well let's see if this interests you: I know what you really are." Once again my body went limp with his words—that last sentence of his not only caught my attention, but managed to replay itself in my head over and over like a broken record.

"_**What you really are…"**_

"_**What you really are…"**_

"_**What you really are…"**_

_What I…really am? _What did he mean by that? He snickered. "So you really don't know everything about yourself, do you? Like I said before, I can open doors for you—I can reveal things that you'd never image in your present state…but not now…" Without warning, he pushed me away from him, my lack of oxygen making me fall wobbly on my knees, coughing vigorously and taking in gulps of precious air. "You will seek me out one way or another—either to seek answers or purely for desire. Whichever way you want to look at it, you and I will have our alone time once again. As for now," He held up his arm towards me as I continued to stay down in my vulnerable state, "I have Celestial duties that I must attend to. My apologies Your Highness." Arm glowing with ominous blue once more, he fired out a canon of energy that came straight at me.

Reacting as quickly as I could, I crossed my arms in front of my face and casted in a whisper, _"S-Seoshi!" _This particular _Seoshi _wasn't a deeply rooted into the ground as it normally was. So I was pushed back by the intense blast, up against a wall of the throne room. The sheer power of his attack was enough to force my protecting dome not only against the wall, but to make it crack (the wall that is…). Still I kept my ground as he persisted, never allowing my barrier to falter. In the end, his assault won the battle as it sent me flying past the wall, the overflow of energy causing me to lose my grip on _my_ spell and make the _Seoshi _disperse mid-air.

Landing harshly on my back, I found myself fighting to stay conscious and not give out. I was out there, motionless for only a few minutes as I stared up at the still, peaceful blue sky—a few puffy clouds here and there adding to the deceiving sereneness. Boy did I wish that I could just stay there. But we all know how impossible of a dream that would be for me. My eyes trailed over to the hole that Nakago had made with his attack to the palace. It was huge and it was gaping.

_Holy crap—what have I gotten myself into?_

I could have taken him, right? There were several factors distracting me and I did sort of go into that fight belittling him. Okay, that was definitely a mistake on my part. But now I knew (more or less) what he was capable of and I was fairly certain that next time I fought him (at full strength), I'd show him what _I_ was capable of. Nakago may have been pretty, but that was no excuse for him acting like some elusive jackass.

_Next time, I'll give him Hell if that's what he wants. _

_And I'll get some answers._

"_**What you really are…" "**_Really, what was all that about? And what was all that 'Princess' and 'Your Highness' crap? Was that just meant to throw me off?" I asked myself aloud as I lied there. He wasn't even there anymore, said something about attending to some celestial duties or something.

_Celestial duties, huh?_

...

...

...

...

"Oh crap! Yui and Miaka!" Without even giving it another thought, I jumped up, brushed myself off and re-entered the palace through the hole that Nakago had made only a little time before. I stored what had happened there in the back of my mind, but you could bet yourself that I'd re-open that whole situation once this whole infiltrating Kutou business was over and done with.

The moment I stepped back in was when I witnessed the destruction the two of us managed to pull off in such little time. The throne room was nearly as spotless and show-offy as it was when I had first arrived there. We _really_ did a number on that place. Smiling only slightly, I felt sort of proud of myself. _If only I didn't have anything important to do—otherwise I could revel in this all day long._ What really would have been a sight would have being able to see Kutou's emperor's face after he saw all of that. But alas, I wasn't fortunate enough to be handed such pleasures.

Feeling that I had recovered enough from my rude encounter with Kutou's general, I levitated myself off of the ground and began to search the palace starting with the corridor that I demanded the two girls go through. Another thought came into my head of how I technically should have run into those "intruders" that were mentioned earlier. In some sense, we should have met up somewhere along the way, or at the very least, they should have followed all of the commotion that was being made during out battle. Then again, if it really was any of the Suzaku warriors, then somewhere along the lines we would eventually cross paths (we were all headed for the same girl after all).

Floating down the hallways, I saw a definite difference of cleanliness and orderliness in comparison to the now-ruined throne room. But even so, there were still various guards stationed almost all over the place—either looking for the girls or trying to protect the place from me or the other intruders. However you sliced it, getting around without being detected was still quite the chore. After a certain point, I completely lacked the motivation to fight those guys. Going up against someone like Nakago not only took a lot out of you, but you begin to see other enemies (pion ones such as those other non-important soldiers) as nothing more than just ants—you can crush and step on them all you want, but they are just so small and virtually defenseless that the excitement and the point of it all sort of just goes down the drain. The only time I'd actually bother with them would have been if they actually saw me and made a big deal of it. I needed to save the rest of my magic for when I really needed it. This was definitely no time to start coughing up blood just because I refused to be stopped by my limits.

As I searched the palace, the ever-present feeling of Shadow Maiden never left my conscious. Wherever I went, the sensation was there. Knowing this never gave me even a moment's peace. More than anything, I really just wanted to get out of that palace once and for all.

Stopping where I was, I decided to conduct a little aura experiment. Being fully aware that I couldn't see certain colors with my eyes closed, I tried to see if I could, even for a second, catch a glimpse of something using Aura Vision with my eyes open for once. Though I had never achieved it before, there was a first time for everything. Looking upwards towards the ceiling, I began to strain my eyes, never allowing them to blink and attempting to make every cell in them work to my favor (or whatever thing in the eyes that made seeing auras possible). From all of the added stress on them, my eyeballs started to quiver with the increased lack of comfortableness, but still I kept on with trying to see what couldn't normally be seen. Soon enough, something odd appeared in my vision. I could see some sort of black, wispy cloud covering the walls, ceiling...everything really, in the Kutou palace. The cloud almost seemed like it was alive as it constantly rippled somehow like waves (believe me, that is the best way that I can explain how they looked, you'd kind of had to be there in order to see what I saw. Plus, you kind of needed the ability to "see" them as well).

Feeling that I saw all that needed to be seen, even more questions arising in my mind, my eyes finally gave out from the pile-on of strain—I just had to blink. It definitely hurt more to try and look at auras with my eyes open-apparently the way you learn to look at auras primarily is the one you have to stick with (and in my case, that's eyes closed). But I did feel a little comfort in knowing that with a little (a lot) of extra effort, it is somewhat possible for me to see things with my eyes open (...well duh, but come on, you guys know what I mean!).

But it has definitely been confirmed—the Kutou palace was riddled with negative energy. THAT was why I've been getting such screwy signals from that place.

For only a second, I started to wonder if I should concern myself more with finding Yui and Miaka, or if I should actually do my job and fight off the Darkness wherever the source of it was (which began with looking for it of course). _Hmm..._

Just as I lowered my guard, I was surprised to find a non-specifically-shaped shadow, swaying back and forth with glowing yellow eyes staring me down...right in the middle of the hallway. It took my body and brain a few milliseconds to respond, but once the messages got through, I backed up and prepared expected the worse.

Shadow Maiden.

The more I thought about it, the more that it came to my attention that they hadn't shown themselves in the _Universe of the Four Gods_ before. I had dealt with faux shadow creatures and I had to take on those who were Shadow Kissed, but since that day in the park in Miss Emiko's world, it was like they had disappeared from the face of existence. Or more like, according to Taiitsukun, held back and regrouped—perhaps getting stronger. This lone Shadow Maiden I was looking at had been the first one in quite a while.

_I wonder if this is the one that had been stalking me this whole time—perhaps even the one that infected this palace!_ Usually by that point, the creature would have attacked me by now but this one was just...standing like when my journey had first began and they were all surrounding me but not doing anything. Though back thenI thought they were harmless since they insisted on staying put. Boy did I wish that were the case, but I know better.

Progressively floating closer to it, I started to say, "Well, if you're just going to stand there doing nothing, thenI guess you wouldn't mind if I brought a little Light into your life." I was the only one that I knew who had the power to access Light to its fullest (more or less) and defeat Shadow Maidens. It consisted of me summoning up precious memories and feeling from deep within—things that were more of a foreign concept to me as opposed to other things. But with thehelp of the times I had with the Host Club and the others, as well as the bracelet that my ex-boyfriend Hikaru had given me, unlocking that power wasn't impossible. Reaching out the hand with the now glowing gold piece of jewelry, I took advantage of the fact that the being didn't want to move (and I didn't mind or ask questions at all—as far as I wasconcerned, having it—her—just stand there made my job that much easier).

All of a sudden, a shadow as stringy and flowing as a ribbon came out at me from behind and wrapped tightly around my ankles. "What the—?" Then from the front came another ribbon-like string of shadow that launching at me, wrapping itself around my wrists, binding my hands together. The two shadows steadily brought me down and out of the air, bringing me to submission on my knees before the waiting Shadow Maiden. Trying to break my hands and feet free, I found that brute strength would not allow me to get out of that bind so easily (not like I had all that much brute strength to begin with). Looking up into the evil glowing eyes of my adversary, my eyes widened progressively in response to the process happening before me.

Slowly, the Shadow Maiden's form began to change, giving her more of a prominent humanoid shape. She was still a shadow, so she was more of a silhouette more than anything else. Even so, her head began to grow what seemed like long, peppy pigtails that started high on her head and flowed down to her hips. All she had was the naked human silhouette, no outline of clothes could even be seen (not like she needed them—she was a shadow for goodness sake!). Her new form allowed her the advantage of actual fingers, unlike before when she didn't even have arms or legs. Finally, her circular, yellow eyes morphed into a more almond shape, never losing their menacing glow followed by the formation of what looked like a wide, Cheshire-cat smile with sharp white teeth that seemed to illuminate brightly on her pitch-black form.

All the while, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Never before had I ever witnessed a Shadow Maiden doing anything like that before. Hell, I didn't even know that they were capable of doing that. I thought that they were always destined to be in that non-specific shape. Or perhaps this one was just the one-man (woman) out.

Once the transformation was complete, she stood there, brought her hands to her mouth and gave one of the most obnoxious and high-pitched laughs I had ever heard in life. It was like a mixture of conceited and hyena (if you can imagine that, then bravo for you).

To my incredible surprise, she actually spoke. "Sugah, I can believe y'all fell for such a trick like that. Now don't you feel as dumb as a tree?" _What the hell?_ Not only could she talk (without even moving her lips, mouth, or teeth by the way) which had never been done before, but she also had an American Southern-Bell accent (again, _what the hell?)_ "I figured you were much smarter than that, hun, but I guess that serves me right for setting you up to high on the scale. Catching you was just too easy." In this case, I had to completely ignore that insult and focus more on the fact that a Shadow Maiden that just shape-shifted into a human-like form just spoke to me...in an accent. _WTF?!_ I'm sorry, but I just can't get off of that. _If she's smart enough to talk and do all of those other things, then I wonder if she still has any humanity left.._. Shadow Maidens used to be girls like me who asked the universe for the wish and was then whisked away by Taiitsukun to enter other worlds. The only difference between them and me was the obvious fact of I haven't surrendered/lost my soul to Darkness (...yet) and I still had my Light. After that point, I just concluded that they lost all sense of humanity and just became senseless monsters that were incapable of thought or feeling. But right before my very eyes, my past theories were being unraveled, one by one, all by this one particular being standing before me.

"You're," I began to say, "You're capable of thinking on your own-you're aware of what you're doing?"

"As sure as the sky is blue! The sky is still blue, right?" I gave her a peculiar look. _Are Shadow Maidens colorblind? _She giggled. "I'm just foolin' with you. Seriously, how stupid can a chick be? It's kind of disappointin' that _you're_ the honestly the last hope that Light has."

That slightly got me out of my fascination. "Watch it—I'm not stupid."

"Coulda fooled me, hun!" She started to twirl around like a ballerina without a speckle of grace. "But to answer any more questions ya probably have, let me just interrupt you're thought processes for a sec and tell you that I'm not like the average Shadow Maiden—oh and thanks by the way for givin' us a name, we could not for the life of us come up with one—talk about lame, right?" I flashed her a look that said "get on with it". "Anyway, like I said, I'm not like the others. In fact," bending down from her waist, she looked at me in the eye. "I'm much stronger and much more of a threat, sugah." I was also quite curious about where she got that ridiculous accent, but more importantly, she mentioned that she was stronger than the others. Was that why she was capable of the things that she did? Lightly dropping a fist in her hand, she looked at me and asked, "Oh and by the way," It sort of aggravated me how casual she was being with all of this (having me be tied up no less), "there's somethin' that many of us have been wonderin' about you. Why the heck are you goin' through such lengths for a bunch of humans?"

I scowled at her. "What're you getting at?"

"I mean, it's not like they're all that important. In the grand scheme of things they're more a side project than anythin' else." _Side project? _What could that have meant? "Not only are they completely incompetent, but that sorry excuse for a species has an incredible inability to control Darkness or truly access their Light, as if that would be useful to them anyway." Couldn't really disagree completely to that last part she said. Normal humans lacked the ability to manipulate the hidden energies that everyone was born with—Darkness and Light (that's what Shokyoku told me anyway. And it did make some sort of sense). They are so sensitive and weak, able to be manipulated by virtually anythin' with little to no effort. Plus they let their emotions control them like they were their bitch or somethin'." The more she thought of the idea of the human race, the more that she couldn't help but stifle a laugh.

Scoffing with skepticism, I told her. "I'm sorry, _they_ can't control Darkness? _Who's_ the freaky Shadow figure in front of me that was once an opaque being?" I pretended to think about it for only a few seconds before gasping at a fake "aha" moment. "_Oh yeah_! The one who got _possessed_ by Darkness! Ringing any bells yet?"

Squirming at faux innocence, she shook her head as her wide, sharp smile temporarily went away. "No there's a difference! We aren't weak humans! We found the truth! You know how they say that knowledge is power? Well it's true! The fact is that Darkness is the true essence in all that is—we aren't consumed by it—we embrace it with open arms—and its amazin'!" As her grin crept back, her sentences were progressively becoming more obsessive and crazy sounding, almost as if she were about to finally snap. "If it weren't for me findin' the truth, I'd still be in that pathetic shape I was in before. Humans can't handle the power—they weren't destined for it. They'd get swallowed up without even a second thought." That was when she let out that insane and annoyingly high-pitched laugh from earlier (what an inappropriate place to laugh).

"That's some high and mighty talk coming from someone who used to be a human…" I muttered.

With that, her laughter immediately stopped as she stared at me for what seemed like minutes—_I_ was trying to figure out what part of what I said got this kind of reaction out of her. Then her creepy smile widened even more. "Human? _Human_?! Excuse me…let me see if I got this right…You think that I was a '_human'_? Which means that…" She stared at me for a few more seconds trying to see if I'd interrupt her and tell her that I was joking or something. Apparently she was fishing for a pun that just completely went over my head this time. "Seriously? Oh my. Nobody told you yet? After all this time? This is just too funny!"

I blinked a few times, still annoyed that I wasn't catching onto her drift. "What's funny? What has no one told me?"

Much to mu irritation, she ignored my question. "This is just too rich! That old woman Taiitsukun really needs to step up her game if she's keepin' _that_ from you."

Eyebrow twitching from all of her antics, this whole hyper bit of hers was getting old…fast. With a calm yet frightening tone, I demanded, "I am not going to ask you again."

Unfazed by my threat, she chuckled and revealed the preciously kept secret. "Aki my dear, you aren't human—never was, never will be." A single powerful heartbeat could be felt from my chest the moment I was stricken with shock of the news. In the pit of my stomach, nausea imposed without any warning. My eyes trailed down to the floor as I tried to process the information—for some reason, some of the wires weren't quite connecting the right way. _I'm…not human? I'm really not a human? _People throughout my life had always assumed that there was something wrong with me—making cruel jokes about me being some type of demon. Was it really turning out that their accusations weren't that far-fetched? An ordinary person should have been inflicted with more shock than I had…but somehow, part of me expected that it was something like that. I was so different than the people I both avoided and tried to befriend, and I was finding that it wasn't really even my magic that made me so different—why I felt different.

Then…

What did that make me to Kajou? Was I not really her sister? Were my parents really my parents? Was my whole family like me? How did this whole thing work? But mostly…

"What exactly am I?" I asked her with a slight plea in my voice. Give me a break here, I just found out that I wasn't the creature that I thought I was my entire life—I was allowed to lose my edge a bit in this case.

Wagging a finger at me, she taunted, "No, no, no, no, no. It's way too much fun keeping you in the dark, hun." As some cruel joke from the universe, everyone seemed to think that. Taiitsukun, Shokyoku, this Shadow Maiden, and even Nakago knew more about who I was than I did! Every person was supposed to know more about themselves than anyone—that makes sense, right? That's how things should have been. But my life was so screwed up…of course things like this keep happening to me. Maybe I just wasn't meant to know something's…"I think that I'll just keep it at that for now." _Am I not willing to accept that? Damn straight! _

Mulling it over in my mind, I thought rationally about my desire to press on. Knowing my luck, however, I realized that this conversation could have just gone around in circles like it always had. So instead, I chose to move it along. "Whatever. Just…tell me what you guys want with me." Just as things were settling down, I was brought back to the reality of how I was being tied up by my wrists and ankles by one of the creature who had been trying to Turn me and/or kill me for the longest time. And here I was having a legitimate conversation with one of them. Since this one _could_ talk, might as well try and get what answers I could out of her.

"Well I can't exactly speak for my sisters in this particular instance, since this was mainly my idea."

This spiked my interest a bit. "What was your idea?"

"Oh, ya'll will find out soon enough. And speakin' of which…" Taking a glance at her wrist, she pretended that there was actually a watch there for her to keep time with. "I think that the show is just startin' now!" _Show? _"I think that you're really gonna to enjoy this—I know I'm gonna!"

"Where are we going—" Right as I asked, another ribbon-like shadow covered my mouth to prevent me from talking any more.

"Sugah, I'm about to take you to a magical little place that will prove my point about humans. Oh, and we're about to phase through a wall, that might feel weird the first time, but ya'll get used to it." Before I knew it, I was being shrouded by a sheet of Darkness, my body feeling a certain weightlessness, like I was being submerged in a deep pool of water without even being wet. Just as I was in the moment of submersion, gravity soon came back into play as I was able to feel all of my weight once again. Once my vision cleared, I found that I was being suspended over some sort of shrine room or something—only assuming that since there was a nice-sized statue of a mighty dragon (who I assumed was probably Seiryuu based on the country we were in). Back in the Konan palace, there was a huge golden statue of the phoenix Suzaku where Tamahome first told Miaka and me about the four gods. This room, although darker and more secluded than the Suzaku shrine, seemed to be quite similar, with various lit candles and sweet smelling incense placed in front of the statue out of respect.

Down below, I was surprised to find Yui and Miaka standing away from each other—the biggest shock being that Yui was being backed up by the sadist, blond vogue model himself, Nakago. And he was standing comfortably there as if Yui actually wished for him to do so. On that note, why were they facing Miaka like that? They sort of reminded me of a pack of wolves backing their prey up against a tree before going in for the kill. But it couldn't have possibly been anything like that, despite what it looked like. After all, I obviously came in at some odd moment where I missed a bunch of the stuff that happened before my arrival. Yeah! I just didn't have the full story.

My attention then switched over to the entrance of the room. There was Tamahome and Chichiri standing before the doorway, both of them standing there as if something were preventing them from getting any closer. How peculiar it was to see Tamahome so far away from his beloved—especially with a dangerous character like Nakago around. Then…why? Something was definitely wrong with this picture.

And where was that pesky Shadow Maiden? She just left me there floating and gagged, unable to be detected by everyone below us. We were just spectators to the event…whatever the event was.

"I hate you…" Yui said harshly under her breath then even louder, "I hate you Miaka!" She cried out from across the room to my Odango-headed kohai. Miaka's olive-green eyes grew from disbelief and shock. Her body began to shake as it tried to hold back from bawling like a baby and at the same time, staying strong and refusing to accept what was just said. I wasn't exactly having the best time absorbing Yui's words either. What did she mean by she "hated" Miaka?

"Y-Yui—"

"You abandoned me…you left me in this stupid world and you didn't even care!" The dirty-blond-haired girl clenched her fists. "The only reason you came back was to be with Tamahome—whether or not I was okay never even occurred to you!" Yeah, Miaka wanted to see Tama, but her heart was dead-set on finding her best friend, no matter what the costs. From day one all Miaka could think about was being reunited with Yui—how could she honestly think that Miaka would do otherwise?

Shaking her head, Miaka shook her head and forced a shaky smile. "No. Yui that's not it at all. I came back for you—I was so worried about you and hoped that you were safe. You're my best friend Yui…please don't act this way. Just stop joking around alright? We'll get out of here and go back home—just you, me, and Onee-chan—"

"Shut up!" Yui yelled out. "That's a lie! You don't want to go home—you just want to stay here with your precious Tamahome and life out your life in bliss. If it was up to you, you'd just make your life in our world just fade away." _No, actually that's what I want. _Miaka, for the most part, was a pretty happy girl and was satisfied with her life. If her mother wasn't too anal about grades, I'm sure that Miaka's already mostly happy life would improve by thirty percent. She never complained about not liking the direction her life was going in—all I did was see her only smiling most of the time (once again, when her mom wasn't being anal). It had been _my_ dream for the longest time that I find a home somewhere with people who appreciated my existence and leave my troubled past behind me.

But this wasn't about me, it was about them. And there I was, shocked that Yui would speak to Miaka in such a harsh manner. Things were really becoming topsy-turvy in such a short amount of time.

"You have absolutely no idea what I have been through since coming to this world in exchange for _you_." Yui heavily strained that last "you", lathering it with hatred. "You could never know! And now it doesn't even matter 'cause you don't give a damn!" Miaka opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted by Yui once more as she looked away and avoided eye-contact. "I can _never_ be the same now…only…" She looked back for only a second to glance at Nakago who stood tall and firm. "Only Nakago was there when I needed someone to understand me—he let me confide in him—he protected me. And most of all, I can trust him! I can't trust you Miaka and I have no desire to have anything to do with you anymore!" _This can't be happening. _Yui was actually siding with Nakago? Nothing was making any sense here. How could she say that Miaka didn't care and that she was being selfish? Sure, Miaka could be absent minded sometimes but never did she ever give a second thought when it came to Yui. Those two had always been connected practically at the hip. I'd never seen them apart for more than half a day. "You always had it so easy—having people taking care of you—loving you—you've never been alone, never really knew what it was like to be tormented by something!" By this point, Miaka was repeatedly shaking her head slowly, tears running down her cheeks and dripping from her chin. She was backing up slowly against the shrine, knees knocking together making it difficult for her to stand.

"Yui…I—please—"

"No!" Yui took a step forward, making Miaka tremble even more. "This has been your fairy tale. Instead of being met with anything too bad, you've just been waltzing around with your new friends and your prince Tamahome having a good time. _I_ didn't get that chance Miaka! _I_ went through Hell—my own personal nightmare—and it's all _your_ fault!" She was crying as well, but instead of having a sympathetic expression, the only message she gave off was one of anger and sorrow. How could any of this possibly been Miaka's fault? And what could Yui have been through that was so bad that could just turn her against her best friend so easily?

Ever since I could remember, Yui and Miaka's relationship had been the strongest I had ever witnessed. In such a world that I grew up in, one where people held friendship lightly, took things for granted, betrayed, and broke bonds as if they were nothing, it had been those two who had given me hope. They were my silver lining, ensuring me that the world could get better—that people could change and that things weren't as bad as I had learned to believe. In fact, they were one of the reasons that I didn't want to give up.

_I refuse to just sit here and let their friendship crumble!_

Gathering up all of my faith in those two, the bracelet around my wrist began to fiercely glow with a golden light, causing the shadows holding me to burn and disintegrate. Once again, my arms and legs were free and I fell straight down to the scene below, landing comfortably on my feet using the assistance of Wind. Consequently, I ended up smack dab in the middle of the conflicting friends.

"Onee-chan?" Miaka said in between gasps.

Catching onto the desperation in her voice, I faced Yui. "You two have been friends forever—how can you honestly just stand there and ruin something so precious? You can't be serious Yui!"

She didn't seem to be affected by my sudden entrance. "I _am_ serious Senpai. From the time I left Miaka when we first came to the world, I never left that library—_I_ stayed with her the entire time. When she stabbed herself to save you guys, _I_ endured the pain with her, ensuring her that she wasn't alone. But once the roles were switched," Pausing for a second, she looked over my shoulder and narrowed her eyes at Miaka, "she wasn't there—she left me all alone in a dangerous place."

"And of course I came for Lady Yui's rescue," Nakago chimed in from behind her. "I thought that it was inconceivable for someone to leave a flower such as herself all alone to fend for her life. She deserves so much better." _What the hell is this guy going for? _He acted like he was completely interested in me earlier and now he's playing the part of Yui's knight in shining armor? I didn't buy it. Walking up to her, he put a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"When Nakago came along, I felt safe—he made me realize my destiny." Putting her hand on his, she flashed him a knowing smile (that was still a bit dark somehow…) "I was hesitant before, but now…" Turning her head back forward, she gave Miaka a look that practically spelled death. "I'm positive that I was meant to be the Priestess of Seiryuu." _No, no, no! This wasn't supposed to happen!_ The two reasons why I separated myself from the others to come to Kutou was yeah, to save Yui, but to also ensure that they wouldn't awaken their priestess and summon their god. There was no doubt that the war would have gotten uglier than it already would have been when high and might deities got involved. Of course I was rooting for Suzaku in the long run, but let's remember that I never wanted a war in the first place! And now it was looking like the battle was going to get worse because not only did we have two priestesses, but we had two priestesses from rival countries! When and why did things get so messed up?!

All the while, Miaka's throat was too choked up for her to reason with Yui. But she tried anyway. "Y-Yui please…don't….don't…don't…please! I love you Yui and I don't want this to tear us apart!"

Yui showed absolutely no sympathy. "We're enemies now Miaka. And I swear to you that I'll make sure that you and your friends are defeated." Gazing into her blazing blue eyes, an epiphany struck me like I had been hit with an eighteen-wheeler. _Holy crap! She's serious! _She may have been Miaka's best friend, but this was hurting me on the inside as well. It was like my faith in humanity was quickly deteriorating—

I gasped.

_That Shadow Maiden…_This is what she was talking about. Gritting my teeth, I shook my head vigorously. _No! I refuse to give her the satisfaction!_

"However…" Yui began. Miaka and I snapped our heads back up at her as our thoughts were interrupted. "Akimoto-senpai, I have absolutely nothing against you. So I'm inviting you to join us here on Seiryuu's side. Before you know it, Miaka will just betray you like she did to me."

Sighing, I couldn't help but accept that the Yui we once knew was gone. _So that's how it's gonna be, huh? _Taking a few steps back to Miaka's side, it was clear who I was supporting in all of this. "I don't quite believe that and somewhere deep, deep down inside, I don't think that you do either. So I'm staying on the more justified side." As I put my arm around Miaka to comfort her, I continued to speak to Yui. "This whole thing is wrong." I started to wonder if that Shadow Maiden had anything to do with this. She was so eager before to get me here. There was a chance that she was manipulating Yui somehow or screwing her behavior just to get a rise out of the situation.

Somehow…I just couldn't believe that. No matter how rational it sounded.

"You're always on Miaka's side just like everyone else—it isn't fair!"

Trying to set her straight, I told her, "I was never really on anyone's '_side'_—it's not about that. This is an account of what's right and what's wrong. And this…is _wrong_ Yui Hongo." Before she had a chance to rebut, I went on. "Miaka had been worried sick about you this whole time and _this_ is how you treat her?"

"That's a lie Lady Yui," Nakago muttered to her (but not hushed enough for me not to hear). "She never cared about you—why else would she leave you here…in exchange for her? If she hadn't found Tamahome, then what assurance would you have that she would have returned?"

"You're stepping into _dangerous_ waters Blondie," I growled. Whether or not the Shadow Maiden was involved, it was clear that Nakago was twisting facts and Yui believed him.

"No, he's right Senpai…I had been blinded all these years. But now…I know the truth." She took time out to look over at the door that somehow blocked off Tamahome and Chichiri. "And Miaka…once this whole thing is over, I'm taking Tamahome away from you—you don't deserve him."

_What?_

Without hesitation, a barrage of dark-blue energy attacks erupted from Nakago, firing off like some magical machine gun. Neither Miaka nor I had expected the abrupt assault, but I was still ready regardless. And this time, I wouldn't hold back on him.

Clenching both of my fists, I was prepared to defend and counter. _"Seosh—" _Just then, Chichiri appeared in front of us out of nowhere, holding up his golden staff whose barrier reflected that oncoming attack.

"Chichiri!" I breathed in astonishment.

Managing to keep his ground, his masked face looked back at me with a slight strain, but gave a small smile. "I'm here to help, ya know?" Nodding at him, my mind began to formulate a plan to get us out of this mess and potentially get Yui back whether she wanted to come with us or not. Sliding out from in back of our monk friend, I had a clear shot of Nakago who was still occupied with the defending Chichiri.

But then I saw something peculiar.

Nakago's wavering shadow below him started to shift unnaturally and soon, it lifted itself from the ground and took shape.

_It's her!_

_Why did she come from his shadow?_

"How's it goin' hun? Mind if I play too? Seems like ya'll are havin' a blast!" She greeted with her southern accent. Her and Nakago flashed a look between each other before she jumped up and literally dove into the ground as if it were a swimming pool, her body disappearing from view.

I had no idea where to even begin looking for her. She could have literally been anywhere! Frantically searching the floor, I couldn't seem to come up with a good enough plan to ensure that she wouldn't sneak up on me or cause significant trouble.

Man did I hate fighting a shadow.

Her voice echoed from all around. "If we're gonna play by _my_ rules, then I'll need to get rid of a minor…_handicap_." _Dammit! Where is she?_

Chichiri was steadily being pushed back by Nakago's ongoing attack. Then he allowed just one hand to handle the guarding staff as the other did some sort of hand-sign. He muttered a few words under his breath and from across the room, I saw Nakago cautiously look down. Just then, he ceased his assault and jumped out of the way merely second before a pillar of light blue energy shot up from the ground where he once stood.

"AHHHH!" I heard a spine curdling scream come from behind me followed by someone else's creepy laugh.

"Sorry about this cousin, but you're not my focus right now. You understand, right?" The world seemed to slow down as I turned to see the Shadow Maiden standing in front of Miaka, her back to me as she didn't necessarily think that I could stop her. Her arm stretched down, resembling black taffy, and phased into the ground below only to unexpectedly launch back up in the shape of a mallet, impacting Miaka in her gut, sending her flying—mouth gaping open as the wind was ferociously knocked out of her.

Gasping in horror, I screamed out, "Miaka!" That Shadow Maiden was not only stronger than the others but she was indeed smarter—possessing abilities that I hadn't even seen before. Her intellect was making her a formidable force that I couldn't afford to take lightly (obviously). Immediately afterward, the Shadow Maiden disappeared once again as she went through the floor.

What was also bothering me was that her best friend was being attacked and Yui was just standing there, not responding to anything that was happening. Had she completely lost her soul? How could she be acting so cold?!

"Miaka!" Tamahome shouted in concern from the other side of the barrier. Her body impacted the wall in the background, creating a painful crater. As she slid to the floor, her head hung down signifying that she had been knocked out. Infuriated with her being attacked, Tamahome ran into the barrier yelling something fierce, electricity flashing out the harder he pushed. With incredible determination, he took a step forward…and then another. And soon, his pace became progressively faster as his love propelled him forward (yeah, cliché I know), no matter how much apparent pain he was enduring.

Once the barrier was broken, Tama ran to Miaka's side and fell to the floor beside her. His body looked pretty beat up—various bruises and burns—and his clothes were incredibly torn from him ripping through the obstacle. "Miaka! Miaka! Please be okay!" As he moved to hold her, she let out a soft groan, informing us that she was still alive, just unconscious. _Thank God. _It didn't take long before Chichiri rushed over to us as well.

"How is she?" He asked.

"She'll survive," I told him. Then I gave one of the nastiest glares to our adversaries. "Which is more than what I can say about _them_."

"Aki, I think that we should just take what we've got and retreat for now, ya know? We can think of a plan later when we're all at our best."

I cocked an eyebrow up at him, surprised that he'd get out of a battle so quickly—especially one as important as this. "Why?"

His expression turned to one of concern. "How much magic have you used today?" My body stiffened up at the question as my eyes trailed to pan away from his. Judging by the inquiry, it was obvious that he knew something about my energy-using limit. Perhaps he knew because he was a magic-user as well. That made sense.

Even if I was reaching my limit, something still needed to be done about this—this…messed up situation. Just because I got to that point, it didn't mean that I lacked the ability to use my spells. It only meant that my body would start tearing itself up from the inside. But that didn't matter. Not anymore. "Don't worry about me."

Using his kasa hat, Chichiri created a large enough portal to transport all of us out of there thought I couldn't exactly tell where we'd end up. "C'mon everyone! Get inside!"

Carrying Miaka as he limped along, Tamahome didn't need anyone to tell him twice to evacuate. Before going through he turned to face Yui. "Come with us—we can help you."

Instead, she shook her head and kept her bitter expression. "I'm staying here—I meant what I said before. Miaka is my enemy now as well as anyone who fights for her." Closing his eyes in remorse, Tama shook his head and took Miaka through the portal to get her to safety.

"Aki, hurry up! We gotta go before they decide to attack again, ya know?" Chichiri warned as he prepared to step in as well.

There were two people in that room who knew something about that I didn't regarding my existence—not to mention a backstabbing girl who caused my kohai to get hurt due to her hostile jealousy and animosity. If he expected me to just turn away after all of that, then he was seriously mistaken. Keeping an eye on the enemy, I responded without looking at him. "I'm staying."

"But—"

"Just get Miaka out of here. I'll be fine." Glancing at him out of the corner of my eye, I reassured, "You know what I'm capable of Chichiri. I'll make it back to you guys—there's no way in Hell that I'd leave the situation as it is." _I'll bring Yui back Miaka—count on it. _Seeing my determination made Chichiri lose all hope in trying to convince me to come along with them. Once he ducked inside, the opening closed and the kasa hat disappeared along with my companions.

I was left alone to fend for myself.

Perfect.

"This time I'm not asking you to come with us Yui—I'm _telling_ you." I held out my hand as if I were holding something. "_Source of all power, light which burns beyond crimson, let thy power gather in my hand._" In an instant, a _Fireball_ ignited in my hand, just waiting for me to throw it at whomever I pleased. Witnessing my spell prompted the girl to find comfort in Nakago by pressing herself against him. In response, he put an arm around her to keep her close, still keeping a wary eye on my movements. "Last chance."

Just as I was about to chuck the ball of intense flame at them, a freezing sensation came from my wrist followed by the inability to move my arm, as if something were holding it back. When I peeked backwards, I found that the Shadow Maiden was making sure that I didn't complete my attack.

"Sugah, that wouldn't be very nice…Now. _Would_. It?" Forcefully taking hold, she bent my arm back into an unnatural and painful position (no one's bones are meant to bend that way). The more she tugged, the more shooting pains coursed through my appendage. As I growled and winced from the agony, the _Fireball _fizzled away, causing her to giggle menacingly. "Besides, I thought that this was between you and me? Why dilute the fun by addin' in more factors?" Another tug on my arm made me want to scream out in jolting pain. But there was no way that I'd allow her yet another reason to laugh at me.

Nakago and Yui began backing up into the darkest parts of the shrine, trying to creep away from the new ugly scene that was unfolding. "Make this quick," Nakago commanded. Then without another word, the two of them were out of sight.

_Dammit._

Keeping up what was left of my shattering morale, I forced a smirk. "I'm surprised that you're taking orders from a human. Or maybe you're just smitten with him—" Now twisting my arm, I was reflexively forced onto my toes in order to escape from the incredible discomfort.

Her southern-bell voice still kept an amused façade, but her new words were lathered with a hateful chill. "Don't confuse my intentions, cousin. And I'd shut that pretty little mouth of yours before you say anythin' unnecessary."

Evilly thinking of awful things I could do to her in my mind, I made a new point arise. "Would you really be satisfied with defeating me in such a boring way?" Judging by her irritating personality, I could tell that she was more of the type to add some spice to her life instead of keeping things simple and plain.

After a few seconds of thought, she agreed. "You're right. I love seein' you suffer but it's just no fun when no real struggle is involved." Grabbing my arm away from her, I took a few cautious steps away from her, rotating my arm from the shoulder to realign my bones.

"And what the hell did you do to Yui?" Some speckle of hope inside of me was still grasping onto the idea that this Shadow Maiden had done something to her to make her act the way she was towards Miaka.

"Oh come on hun, you can't seriously think that this was my fault, can you?" I blinked at her a few times to show skepticism. "Okay, I can see why you'd think that, but believe me cuz," She did that annoying head roll thing to try and add some sass to her point, "I didn't _need_ to do anythin' to make her turn on her bud—or shall I say, _ex_-bud. Ya'll have that ability to sense us and our power, right? Then just by that, you already know the truth sugah." I seriously had the urge to punch something at that moment. While Yui was acting bizarre, never once did I get any of those chilling sensations coming from her—no aura filled with heavy concentrations of Darkness—nothing telling me of any Shadow Maiden influence. Sure the palace practically reeked of Darkness, but technically that was something different entirely. Yui was virtually untouched. She hadn't been Shadow Kissed or anything—I would have known that from the start if she were. And even if she was being influenced by Shokyoku, it still would have just been an amplification of her true emotions—yet I was still fairly sure that Shokyoku wasn't as active as she used to be, so that couldn't be it either! That was _her_ talking and that _was_ how she really felt.

My head started spinning as anger began boiling in between the depths of my being.

_How dare she?! How could Yui do that to Miaka? Is nothing sacred anymore?! _That girl had a lot of nerve for completely shattering ten years of friendship. Was their bond honestly so fragile that literally anything could break it as if it were a weak twig? She took their precious friendship and stepped on it without regret.

Yui…

That Shadow Maiden…and Shokyoku…they both told me about how weak humans really were—how they so easily allowed Darkness to overcome and manipulate them—slowly eating at them without even fighting back—making them do awful things—because they couldn't…they lacked the ability—the strength _or_ the initiative—to fight it. Beings that weak were…unreliable—that was what they told me. I'd seen examples of this in my life and had dismissed it, telling myself that things could get better—that they had to get better. In my entire existence, thanks to the curse, I repeatedly relived all of those awful things—the shunning, the isolation, the ridicule, and… Kajou's death.

But still I had my silver lining—Miaka and Yui.

Never once did I think that anything could break them up.

_I refuse to accept this!_

"Aww," The Shadow Maiden commented with faux sympathy, "judgin' by that goofy expression on your face, I'm gonna assume that you still have a shred of hope that their friendship will survive, right?" I shot her a look that warned her that she's taking things too far. "Denial is an ugly thing, hun, and we wouldn't want that pretty face of yours riddled with ugly now do we—"

"Ya know what?" I interrupted her, feeling a build-up of energy rise up inside of me. Inside the shrine room, a current of Wind started to pick up. "It was fascinating at first to find that you can talk but now I want to rip those vocal chords right from your throat and drop them in the nearest paper shredder!" _Or whatever allows her to speak_.

"Charmin'." On an impulse I ran at her and pinned her to the ground, holding her down in submission—her bright smile disappearing from the surprise. With my bracelet sporting hand, I tried to summon forth all of the positive energy of Light that I could. Something was different this time, though. The warm feeling came and went within only a matter of seconds—sizzling out quickly whenever I tried to maintain it. My hand would acquire the golden glow only to have it dim back to normal. It was like trying to start a car that's engine was failing—repeatedly turning the key proved to be rather futile. Holding my hand up to my face, I thought with worry, _What's going on? _Noticing my distress, her smile crept back, bending all the way up to the corner of her glowing eyes. "What's wrong hun? Not feelin' very positive today? How unfortunate." _How did she? _"Yeah that's right, I know about your method of summoning Light—recallin' happy thoughts and feelin's, no matter how cliché the idea is. But without those feelin's _you can't defeat me_." Much to my horror, she was right—I just didn't have it in me to be happy at that moment. It also didn't help that her increased strength was causing an even bigger unbalance between my already conflicting internal Darkness and Light. Without warning, she grabbed my shoulders and flipped me around, landing the bitch on top of me—thereby turning the tables. "Oh and I never really favored that tacky piece of jewelry you have there. How about we fix that?" Wrapping her blackened fingers around Hikaru's gift, the sturdy gold material began to get duller and duller. And then…

She crushed it into thousands of pieces—my widened eyes catching each beautiful fragment falling to the ground.

_No…_

_No…Hikaru's lovely present—the one he made especially for me. He cared about me so much that he made it…just for me…and now it's…it's…_

My vision became blurry with the tears that started to form—words were so far away from me that I couldn't even speak properly. I couldn't even come up with the right words to describe how awful I was feeling at that moment. There was a gurgling, chaotic pool of negative emotions swirling around deep inside me and I couldn't do anything about it.

The Shadow Maiden cackled cruelly at my despair. "Beautiful, isn't it? I can feel Darkness growing inside of you. Embrace those feelings of hatred and sadness Aki—they will bring you closer to true Darkness and…the truth. It will make you stronger—just like it did for the rest of our kind." From beneath her, I tried to struggle free or even cover my ears. I didn't want to hear anything she was telling me. If it were possible to hurt her with the other elements other than Light, then I would have brutally mutilated her by that point. "Suffering is required to achieve true happiness, hun. That's the way things are whether you wanna accept it or not. But you already know all about that, don't you?" Placing her hand on my cheek, she continued with, "The thing is that you've been suffering for all the wrong reasons. Allow me to _help you_." Much to my horrific surprise, the Shadow Maiden brought up her arm and then plunged it deep into my chest. But…it wasn't a physical interaction…It felt like my body was being frozen from the inside out. Her hand was grabbing for something…but what? There was an empty space inside and she was going deeper and deeper, much further than an arm's length should normally be able to go. She wasn't even hitting organs or anything—she was somehow on some other plane.

All I knew was that she was violating me, searching for _something_ that should only stay hidden. My whole body just lied there, paralyzed from the shock and extreme cold. My fingers twitched but that was really the only message any part of my body received from my brain. _What is she doing? What could she possibly be looking for? _

Putting her head all the way down to my chest, she reached even further. "Damn woman, how deep could it possibly be? Your system sure is keepin' it well protected I'll say that much…" Then she paused as her finger touched something. "What's this?" Another touch. "Oh! I do believe we have a winner!" The moment she grabbed whatever it was, my upper body involuntarily shot up from the intrusion. It was like…it was like she was seizing my whole body and yet she just took hold of one thing. One. Thing. My mouth gaped open as I tried to speak, but all I could manage to do was continually gasp like a weak fool. _What is this? What's this feeling? _"Your Wind element sure gives one hell of a security system but that's not gonna help you here, hun. I'm far stronger and much more real than that primary Darkness of yours that you normally fend off, so your version of anti-bodies doesn't affect me as much." Her glowing yellow eyes narrowed slightly. "Hey, wanna see something cool?" While she continued to hold on to whatever it was, she stood up as she lifted my whole body up by using just that. Moving her arm to the left, then to the right, my body followed without question. I was being swished around almost as if I were a rag being used to wipe a huge smudge off of a wide window. I had no power over what she was doing. Whatever she had a hold of, it was my core—the central control of my being—who I was. Having that in your hands meant that you had…_me_.

As she finally stopped waving me around, she just held me there, dangling above the ground—defenseless. Never before had I felt so damn weak. I was disgusted with myself… and confused…with everything.

_Who am I?_

_What am I?_

_What happened to make this woman this way?_

_Why am I so different?_

_Why did things turn out like this?_

"You think that's awesome? Well you're gonna love this next part." Her hand squeezed, leaving an extra sheet of awfulness that spread itself all over the horribleness I was already feeling. "The pain will only last for a little while longer Aki—once you get past that, you'll be _one of us_. And don't worry, you'll learn to love it."

_No…_

Every happy feeling I had ever felt—every joyful memory I possessed from meeting new friends and sharing experiences…learning lessons that I couldn't have done all on my own, they were starting to drain away from me. I tried my best to hang onto them for dear life, but the more concentration I invested into trying to hold onto them, the farther away they became. It had been so long…I worked so hard for those memories and feelings of hope for a regular and wonderful life… and now they were leaving me behind—leaving me back where I began…back in that pitiful state I was in before. All of that beauty I had come to know and hold so dear…the smiles I had come to enjoy…the laughs…the bonds that were beginning to finally anchor.

Fading into nothingness…

Nothing matters anymore.

My eyelids went heavy from the weight of everything that was happening. Hanging my head back, I found no more use in struggling and putting up a fight. What was the point? It wasn't like there was anything to look forward to anyway.

Suddenly, a dark and violent wind picked up, resembling a mini hurricane that could blow away anything. The mysterious force seemed to have disturbed the Shadow Maiden as she attempted to complete her duty. "What's this?" She asked to no one in particular.

From inside, I heard a loud scream. _'Leave my Aki ALONE!' _

My eye flickered. _Shokyoku? _She was trying to help me?

Black Wind covered my body like a protective blanket, swirling around as if it were a barrier that desperately wanted to keep anyone and everyone away. The currents pushed mercilessly at my tormenter, threatening her ability to go through with what she was doing.

She scoffed. "Ya'll think that that Insurance of yours is gonna protect you from me? Hun, I think that you forgot that I'm filled with Darkness—you can't win that way."

'_Yeah well I'm MADE of Darkness you big bully!' _The little girl shouted. _'You're just some cheap knock off of the real thing—a shadow of your former self. Well _I'm_ the real thing bitch! Let's see whose Darkness is stronger!' _

Soon, my eyes were closed and I no longer had the tenacity to stay conscious. I had no idea how Shokyoku would be able to fend without me, but there was nothing else I could do. Sounds from the battle, even the sensations on my skin were starting to flicker in and out. The last thing that I could recall was a crash—a commotion—and my body was thrown somewhere only to be caught by somebody, though I couldn't discern who.

Eyes staring off into no particular space, I sat there quietly in the corner, reflecting on the torturous experience that I had previously gone through…and the aftermath. Turned out that Chichiri had saved me back there at the last minute along with Shokyoku's assistance (even though they couldn't communicate or even see each other). Though he didn't have what it took to take down that Shadow Maiden, he managed to bring me to Mt. Taikyoku, where he took Miaka and Tamahome before swinging back for me.

Mt. Taikyoku…

The place where Taiitsukun resided here in the _Universe of the Four Gods…_The last time we were there we helped Miaka get back to our world. Back then, none of us had even suspected that Yui had been brought into this world in exchange for Miaka. She had been here for three months and then some and none of us were even aware.

Seeing as how I still looked the same as before and hadn't Turned, it was pretty safe to say that whatever that Shadow Maiden was trying to accomplish, it didn't succeed. When I came to, Chichiri sensitively told me that my aura—which had never changed its light-grey color except for when Tasuki was around (then it apparently changed slightly gold when we were near each other)—was now partly blackened. He told me that he had never seen anything like that before…which didn't surprise me very much. It wouldn't have surprised me at all regarding the things about me that would shock him and just about everyone else. When we arrived at Mt. Taikyoku, he suggested that I go rest but I refused. I wanted to stay up and think…as well as wait for Tamahome and Miaka to wake up from their rest.

The only thing that really went through my mind was how things went horribly, horribly wrong. Not only had I lost my most precious gift from Hikaru, but I…I lost my happy memories. Don't misinterpret that, I still remember stuff, more or less, but any joyful emotions associated with them were completely taken away from me. The thing about minds and memory was that living creatures associated memories with their emotions and sensations. But since I lost the vast majority of those emotions…and no longer had the ability to feel pleasure (I couldn't remember what that felt like anyway), those recollections were fuzzy. The information about who was involved and the location was still there but the more important things…the things I fought and lived for…were gone.

What was worse? Because of the curse on me, I could still relive my bad experiences in life—as always, they continued to haunt me. And now, there wasn't any Light there to dilute the pain.

I was a shell…a shell of the person that I had grown into. And…I couldn't even feel my body. Ever since I woke up, either the Nyan-Nyan's or Chichiri had to help move me around. No matter how much I tried, my whole body system—the feeling of touch included—was completely shut down. I was no better off than some doll left on a shelf.

Part of me really wanted to cry. But in order for a person to cry, they'd have to feel pain from losing something precious or positively valuable. Since I could no longer remember what it was like to be anything but miserable, I couldn't recall what I had lost.

However I was feeling extremely guilty.

At this point, there was a chance that Miaka was no better off than I was. She was heartbroken from Yui's betrayal. Yui was a huge, positive part of her life for so long that this must have been tearing the poor girl up on the inside. It was my fault that she got hurt…and I wasn't even able to get Yui back for her.

The other emotion I was feeling? Anger…incredible _anger_.

She took away _everything_ from me.

I absolutely _despised_ that Shadow Maiden—Stella. That was her name—at least it was before she Turned. When she made contact with my…core?...we connected for a split second and I became an eye-witness to glimpses of her past life and the things she had been up to. Somehow, she was linked to that tough guy who was a part of the Seiryuu Seven—Nakago. But my head was way too hazy to even attempt to make sense of anything.

As I sat there drifting into my sorrowful thoughts, Miaka and Tamahome came walking into the room along with a couple of the floating child-like Nyan-Nyans. The moment their eyes locked onto me, they came running to my side in concern. Miaka added onto the notion by dropping to the ground, matching my height.

Even as they came to help me, I couldn't bring myself to look at either of them in the eye. Miaka shook my shoulder as she thought that I wasn't quite conscious. "Onee-chan? Onee-chan?! What happened to you? Onee-chan?"

Tamahome sourly looked over to Chichiri and Taiitsukun who were also present. "What's wrong with Aki? What went on after we left her behind?"

Chichiri crossed his arms as he pondered on the question, his mask not showing its usual cheerfulness, but worry. "It's kind of hard to say, ya know? I found her in the cruel possession of some shadow creature—I think Aki calls it a Shadow Maiden. Instead of standing there and asking questions, I got her away from that thing and brought her here for recovery, ya know?" His head tilted to the side. "I'm still unsure about what that thing really did to her…"

Miaka put both of her arms around me for comfort. Still I didn't show them any signification that I was indeed awake and aware of their presence. "So…can she be healed? I mean, whatever's wrong with her can be reversed, right?" She turned to Taiitsukun and the Nyan-Nyans. "You can fix this like you healed us before, right?" _Don't worry about me…_There was no reason for them to show so much concern for the likes of me. _Just leave me here…_

"Well…" One of the Nyan-Nyans spoke up. "Her case is a bit more complicated than some simple physical wound. We can't simply _hear_ her that way—we've tried but to no avail…"

Old woman Taiitsukun closed her eyes as she explained calmly. "As for now, the only thing that might help her is time itself. Until we find what can help her, we'll have to rely on her soul's repair system."

Eyes widening, Miaka gasped, "Her _soul_?"

"Dammit!" Tamahome groaned in frustration as he punched the wall beside him. "I knew that we shouldn't have left her there alone…"

I felt Miaka's arms tighten the embrace as her voice became choked up as tears started to fall. "I am so sorry Aki-nee-chan. It's all my fault." _No...it's my fault. Everything is my fault._ Her touch felt so warm on my now dead-cold skin. My now tainted aura practically froze me—even stepping close enough to it made your breath show up.

When my only signal to them ended up being a blink, Tamahome asked, "Why is it that she won't talk back to us? Can't she speak anymore?" It wasn't that I couldn't, I just didn't want to. That was how things used to be when I was younger. When in public or any place that I wasn't around Kajou, I didn't like talking to people—it always ended up with them rejecting me. The only time I really spoke was for confrontational reasons.

The monk shrugged. "That's kind of a tough one too, ya know? Since we got here, she's been sort of unresponsive. The only time she really said anything was when she wanted to stay out here instead of sleeping for a while, ya know? Other than that, nothing."

"Why…" Miaka spoke quietly at first as she stared at the ground. Then she snapped her head up and turned to Taiitsukun. "Why did these things happen? And why would Yui let these things happen? I don't…I don't understand what happened! I just want to know what I did to put her into so much pain that she would…let these things happen…" Quickly getting up on her feet, she looked all around, scanning for something that she needed. "I need to leave here—I need to go back and find out what went wrong. I have to ask Yui why she's become so hateful. There has to be a good reason, there just has to be a good reason why—there just has to be…She's still the Yui I know and love…I still believe that." _No…she's no longer the Yui that was your best friend—that Yui is gone…perhaps forever. _Miaka held onto that last gleam of hope—it was just something that she did. But there was no point. I had come to terms with Yui being our enemy. Even if we hated it, that was an aspect of reality that we all had to accept.

Right as Miaka turned to walk away, Taiitsukun stopped her. "Now hold on there—you shouldn't go into anything as worked up as you are."

"I have no choice!"

"There is always a choice!" The old woman exclaimed. "Besides, if you really want to find out what happened, there is an easier way." Upon snapping her fingers, a giant mirror rose up from the ground, tall enough to match the height of a basketball hoop. "This mirror has the power to recall events that happened in the past, so it can tell you the truth. Are you positive that you really want to know what happened?" Her question was more like a warning. Witnessing whatever we were going to see might have been one of those eye-opening-life-changing-things that could really change a person or even traumatize them.

As if I could honestly get any more messed up than I already was.

Miaka nodded. "I do. Please."

Upon hearing Miaka's quick decision, Taiitsukun touched the mirror. "Very well." Ripples began to appear in the reflection, eventually switching to show us a picture other than of our own images. We were being shown some town somewhere in the _Universe of the Four Gods _(it had to be in that world since I knew no place back home that nearly resembled this place). The marketplace was buzzing with moving people and purchases being made, going on with their day as if it was nothing special. Soon enough, the picture focused in on a frightened and confused Yui who was walking in a more desolate part of the town.

_Wait a second…this looks familiar…_

She was looking around, probably either searching for Miaka or any signs of a friendly face. Just being dropped into a foreign world like that and all alone could really frighten a person. As she shuffled along, we spectators took notice of a few guys who were suspiciously following her. Once she began to suspect that she was under pursuit, she started to walk faster and faster and they followed suit. It didn't take long until she broke out in a sprint, desperately trying to escape those men. But it was no use. They caught up to her without much trouble and started grabbing at her, saying things like her clothes would sell for a hefty price and how she was really good-looking (that sure brought back memories of all the times jerks like that tried to mess with me or people I knew). Without even a second thought, they began ripping off her clothes, not caring about how much she screamed, pleaded, and kicked. They had pinned her down and started taking advantage of her. It wouldn't have been long before they—

"Stop! Stop please! Shut it off! I can't watch anymore!" Miaka screamed as she crouched down and covered her ears. Taiitsukun instantly made the mirror lose its painful recollection image. Miaka's face was drenched in tears as she sobbed in aching sympathy for her best friend.

So that was why Yui had changed so dramatically—why she was so mentally unstable.

She was raped.

The thought of being all alone in such a horrific event would leave anyone feeling vulnerable and defenseless—questioning any of the good left that the world had to offer. I'd bet anything that Nakago came into the picture sometime after that—which was probably why she held him so close, as if he were a security blanket. That guy had a little over three months to completely screw her mind and he succeeded. The question would be how he knew that Miaka was the Priestess of Suzaku and how he knew that those two would eventually end up having that confrontation. Of course, that guy seemed to have known a lot of things that he shouldn't have—things about me that he _couldn't_ have known without help.

Stella…

This whole mess had something to do with her—I just knew it.

Nonetheless, Yui should not have turned on Miaka so damn easily. Nothing that lasts for ten years could honestly be so weak that she'd take the word of some stranger and be willing to utterly destroy the bond between her and Miaka. There was no excuse for that—even if she was raped. Miaka knew absolutely nothing about what was going on and if she did, there was no doubt that she would do everything in her power to fight for her best friend. Yui shouldn't have been willing to switch sides so quickly just because Miaka wasn't given the memo a little earlier. To make matters worse, Yui sat idly by and watched as her crony Nakago and his partner in crime, Stella, tried to kill innocent Miaka.

That was unforgiveable.

Everyone else I had ever come across in life—I never thought much of them. Or rather, I never really got my hopes up before going on this journey. But if I was sure of _anything_, it was that Miaka and Yui would always stay true to each other. Now that that fantasy was pretty much dead, what else was there to hold me up for support?

"Miaka," The girl looked up from her tears and slowly looked over at the overly stern Taiitsukun. "You now see the importance of performing your duties as the Priestess of Suzaku. Kutou now has their priestess which could end up making things catastrophic for our world. You'd have the power to fix everything if you manage to summon Suzaku before they can summon their god Seiryuu." Rubbing her cheeks and eyes to dry the tears, Miaka listened to the wise old woman intently. "You can't afford to falter or hesitate on your decisions anymore. From now on, it is imperative that you gather up the seven warriors of Suzaku and fulfill your destiny."

"Right…I'll do it," she sniffed and cleared her throat to sound more presentable. "For Yui I'll do it. And I'll make sure that no one suffers anymore because of this."

That girl was just so optimistic even in as grim times as that.

What an ignorant fool. She was still so innocent and naïve that's he couldn't see the truth. It wouldn't matter if she managed to summon Suzaku and rescue Yui from Kutou's grasps. The knowledge would always be there of her betrayal. Their friendship would always be tainted after that. It would always be known that their relationship was just as weak as the rest.

"I'm sorry." Everyone in the room simultaneously switched their attention to me. Each one of them surprised that I finally decided to open my mouth and speak my mind. "I couldn't do anything to stop this." _The universe shows no mercy to anyone. It just happens to shove it in my face more than the average person._ However recently, I found out that I wasn't an average person. Hell, I wasn't even a person. I had no idea what I was. But did that really matter? Things would always end up turning out the same, washed out with waves of disappointment and broken dreams.

"No Onee-chan…it wasn't your fault…"

Tamahome tried to reason with me as well. He crouched down and flashed me a kind smile as he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Yeah Aki, it's not like you could have foreseen any of this."

I couldn't bring myself to look at any of them in the eye—especially not with what I was going to reveal. "I…had a vision three months ago, before I went off on my own. I saw Yui walking in some place—just like what we just saw. But…" Recalling that day added on with the new knowledge we had acquired didn't make telling them this any simpler. "…something went…wrong…"

"What do you mean?"

"Usually, I can see things clearly, without question. But this time someone—or rather, _something_—mixed the transmissions. The image was blocked and I couldn't see anything anymore. My vision was interfered and screwed with. If that hadn't happened," I sighed, ashamed that I couldn't prevent the events that unfolded, "then I could have saved her and we could have avoided this whole mess." Closing my eyes, I gritted my teeth and repeated, "I am so, so, so sorry." _Please don't hate me. _

Miaka and Tamahome exchanged glances, leaving me just sitting there in self-misery for a few moments. Then the guy showed me that charming smile of his once again, shocking me only slightly that they weren't abandoning me on the spot. "You can't possibly expect us to blame this on you."

"Yeah Onee-chan." Miaka put her hands on her knees as she bent down to look at me better. "You said it yourself—your vision was interrupted, so there was no way that you could have known. This whole thing was as big of a shock to you as it was to us. And for what it's worth," through her still forming tears, she managed a cheery smile, "You still went out of your way to go save Yui—greater still was that you stayed behind and risked your life twice for us to allow us the opportunity to help her get out of there. If anything, _I'm_ sorry that I was so weak that I couldn't hold onto her."

"But we'll get her back on our side, ya know?" Chichiri chimed in. "Plus finding the other Suzaku warriors in the meantime wouldn't be such a bad idea either!"

Tamahome nodded. "Yeah, and well do it together. We'll figure something out."

_My friends…_

What did it really mean to have a friend? What was the appeal? The idea wasn't looking so attractive to me anymore. What was the point of fighting for something that could break so easily—something that human's couldn't hold onto and took for granted?

This whole experience had been a test. And the results showed just how fragile friendship could be. My belief in close, permanent bonds were dying.

And I…was somehow enduring the agony of the slow, painful demise.

So…what now?

***Awww….Aki will not be herself for a while…how will she get out of this draining of her positive emotions? And how will the others deal with her? What exactly does Nakago and Stella know that she doesn't? Well I guess you'll have to find out next chappie!***

**Btw… I am now calling the process of changing into a Shadow Maiden into "Turned" or "Turning". So, no. The capital "T" isn't a typo. **

**Okay everyone! That was the chapter. How did you like it? PLEASE REVIEW! I like hearing your thoughts and once again, really appreciate it!**

**IMPORTANT INFORMATION! There is a new poll on my profile that will determine the status of this story. The poll asks would you rather me make a bunch of smaller chapters (which will make the story be updated more often) OR would you like me to continue on with the really long chapters which may only make the story be updated once, maybe twice a month. It's up to u guys to decide so I need EVERYONE to participate. Writing ur reply as a review would suffice as well, I just need to kno, k?~ **

**Oh and in case some people haven't noticed, the rating of the story has went up to 'M' just in case for things that might potentially happen in the future. ;)**

**Well, until next time~ ^_^**

**P.S. If any of u readers have a DA account, could you do me a favor? There is something on there called the "Cute Monster Design" contest and I am a participant. If you go to the URL **** #/d4pfs93**

**There will be a button that says "I'd wear this". I really need all the votes I can get so please, please, PLEASE vote for me . Thank you!**

**P.P.S Staring this chapter, I will not only have a recap of the last chapter, but also will be installing some trivia and little questions—ya know, just to get ur brains flowin' ;) The first two are at the bottom!**

**C ya! **

***LH5W Trivia #1! Did you know that Aki actually has 2 curses on her? Do you remember what they are?***

***LH5W Trivia #2! Did you know that in the first draft of this story called "Mysterious Fantasies", Aki's full name was Akimoto Kajou Tsubaki? Back then, she didn't have a sister, Kajou was in her name! And she would use that name sometimes conceal her real identity***


	35. Darkness Becomes Her

**Hey everyone! And welcome to the 35th chapter of Love Hurts 5 Ways!**

**You all know that my college life isn't making updating any easier. Like…at all. But in some way or another, I manage to pull off the miracle of updating! Ah, don't we remember the good times of when the story began and I was able to get out a chapter once a week? Then…season 2 happened. And I'll admit that I was going a bit crazy with the length of my chapters—got a bit over zealous I should say. **

**So!**

**You guys voted and I sent out messages to a lot of you. I am going to try my very best to make the chapters a more reasonable length—8,000-10,000 words approx. Cuz u kno these little A/N do take up word space X3. This is already 145 words here lol.**

**But anyway!**

**Once again, thank you all so much for continuing to read. I love you all and always will for taking the time out to read/review/alert/favorite my story.**

**Hold on tight! For here's Chapter 35!**

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><p><strong>Oh! By the way, I don't usually do this and when I review other people, I tell them that it's not the best idea to do this, but for the right effect that I need for the majority of this chapter, I will have more than one person be the focus during 3rd person POV. You'll see what I mean.<strong>

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><p><strong>*On the last chapter of <em>Love Hurts 5 Ways, <em>Akimoto's attempts to rescue Miaka's best friend Yui lead up to her meeting with the first Seiryuu warrior, an attractive, yet cold and ruthless Nakago who seems to know more about Aki's origins and purpose than she does. **

**Yui and Miaka were happily reunited for only a little while before Yui accused Miaka of abandoning her in the Universe of the Four Gods. Aki, in the meantime, was brought face to face with a powerful and intelligent Shadow Maiden named Stella who revealed that Aki wasn't human. **

**After the dreadful turnout of Yui announcing Miaka as her enemy—thus taking on the role of the Priestess of Seiryuu, Aki felt extremely torn that the one relationship that she had always had faith in was utterly shattered. Stella, taking advantage of Aki's inability to use Light due to slight depression, attempted to Turn Aki but was interrupted by the efforts of Chichiri and Shokyoku. **

**However, Aki was left in an unfortunate state where she no longer has the ability to move or feel her body—or even feel positive feelings. How will the Suzaku warriors deal with this new dilemma presented before them? Will Aki remain defenseless or will she find a way to overcome this physical and mental Darkness that had now befalling her? And what does Miaka plan on doing regarding Yui and the war?**

**The story continues to unfold…***

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><p>The atmosphere in the throne room of Konan had been submerged in dread. It hadn't been long since the warriors had regrouped after coming back from Mt. Taikyoku—informing the emperor and Nuriko about the events that had unfolded in Kutou. Some would think that there would be a feeling of gratefulness that everyone had come out of it alive to fight another day. But in light of the situation with Yui, the priestess of Suzaku was already saddened about the girl's sudden hatred of her. Now the threat of an all-out battle with Kutou was not only inevitable, but more likely to be disastrous now that they also had just as much of a chance of summoning their dragon god, Seiryuu, with their newly acquired priestess.<p>

The mission of bringing Yui back had failed. Konan's celestial warriors would have no choice but to be in a state of high alert of the imminent threat.

To make matter's worse, there was still an irritatingly curious and guilty mystery of what went down in Seiryuu's shrine back at the enemies' palace. For a seemingly short while, Aki had been left alone to fight the two formidable foes: an extremely aware and stronger than expected Shadow Maiden and the powerful Nakago, who happened to be a Seiryuu warrior. In that time, no one really knew what happened or what was going to happen. They all knew of Aki's strength and confidence, and for that, they—Chichiri and Tamahome with an unconscious Miaka—figured that leaving her on her own for only a few minutes wouldn't have been much of a problem. She had been able to fend for herself so many times before, so what could have possibly gone wrong?

Chichiri knew that something bad was happening. He could feel Aki's life force wavering in a peculiar way, even as he was at Mt. Taikyoku. Though he had tried to rush and return by her side, he had still been too slow. By time he had appeared once again in the shrine, he witnessed her at the mercy of the female being consumed by Darkness—its arm lodged deeply within her chest. Aki's aura had been tainted by a sinister black, cloud-like energy that closely emulated the ink of a squid shot throughout the water—Chichiri had barley been able to get to her and away from the Shadow Maiden in time. When he saw what was happening, there was no time to think…just get her out of there. Some invisible force surrounding Aki had assisted him in his feat, and without it, their world would have had a lot more problems to deal with than the surge of an enemy countries army.

The more optimistic part of the monk told him that once she was no longer in the same proximity as that creature, she'd recover soon after.

But something was wrong—she wasn't the same girl he had left behind only a few moments before. She had changed…and for the worst. Yes, Akimoto Tsubaki was strong and had great potential, but she still wasn't invincible—they overestimated her—and they had left her alone—a dark-grey cloud of guilt loomed over the three who were there and supposedly having her back as well as the two who could have been there to assist.

"Are you serious Chichiri?" Nuriko asked the monk. Everyone except Aki had met up in the middle of the throne room to discuss the unfortunate events that had unfolded.

The blue-haired monk nodded, his usually cheerful fox-like face turned into a frown. "It has been confirmed—Lady Taiitsukun and I are sure about this." His head hung over even more. "All of Aki's positive emotions are gone, ya know?"

Nuriko was still, uneasily, trying to grasp onto what he was saying. "Now when you say that they're gone…"

Turning to address the inquiry, Chichiri told him, "I _mean_ that she lost the ability to feel them," Everyone gasped in response to this—unable to believe that something like that could even happen to someone, "even if she _tried_ to be happy, it wouldn't work, ya know? Her positive emotions might as well be nonexistent." Standing with the rest of his comrades instead of on his throne, Hotohori, in his casual royal robes, clenched his fists and closed his eyes in anger. Hearing that all of this went on during his absence infuriated him. It was his duty as a celestial warrior of Suzaku to protect his priestess—Aki shouldn't have been the one to pay for him not being able to carry out his duties. Perhaps if he were there to help out, it would have made a huge difference.

Recalling something that Aki had told them before, Tamahome spoke up. "Most of us already knew that Aki had some kind of Darkness around her, which made us believe that was why she was in a bad mood sometimes." It may have not been obvious to Aki, but the others were more than aware of her periodic bits of slight depression as well as how she would avoid hanging out with the rest of them unless it was absolutely necessary. After arriving in that world, she had informed her friends at the palace of the ring of negative energy that was around her, though no one was able to see it but her. They never doubted its existence though. In fact, it was assumed that that was the reason for her aloofness. None of them liked seeing her off on her own or keeping things to herself, but there was just something about her whole peculiar circumstance that made them want to take the situation…sensitively—which meant slowly getting closer to her and hoping that she'd _eventually_ open up. Miaka may have known the girl the longest, but even she couldn't fathom the complexity of the red-eyed sorceress. "But she wouldn't always be like that," Tama continued. "There were times that she'd smile and laugh—"

"At other peoples expenses sometimes…" Nuriko mumbled with a slight chuckle.

Miaka gave an uneasy smile. "True. But I feel that that's a part of her charm…as long as it didn't go too far." _Or if it wasn't about me, _the priestess thought.

Going on from that, Tama finished his point by saying, "The bottom line is that we should be able to bring her spirits up, right? I mean, it can't _really_ be possible that someone's emotions are gone, can it?" It's one thing to not have any emotions, but to have only the bad ones? That just seemed highly unlikely.

Crossing his arms and titling his head to the side, Chichiri's expression became puzzled. "Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple, ya know?" Right when someone was about to ask why, he explained. "You see, there's a chance that Aki also lost a part of her memory as well—the part associated with any time that she had ever experienced positive emotions, ya know?" The rest of the group gasped at the new information.

"Which means…" Miaka's voice trailed off as her thoughts pulled her into silence. No one else in the room needed the monk's help in connecting the dots for this one. If Aki couldn't remember ever being happy and if she lost the ability to feel said emotion, then the chances of them getting her to smile with these handicaps on her were extremely slim—maybe even impossible.

Nuriko's eye-lids drooped down as he bit his lower lip slightly. Earlier when he had tried to cheer Aki up, he had received a reaction that he didn't expect from her—not since they officially became friends.

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><p>"<em><strong>What the hell do you think you're doing? Get away from me you hateful bitch!" Aki shouted at him. <strong>_

_**Blinking his pink eyes in disbelief, Nuriko tried to calmly reason with her. This was the first time he had seen her since returning back from Kutou and he had heard from Chichiri that she hadn't gotten out of it unscathed. He kind of had to see it with his own eyes how bad the damage actually was. He knew that something must have been up since her body wasn't budging and she had to be carried bridal-style by Tamahome. "What do you mean by that?" All he did was put his hand on her shoulder and ask how she was feeling. Then she suddenly snapped at him as if she were PMSing or something (that monthly occurrence was the only thing that he wouldn't look forward to if he were a woman). "I just want to know if you're okay." He chose to ignore the malicious name she had just called him. Instead, he just gave that playful smile of his. "That's not a crime now is it?"**_

**_That was when she gave him one of the most seriously demonic glared he had ever received from anyone—it was enough to even send a chill down his spine. Those red eyes of hers really were a killer. _What's up with her? Did I do something wrong? _"Stop talking to me as if you really give a damn." Her voice was so cold that even if the North Pole could hear her it would shy away. "I was never part of this group to you so I could just die for all you care."_**

_**Chuckling nervously, Nuriko still stood frozen in denial, thinking that all of this was some sort of cruel joke. "But Aki, I—"**_

"_**Hearing your voice has always disgusted me you fag," His eyes widened with that hurtful remark. Part of him wanted to reach out and grab her collar to shake her out of her delusion, but the tears that he was fighting to keep away tempted him to just comply with her cruel wishes. "Don't insult me with your faux sympathy." Even if she were having a bad day, there was no reason for her to be acting like that—as if they weren't friends. On any other day, he'd just argue back—you know, in a jokingly manner—playing their little game he enjoyed so much (her reactions were always so entertaining!). Looking into those crimson eyes and unwavering lips signified that she was dead serious.**_

_**The last time she spoke even remotely like that was back when they first met. Those two hadn't started off on the best terms, but eventually they came to a treaty of friendship—at least…that was what he thought.**_

"**_Onee-chan!" Miaka lectured sternly, with a surprised tone to her voice. "I can't believe you said that to Nuriko! He's your friend!" Now that girl had no trouble allowing the tears to flow down her cheeks. Something had happened in Kutou to her as well—why else would she be so affected by this? "He was just being nice to you—he was worried—" Chichiri, the monk who they had recently discovered was the next Suzaku warrior, tenderly put his hand on the saddened priestesses shoulder. She looked back at him and he shook his head, making her go mute and take back everything she was about to say. _Yup, something _did_ happen in Kutou—to both Miaka and _especially_ Aki. But what? _Nuriko was an intuitive person and was more aware of how women ticked than even some women did—he knew that there had to be some legitimate reason for her acting like that. Luckily he wasn't shallow enough—not to mention way too mature—to just ruin the progress they had made then and there. _**

**How can I find out what's wrong with her if she hates my guts? _He sighed, trying desperately to not take everything she had said into offense._**

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><p><em>So that's why…<em>Aki didn't remember the two of them reconciling their differences and becoming friends—she only remembered the bad memories, the ones of them hating on each other and of Nuriko being a bit of a…bitch (he had to admit that his actions were…slightly unreasonable during his jealousy fit). The guy didn't want to admit it out loud, but next to him feeling bad about the events that unfolded, he was slightly relieved that Aki's behavior was the effect of one of those Shadow Maidens and not because of her changing her mind about him. There was no way he could have any fun with her if she _really_ hated him. Besides all of that though, he did care for her on some level and he believed that they were really beginning bond for a while—in some…more or less unorthodox way.

He and Miaka were just fine, though. _That_ girl was the poster-child for trusting and happy-go-lucky. There wouldn't have been much trouble consoling _her_ and getting _that one_ to talk—she was incredibly easier to deal with in comparison to her make-shift older sister. This condition of Aki's, however, was an incredible bummer—all of that trouble he had gone through and for what? Nothing—and he couldn't really do anything about it. It was a shame that magic and forces of the universe simply weren't his forte.

If only he had been there to prevent whatever it was from happening—surely his fellow warriors could have used someone with his strength to their advantage. Instead, he ended up playing messenger boy to the Emperor (out of all the people to play messenger to the beautiful emperor, he was more than happy to oblige, but still…Nuriko felt piles of regret for not fighting his way past enemy territory to help his friends). Even so, how could he have known what was going on?

Chichiri's continuation with the details of her condition brought the womanly-looking man out of his thoughts. "Without those emotions or even her memory of them, the natural element of Darkness within her is overwhelming all of the other elements she has control over. Not to mention the fact that it's polluting her ability to even access those now unknown emotions, ya know?" He sighed. "And not that I want to add on even more bad news, but it also appears that the impact of the Shadow Maiden's power had managed to somehow…um…how should I put this in a simple way…" Bringing up his finger to his lips, he thought about what words made the more sense. "I guess you can say that she sort of…_deactivated_ most of the nerves throughout Aki's body, ya know? And because of that—"

"She lost the ability to feel the sensation of touch or move her body," Hotohori deduced. From the moment she had returned to the palace, he knew something was wrong with her. When he put his hand on her head, stroking her hair compassionately as she remained there, emotionless, in Tamahome's arms, she didn't even react or budge. He had seen her blush whenever he did something like that, felt her body tense up from her own awkwardness. But there had been…nothing. She didn't even know that he was touching her until she looked up at him from curiosity.

The emperor had been at a loss. All of the war-tactics and books his teachers made him learn from didn't seem to help out in this case, and that not only made him feel inadequate as an emperor, but also as a celestial warrior for not completely seeing his duties through, and as a friend for not being there for when Aki and the others needed him most. Sometimes, he despised being emperor—being confined to a throne and meetings a lot of the time instead of getting his hands dirty. All of the riches in the world could never compare to the time he could possibly be having with his loved ones and protecting them.

"So you're saying that…her emotions were sealed? And what—her memories have been permanently stolen?" Nuriko asked.

"There has to be _something_ that we can do," Tamahome added in. His primary focus at the time was Miaka—he just had to get his beloved away from those that could cause her further harm. Still, in the back of his mind he kept on reminding himself how, if he had been strong enough to get through the barrier in the first place to the shrine, he could have prevented Miaka from getting hurt, and could have stayed a few minutes longer to ensure Aki's safety.

After hearing everyone's input, the monk did his best to address all of their questions and/or statements for confirmation. "In a sense, yep, her emotions were sealed off. Though we [Lady Taiitsukun and I] don't exactly know why, ya know? It happened either as her body's defense mechanism to ward off the Darkness from permanently affecting her positive outlook on the world, or the Shadow Maiden just wanted her to look at the world more negatively and not be aware of the better things in life. Either way, it's problematic, ya know?"

Miaka couldn't help but keep silent for most of the discussion. This had been her Onee-chan who was being forced to go through this and she had absolutely no idea how to help her. What good was it to be some prestigious priestess if she couldn't even do something like stop this…this whatever it was? If only she was able to summon Suzaku at that moment—one of her wishes would have definitely went out to her older sister in a heartbeat. Almost constantly throughout her mind she was reminded of how all of this was her fault. If she hadn't screwed with Aki's plan to rescue Yui, then none of those awful events would have taken place. Yui still might have harbored feelings of hatred for Miaka's supposed abandonment, but at least she wouldn't have been in the enemies clutches. Aki probably could have gotten Yui out of there no problem—but Miaka had to go and lose faith in Aki's abilities, following her there…she _lead_ to her downfall. So…what could she say? How could she really contribute in any way?

Then the monk switched onto the next topic. "Nope. Technically, it's possible to steal memories with the right spell, though difficult since the brain is so complex, ya know? But we're pretty sure that this isn't the case." If it weren't for the enlightenment of Lady Taiitsukun with this dilemma, even Chichiri would have been extremely baffled regarding this whole thing. "Best case scenario is that the only reason she can't retrieve her memories is quite literally because she isn't aware that she has them, ya know? Worst case is that there are so many memories in her life that whatever this force was that did this to her, it's extremely intricate in that it's causing interference only with the memories dealing with happiness, ya know?" He sighed even more heavily as a sweat drop appeared on his head. "Having her recall _every_ _single_ one of those would actually be more difficult than it sounds ya know? Way too many factors to consider here—complicated wouldn't even begin to describe it, ya know?"

Noticing that his question wasn't exactly answered, Tamahome nudged Chichiri further. "And? How do we fix this? It's not exactly easy seeing her this way." Tama counted his blessings that Miaka wasn't the one suffering through all of this—it would kill him on the inside if she forgot about how they felt about one another. Imagining how bad he would feel for her made him ever more aware of how horrible Aki must have been feeling—all alone in her room by herself, wallowing in a pit of cloudy black despair. There was no way he'd allow her to experience this any longer than she honestly had to. Hell, even that was too long.

Chichiri shrugged guiltily. "That's part of the complicated part, ya know? Lady Taiitsukun told me that all of this should eventually subside. So her positive emotions and memories will _hopefully_ come back over time." Rubbing the back of his head in an almost embarrassed way, he went on by saying, "As of now we have absolutely no idea how to trigger them, ya know?" Chichiri had been studying magic and the ways of the universe with his mentor Taiitsukun for a while now, yet it sort of disgraced him how he didn't know much of what was going on. Aki's case was so unique to her and her kind that it proved to be one heck of a challenge. The faster he could crack this code, the quicker he could help her out. After all…he, unlike the others, was completely aware of the inner torture she was already forced to endure—though it was probably an invasion of privacy how he knew more than she actually wanted him or anyone to know. In light of all of this, he was pretty sure that now (or ever) would not be a good time to tell her what he knew. Regardless of his inside knowledge, it all boiled down to the fact that she needed help and Chichiri might be one of her only hopes.

"All of this nonsense much cease immediately!" The emperor's sudden outburst caused everyone to snap their heads to face him. That whole time Chichiri and the others had been discussing the issue Hotohori had been absorbing everything in—evaluating the problem like a good leader should before coming up with what solution he believed was best. "These _Shadow Maidens_—whatever they may be—must be stopped. If they are in fact allying themselves with Kutou, then perhaps they are the real threat if they can bring such misery with just a small notion. The war should be with them!"

Chichiri scratched the side of his cheek sheepishly. "I'm sorry Your Highness, but at this time, we don't exactly have the resources to do something like that, ya know? But Aki does." He lowered his arm. "When it comes to the forces of Darkness, as of now, the best thing to do would just be to wait until she recovers, ya know?" Technically, _their_ battle was with Kutou and their army, as well as the other natural forces of _their_ world—including the four gods. "Forces of Darkness" weren't really even an option until Akimoto came into the picture. In a way, she dealt with them the best (though it didn't exactly seem like that at the moment). And it was true: leave certain problems to the experts. Aki wasn't exactly an _expert_, but she was the closest thing they had. It wouldn't have been a good idea to go tampering with the universe before she had a say in the matter.

"Instead of waiting around for her to get better," Nuriko suggested, "why don't we just find some way to heal her?"

On a matter that Chichiri usually would have answered, Tamahome put his knowledge on the table set before them as he shook his head. "This isn't just some simple sickness or injury—she can't move or feel joy, and has absolutely no recollection of being happy." Holding his chin in thought, Tama pondered on it some more. "It's not like something like this has ever happened before in history…I think. So I'm _pretty_ sure that finding a medicine specific to this is somewhere near impossible."

Nuriko narrowed his eyes at him. "Way to kill the chances of an optimistic mood Tama-kins." _I always knew you were a fighter, stingy, and a mooch, but I wasn't aware that you were a doctor all of a sudden. _He sarcastically thought at the guy. _Dr. SmartAss. _Choosing to continue the attempt at a high road, Nuriko addressed his questions back towards Chichiri as he dropped a fist in his other hand. "How about we just go back to that specific Shadow Maiden and force her to tell us how to fix Aki?" He was proud of how he and the girl were friends, but now, Aki wasn't even aware that any of that even happened.

"Kind of the same problem arises as before, ya know?" Chichiri told him. "If Aki's the only one who can deal with those creatures, then she'd be the only one who could hold it down and force it to do anything." Nuriko's spirits began to drop again. _Damn. _"Anything _we_ do would have little effect, ya know? And it doesn't exactly help the situation any more that Aki's pretty strong and the Shadow Maiden barely had any trouble defeating her."

Finally Miaka chose to speak up and add in her two-cents—a fact that was left out in this equation. "Aki-nee-chan was already in a battle with Nakago before going up against that Shadow Maiden. There's a chance that that tired her out and made her weaker than she was before. So in a way…that stupid Shadow Maiden cheated! There was absolutely nothing fair about what happened—she's too strong to lose to jerks like them." _That guy…Nakago…_Miaka thought to herself. _He had something to do with Yui's anger towards me…I just know it! _How much pain would that guy cause before he was satisfied?

Tamahome growled the moment the general of the Kutou army's name was mentioned. From where he was standing, he noticed how that Shadow Maiden came from his shadow—those two were in league with each other for some reason. The thought of those two planning to weaken Aki during separate battles probably wasn't that far-fetched. _Sneaky bastards. _

"Cheating or not, I still do not understand why Shadow Maidens would even be on their side," Hotohori furthered the conversation. None of them except Chichiri and Aki even knew who the Shadow Maidens were or how they were created, so that fact created an even bigger mystery when they found that those beings were dancing with the enemy. "This could only mean trouble for us in Konan—they've been given an unfair advantage—tampering with forces they, not even we, can understand." Of course, the best interests of his country were still at heart.

Nuriko perked up only slightly in response to his prince. "While that is true _Your Majesty_, you're forgetting one thing: Aki is _our_ advantage." Perhaps that was why she was sent to them—she obviously had nothing to do with being a priestess or any of the four gods. She had the power to take out the part of Kutou that the Suzaku Warriors _couldn't_ touch.

Though he appreciated the effort of optimism—he actually hated being such a downer like he was, it just wasn't in his personality—Chichiri rubbed the back of his neck. "Perhaps, but either way, she can't do anything at the moment, ya know?" She was still incapacitated.

For her whole life, Miaka had always seen Aki as the epitome of strength and confidence—it was difficult on her to see her role model so helpless (in a sense) like this. But still she stayed hopeful for her sake. "Why don't we just go to Aki-nee-chan's room and try to cheer her up? I mean, I know it probably won't do much good all things considered, but she still doesn't deserve to be all alone. She needs us."

Chichiri didn't hesitate in answering. "That would be a bad idea, ya know?"

She pouted. "How come?"

"So what I've gathered is that you're all aware of the Ring of Darkness around her?" Everyone nodded. They realized that thing's existence the moment when Aki revealed that she was a sorceress a little more than three months before. Once their friendship was established with one another, she wanted them to make sure that none of them got hurt by that mysterious force in which she had no control a lot of the time. Sure, none of them could actually see that it was there, but both Tamahome and Nuriko knew first-hand that that thing was no force to reckon with. All Nuriko had to do was piss Aki off by going too far with his insults in order to make him wish that he had never made that awful mistake. Tama was just an innocent bystander who happened to get caught up in the ring's negative flare of energy. Neither of them expected to have all of their happiness to just wash away in a flood of despair and doubt—having their misery bang at their heads until they wanted to cry from the agony as well as the sensations of pricks of ice continuously poking at each and every cell in their body. The flash of horror only lasted a few seconds, but those had been the worst moments they had ever experienced in their lives. It felt as if there was no escape and all they knew was the darkened abyss of pain.

The scary part to them was that that probably wasn't as bad as it could get. For all they knew, the ring was going easy on them. Was that what Aki had to deal with her whole life? Or was a version of that what she was experiencing now? Aside from being afraid of ever having that happen again, Nuriko still felt a little bad for making it happen in the first place. After apologizing to Aki, he felt a little better about it, but now, him acting like a bitch to her was all she could remember. Plus her day wasn't exactly rainbows and sunshine—she got her ass kicked by two chumps and now she was in a bad mood (more so because of the things she lost). Of course she snapped at him.

Sigh.

"Yeah, she has that dark ring around her," Tamahome observed, "but lately it seems like it's weakened and we didn't even realize it. I mean, if I didn't have my mind on it, I barely felt anything at all." Which still pretty much said that he still felt it to some degree. Aki had mentioned how each of them would be affected negatively because of that force and most of the time during the beginning, they had. However, they promised her that despite its effects, they'd continue to stay by her side. But usually, when she wasn't upset, Aki was fairly successful in suppressing the negative energy—which proved to be a lucky break for them.

Chichiri grinned and held up his index finger. "That's because during her journey, she had gained more control over it thanks to growing awareness, positive influences in mixture with experience, and Light. In fact, I'd be a bit surprised if she didn't have it more under control by now, ya know?" As he signed, his face and shoulders fell back down. "But now that her positive emotions and memories are gone for the moment, that ring of hers is in full power, emitting more Darkness than ever. So as of now, Aki no longer possesses the ability to 'lighten up' ya know?" The obvious pun there was pretty much discarded the moment it was dished out. No one really felt like laughing at that particular attempt to brighten the mood. Taking note of his failed joke, Chichiri cleared his throat, and went on with the graver news. "Because of that, getting anywhere near her would be a dire mistake—lethal even."

Everyone's eyes grew wide from the alarming news. The same thought went through everyone's mind simultaneously: _We can't go near her? _Miaka had been the first to speak up since no one else really knew what to say for the first few minutes. "That doesn't make any sense. Back at Mt. Taikyoku, Tamahome and I had no problems being near her. Even Hotohori and Nuriko seemed just fine when we brought her back. I don't get what you mean by getting near her would be dangerous."

"During that time, Lady Taiitsukun had been using her power to dilute Aki's flares of Dark energy, ya know? You all didn't notice because she was protecting you from her." Scanning everyone's eyes watching him, the explanation went on, "The thing is that Lady Taiitsukun didn't want to invest all of her time and energy keeping Aki at bay when instead, we could just wait for Aki's condition to subside, ya know?" So now Aki was in her room, all alone, immobile, as she lies on her bed. Making sure that she was isolated from those she could harm.

"So what you're saying is that we can't even go _anywhere_ close to her or her room?" Hotohori was concerned about the girl as really desired to know if there was anything he could do to comfort her.

Waving his hand from side to side to signify reassurance, Chichiri told him, "Inside of the room, the walls are enchanted and have a barrier about them, preventing any of her Darkness from getting out and hurting us or others, ya know? As long as she stays in the room, everything should be okay."

_How awful…_To be left all alone during a dreadful time, the young emperor sympathized for the sorceress for it must have been unpleasant—far worse than any loneliness that he had ever felt or imagined. For so much of his life, he never thought that he'd meet the same loneliness he had as a child—parents no longer around and never even being able to associate with other children. It had always been to learn the ways of an emperor—that was his royal duty. Complaining was beneath him, but that didn't mean that he wasn't affected by that sort of isolation. And now, set before him was a girl who not only knew that pain, but had it far worse—she could never escape it even if she wanted to. For Hotohori, Miaka had been his savior and light…what did Akimoto have to save her? No one was even allowed to be with her and help her fight this battle. If he could, Hotohori would go to her side and hug her, reassuring the woman that everything would be alright—even if he wasn't sure that that were true.

What shocked him almost nearly as much was the absence of her bracelet—that gorgeous golden bracelet that had been given to her by someone precious. The last time Hotohori asked her about it, Akimoto would suddenly become bashful as she smiled and recalled the blissful memories associated with it. She mentioned how she'd never be able to see that person ever again, but that didn't matter to her—she still loved it all the same.

And now it was gone.

The one thing that was certain to make her smile had been lost. Though Hotohori hadn't known the details of what occurred in Kutou, he was positive that the sinister Shadow Maiden was somehow responsible for the absence of the bracelet. Had anyone else noticed how it was gone? He wasn't sure. Did it matter though? All that was important was how to be able to bring back that rare smile of hers.

However the replacement of something near and dear was not something that could happen in a day.

None of them knew how long Akimoto would be out of commission, she could be in her room like that for an infinite amount of time. The emperor was torn. As he looked over at Miaka, he was perfectly aware of what his duties were: keep her safe and assist in the summoning of Suzaku…for his country's sake. But wasn't it also important to be at the side of a dear friend who was suffering?

Seeing how distraught his friends were, Chichiri really hated the fact that he had to be the one to relay all of this information to them—sure it was stuff that was important and necessary to hear, but he didn't exactly enjoy being the bearer of bad news. The mask he wore on his face was meant to make people happy and not show the dread he had over his past. When he thought about it, the point was sort of lost when it was that playful mask that was causing everyone to look so sad.

He hated being so serious. In fact, it wasn't exactly like him to talk this much either. Lady Taiitsukun left the dirty job to Chichiri of telling everyone what the facts were and the cautions they needed to take in order to survive. _Why couldn't she tell them instead? _He asked himself, though he didn't question his long-time mentor directly, he had way too much respect for her to do that. For what it's worth, he just hoped that everything would return back to normal soon and that Aki would be okay.

Eventually…hopefully…

"Though it's not completely effective, I know a spell that can allow me to get close to Aki without having Darkness affect me, ya know?" At the sound of that, the group produced a glimmer of hope that shone in their eyes. "I'm really sorry guys but the spell is really difficult and draining, so I can only do it on myself, ya know?" Then he quickly added, "And only in the time of an emergency, ya know?"

Tamahome made a fist as he stomped the ground. "I can't believe that we're expected to just go on with our lives as Aki sits all alone in her room while being forced to sink deeper into any bad emotion and memory possible. I hate this!" He did make a valued point: life did go on and they'd end up having no choice but to do what they had to do and leave Aki behind—indefinitely stuck in the same miserable state. If they waited around for her, Kutou might have ended up making their move and Konan could suffer. With a clearer mind, Aki wouldn't want that.

"_You _hate this?" Nuriko poked in as he punched his hand determinately. "None of us are even able to _avenge_ Aki—there's _definitely_ more than one reason why this whole thing leaves a sour taste in my mouth."

A separate thought had been coursing through Miaka's mind. "What happens if Onee-chan is able to walk again before her memories and emotions come back? She's not exactly the type to just sit around in some room…when she can—ya know, leave." On the one hand, Aki might have stayed in her room because she wouldn't have felt the desire to be near anyone due to her condition. But on the other hand, for some reason or another, she'd end up leaving her room at some point. And should that situation happen the dark ring around her wouldn't end up showing mercy to any poor soul who happened to be walking by.

Luckily, Taiitsukun seemed to have already thought of this since Chichiri suddenly mentioned, "If that happens, we're prepared, ya know?" As he held out his fist, palm up, the curious bunch approached him slowly, wondering what the monk was planning. Just then, a flash of white light spontaneously erupted from his fist, only to dim down as he opened his hand. In the middle of his palm were four silver rings, each one of them emitting some sort of delightful essence. Chichiri gave a small, uneasy smile. "Well, it's not the best solution to the problem, but they're better than nothing, ya know?"

Even with the atmosphere as tense as it was, Nuriko and Miaka's eyes instantly lit up at the sight of the bits of sparkling jewelry. "How marvelous! I know that jewelry can't truly heal a wounded heart, but it's a good start!" Nuriko squealed with delight.

"They're so pretty!" Miaka agreed. Although the silver rings were pretty ordinary looking, there was just something about them that made them so attractive. Shaking her head to escape from the trance, Miaka asked, "Why the rings Chichiri?"

He smiled at her. "These aren't ordinary rinds, ya know? Each one of them was enchanted. When you wear them, the effects of Darkness on you are significantly weakened, however, not _completely_ gone, ya know?" Well, some defense was better than no defense. "So if Aki does come out of her room on her own, then at least, for the most part, you'll be fine."

"What about everyone else in my palace? Or all of Konan?" Hotohori asked in concern for his country.

"Even though Aki isn't exactly in…the _best_ mood right now, she is, I believe, considerate of people's feelings and fully aware to the dangers of her curse, ya know? If it would put people in danger, she'd back off." _I'm pretty sure she would anyway..._He tried to get himself to have trust in the woman's now impaired senses. However there was no doubt in his mind that, even if she didn't care about the others, she still probably wouldn't have the desire to wreak havoc or be around others. She's end up staying in isolation all her own—that was the lifestyle she was more accustomed to anyway—at least, that was what the monk had heard about her from Taiitsukun. Chichiri had seen elements of that side of her personality during the travels with her and Genrou.

Taking only a few more seconds to inspect the rings, the remaining four reached out and inserted them on the finger of their choosing. With the use of magic, each one of the rings fit to match its bearer, ensuring everyone that they'd remain without any problems.

"Are we actually supposed to feel anything?" Tamahome ended up asking the question that arose with the rest of them. None of them actually doubted that Chichiri would give them duds…but it was always good to make sure.

Chichiri waved him off. "Not really, ya know? However it should activate once Aki gets near you—well, more like _if _she comes near you." He reminded them, "Just remember that these aren't designed to make you immune to her powers, just safe enough to well, uh…keep your sanity and…for your safety, ya know?" It was then that the monk grabbed everyone's attention with a loud, "Oh I almost forgot!" Making sure that he had everybody's full attention, his last bit of news surprised them all. "You cannot, under any circumstance, tell Aki that she lost her memories. She is not allowed to know by _any means_, ya know?"

"What if—" Miaka began to say.

"I'm sorry Miaka but this is quite literally a matter of life or death, ya know?" Knowing that his spectators were going to ask anyway, Chichiri just went on. "Not only does Aki's Darkness have the power to potentially kill us, but also…" _What can be worse than that? _The group thought. "She's susceptible to turning into a Shadow Maiden as well if the right conditions are met."

"That's impossible! That could never happen!" Hotohori cried out in the woman's defense. "Akimoto is _nothing_ like those demons. No matter how miserable she is, there is no possible way for her to become one of _them_." The last word of that sentence had been battered in a thick chilled layer, showing his complete disgust for those creatures of Darkness.

Chichiri turned to him. "Sorry to say this Your Highness, but Aki is more likely now than ever to turn into one of them, ya know? For more reasons that I can't honestly explain to you at this time. But what I can tell you is that if she were to know that she's lost something so precious, it could probably be the right push she needs to fall into a deep enough pit of despair and into a Shadow Maiden, ya know? It really sucks, but that's reality unfortunately." In response to this, all Hotohori could do was grind his teeth and clench his fists, closely resembling the gestures of the others who couldn't stand to hear the news. As unspoken as it was, the group figured that Aki was probably extremely fragile at a time such as that—with barely any Light present within her being at all. The little amounts that were there, though seemingly nonexistent, were the one thing preventing her from Turning then and there. Anything that threatened its ability to stay inside her also threatened her ability to maintain her humanity. "You guys must promise me that you will never tell her." To that, they all just shifted uncomfortably in their spots as they glanced around uncomfortably at one another. After all, Chichiri was asking them to keep a huge secret from one of their most trusted companions—something that had to do with her! And she wasn't allowed to know. Suffering in her room all by herself from the lack of happy memories or emotions…the ones that she wasn't even allowed to recall…or else…disaster. "C'mon guys, you have to promise." This time, they all mumbled something under their breath, still a little too inaudible for Chichiri to be satisfied. Taking in a deep breath, he demanded, "I SAID PROMISE!" Usually, he'd never raise his voice like that, but it was sort of necessary this time around.

Jumping from the sudden startle, the remaining four simultaneously exclaimed, "We promise!"

A horrible feeling bubbled in the pit of their guts at the terrible promise they were forced to make.

_We're so sorry Aki…_

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><p><em>Am I in a room? Or… is this supposed to be Hell? <em>The fine line between the two reflected that of a spider's silky thread. Instead of having my skin and bones be singed from the intense flames of Hades, I could sense a chill as freezing as the nonexistent heart of the Shadow Maiden Stella.

If this were Hell, then wouldn't the punishment have been more effective if I could physically suffer for my sins? And there was…no fire—only darkness. This kind of sea of black had the potential to drown any normal person from its lonely, immobile, and glacial constriction. Swimming to the surface was but a dream, not even the sun could be seen…I had sunken so low.

…I could feel nothing at all.

I'd tell my fingers to move, for my legs to jerk, and they wouldn't listen as if they were defiant children. To me, it was like my body was just a clear capsule of some sort, and my soul was trapped in the container, forced to be a spectator to the taunting world that played on the outside.

What had happened before? Someone…it was Tamahome…or was it Chichiri? who had brought me to my chamber. It didn't even seem important to me that Chichiri was a Suzaku warrior…nothing seemed to matter except my imprisonment. Just as I was set down, the walls that enclosed me had been enchanted with a spell that was unfamiliar to me, but I knew their purpose. With their help, no one else would have to experience even a fraction of this lifetime nightmare. If this had been my life from the start, perhaps people wouldn't have had to go through such hateful measures…or even fearful ones…to avoid my unwanted curse.

Well, that was just fine to me. Being around people only caused incessant worries and trauma. If I learned anything from this accursed collection of dreadful memories, it was that _they_ were the problem. They'd just judge me, not bothering to go the extra mile to learn the truth—each doing whatever it took to protect themselves.

I growled. _So…_weak_ and _selfish_ humans. _That was really what I wanted to think of them—I had every reason to.

No, this wasn't Hell—this was my life.

This is what it's become.

***Things aren't looking too good for Aki are they? What will it take in order for her to become herself again? Will she be able to help her friends in this state or will they leave her behind? What will be the consequence for keeping such a secret from her? Well, I guess you'll have to find out next chappie!***

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><p><strong>So...that was the chapter! How did you all like it? =3<strong>

**(3rd person is just so awkward to me lol But it's good to practice, I suppose~)**

**And was its length to ur liking (I made sure not to go crazy with word mania like I usually do lol)? I definitely found that writing shorter chapters is much easier because of my schedule. The long chapters will (hopefully) return in the future when college isn't so hectic for me. **

**PLEASE REVIEW! Tell me your opinions, predictions, hopes, anything that spiked ur interest during the chapter—anything! For every new review I get, the Men in Black will prolong my capture for another year X3**

**Oh yeah, and I decided to keep the rating at "T" for now. Until something does happen, I think I'll be safe X3. To be truthful, I really wish that there was a rating that said: "to the readers own interpretation". Cuz come on, we all have our ideas of what's "mature" or not. But whatevs. Can't diss the fanfiction . net overlords (lol). **

**Until next chapter! C ya!**

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><p><strong>Here are the trivia questions and such for ya~<strong>

***LH5W Fan-Questions #1! Who do you guys think gave Aki the flower left on her doorstep a few chapters ago?***

***LH5W Trivia #3! Aki's original eye color was going to be brown that had the ability to turn gold. And the first chapter of this story originally had those colors. Then after having the story uploaded for about a week, I decided I liked red better X3***

***LH5W Trivia #4! Aki wasn't going to be a sorceress initially. She was actually to be fused with the pokemon mew and use its psychic powers and manipulate the elements that way. Yup folks, Aki was gonna have the mew ears and tail. Her hair was even going to turn a REALLY light brown when fused (the picture of this Aki is on my DA gallery if u wanna see). ***


	36. My Body, My Prison

**I AM SOOOO SORRY FOR NOT UPLOADING QUICKER! =( College has been so incredibly hectic for me for the past 2 months. **

**But anyway~**

**What's up everyone? And welcome to the 36th chapter of Love Hurts 5 Ways! *throws confetti into the air***

**I'd like you all to know that with God's help, I got an A on ALL of my midterms. *party time!* Now the semester is winding down and finals are comin' up. *bleh* But so is summer break! *yay!* But I have to get a job *boo* But no school! *YESSSS* **

**My biggest project i just finished was for Web Design. It's Pokemon related. And I hand-drew most of it. You might see the Pokemon trainer OC I came up with as the main character on my DA account (since i really like how she came out)X3. To back up, we had to do an e-book, and mine is about the adventure of a Pokemon trainer. So…ya! I'm prayin' for an A!**

**And on another note, I hate PolySci. And I mean hate. With. A. PASSION. Grateful for the A and that it's almost over, but I still can't stand the subject.**

**In Creative Writing, I wrote a script. My two main characters were based off of Rainbow Dash and Rarity. If you know who they are, you're cool. ;) If you don't, get on it!**

**As of last thursday, I'm done with this years psychology class! (i'm a psych major and creative writing minor btw)**

**No more BioLab class! =D *Hallelujah***

**Well, enough about my life~**

**Thank you all soooo much for continuing to read! It means so much to me that you're all still interested. *hugs you all***

**Time to get back into the mix! Here's Chapter 36!**

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><p><strong>*On the last chapter of <em>Love Hurts 5 Ways, <em>the Suzaku Warriors and their priestess held a meeting as a chance to regroup back at Konan's palace and discuss the events that unfolded in Kutou. Chichiri revealed to everyone that Akimoto had lost the ability to move or physically feel, she can't fathom positive emotions or remember any positive memories due to the negative effects of the Shadow Maiden Stella. With her Darkness dominating her Light, Aki is being kept in a barrier protected room so that no one would be harmed by her chi gone rogue. **

**Everyone feels in some way that what happened to her is their fault, but none of them can deny that, with the war going on, they can't sit around and wait for her to heal for too long. Chichiri tells them that no one can tell Aki what she lost or else the result will doom them all. **

**Aki can now only remember the suffering she had been through, putting her on an unstable edge that could end up turning her into a Shadow Maiden. **

**The story continues to unfold…***

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><p>Her words from that day of our first encounter played on in my head like some unwanted record player.<p>

"_**Others aren't perfect like you Aki, they are corrupted, and betray each other—love and friendship basically mean nothing to them. Those terms are just titles they stick on certain weak bonds that only last for a short time. With them, nothing is forever. They continue to kill and lie and cheat, and many of them aren't even sorry for the sins they commit."**_

Shokyoku had told me this before, and at the time, I was washed in a pool of denial. As I lie on my bed, mulling over my thoughts—examining every detail since any other physical feat was virtually impossible given the circumstances, her words never seemed truer until that moment. What had blinded me before? What was I thinking? My part and motive then remained unclear to me, cloudy at best, but that little girl's words came out at me—every enunciation—every meaning—clear as day.

How did I not see it before? My world had been nothing but misery, deception, and too many disappointments to count—almost to a point where I became desensitized to most of it. Only when the curse inside of me, the constantly replenishing cup filled with Darkness, seemed to overflow would I display to the world my pain through tears or outrage, not that it was their business to care. And yet, with all of that going on for the vast majority of my life, I couldn't recall ever admitting to myself that things truly were as bad as both Shokyoku and that Shadow Maiden Stella made them out to be. Truly somewhere, sometime I had to have had that epiphany. It shouldn't have taken all of the events in Kutou to perspire in order for me to realize it. Had I been blinded? Or was I simply ignoring the obvious?

It didn't matter.

My eyes were widening to the truth…and I didn't like one bit of it.

For years on end, the two teens, Miaka and Yui had been virtually inseparable—an unusual sense of loyalty, experience, unspoken communication and laughter had been shared between the two. Never could I understand what it was they had…but their expressions, their mannerisms spoke another language in itself, one that I was not versed in. So I'd sit and observe—intervene when brought in—trying to decode this unsettling mystery. To bring two people who were so different together for such a long period of time had brought to my attention the existence of some magnetic force that had people caught up in its deception. Of course, I had been fascinated, but wary.

Bonds can break.

As time went on, no one even suspected that their (now apparently unstable) unity would come to a crashing end. Who would've thought that the solvent that would deteriorate their "friendship" would end up being a diabolical mixture of wrongly placed betrayal, miscommunication, lies, and most likely, careful planning. Surely one would think that those two, Miaka and Yui's, peculiar magnetism could be disrupted with something so stupid.

Yui's faith and trust in Miaka was as brittle as the bones of an elderly person. Her being raped had distorted her judgment and thought processes so much that she allowed someone like Nakago the access to her broken spirit. Logic dictated that none of this was Miaka's fault—she had absolutely no idea. Yet Yui had broken so easily and passed on the blame to Miaka.

How sad.

There was no friendship here—there's no way there could have been. This thing called "friendship" seemed but a myth in the world of intelligent beings—either that, or, what it truly was, and what people perceived it to be, were completely different concepts.

I was confused as to why people would put themselves through something like that. All of that effort put into something so fragile was the move of a fool. As angry as I was at Yui and the majority of humanity for being so incompetent, a part of me felt sorry for them. As Shokyoku mentioned, they were blind because they couldn't fathom the Darkness in such way to where they could control it or learn from their faults. The predictable patterns of deceit, misery, and disappointment would continue—almost as if the universe were in possession of some type of remote control as it repeatedly pressed the re-wind button to re-witness a shamed moment in time.

To think that I once thought I was one of them…This had been one of the secrets that the little girl was holding out on me.

Yes, I had always felt detached, like I didn't belong, but still I played in that game believing I was a species that was not. But now, I was finally on the outside looking in, realizing my role as a spectator of the human race—making observations of how imperfect they were.

Like I was honestly one to talk…at least I could comprehend my mistakes, but more often than not, I'd end up learning from theirs.

Here I was thinking about such things…It wasn't long ago that I was told that I wasn't even human. I didn't know what I was, yet I was sounding so condescending, as if I had them all figured out, ranked as inferior—detaching myself even more. But who was I to raise myself up so high? I had clearly made some mistakes—otherwise, there was a chance that I wouldn't have even been in the situation I was in. Shadow Maidens were miles away from perfect and if what I was happened to be correlated to what they'd become, then I had absolutely no sense of who the winner was in this situation—no options seemed any more appealing than the other. At least those parties knew what they were, where they were going, where they'd hope to end up—though the hope was more than likely far-fetched. I was just stuck there, in a pitiful state, unable to move, trapped in a whirlpool of confusion and dread.

Was it better to know? Or was it better to forget? I believed that I witnessed too much when it came to these things—more than I honestly wanted to…Perhaps if I were blind, things would have gone better for me…Unfortunately, the curse left me with no such luxury.

They had all been in my shoes at one point or another—the Shadow Maidens that is. It wasn't until some sort of negative interaction with humans that things went horribly wrong for them. One by one, with every new journey beginning, and with the realization that they were different, the beings of my species came to view humans as untrustworthy and hopeless, making it seem almost impossible for the two species to coexist. They allowed Darkness to consume their humanity in response to the bitterness they acquired.

So…was it really that impossible to form bonds with humans? Was that to be my fate if I continued to pursue my wish?

I didn't want to become a Shadow Maiden, and I was fairly certain that I didn't want to remain in my current place either.

I was conflicted.

And I was alone.

Those people who claimed to call me friend…how could I possibly believe that? I've see the people of many worlds perform the same dance over and over…and more often than not, they didn't end so fantastically. With all of these different interpretations floating around, it was no wonder why I had such a difficult time understanding what it was like to have a friend—or what the appeal was.

If disaster was destined to be set at anytime some "friendship" was established, then why go for it? Why head into what you know will ultimately fail?

Those people who called me friend…so many from different worlds, too many to count.

But the ones here—in the Universe of the Four Gods…How could they call me such a thing without responding anyway other than frightened or angry? When I was attempting recovery back at Mt. Taikyoku, each one of them showed me a smile and spoke gentle words. The meaning behind them I could not tell…there was no way that those smiles were meant for me…

No one had ever smiled at me in anything other than a snide or maniacal manner.

I couldn't take it as genuine.

One of the things that bothered me the most? That Nuriko was pretending to act like something other than the hateful bitch that I know he truly is. Who did he think he was fooling? No one else seemed to see past his act—they accepted him and that shameful grin of his. Acting as if I was okay? Why would he…HE do something like that? That cross-dresser never wanted me around—he'd never be concerned about whether or not I was still alive. It would be a relief to him if I were dead—there'd be no one around to fight him or challenge his social authority. After all, I wasn't a part of the Suzaku Seven, so I was expendable, right? That guy told me straight to my face that I wasn't necessary.

His words from that day still spun around in my head:

"_**You know what? You should just mind your own business…**_

"_**You think that you're involved in all of this, but you're not! And you know what? I am sick and tired of you butting into everything. Let me give you a small bit of information that you seemed to have missed along the way.**_

"_**I belong here. Miaka belongs here. Tamahome belongs here. His Highness belongs here. And there are four others who belong here. But you? You don't even matter. What are you? Older sibling of the Priestess of Suzaku? Please. You aren't even related. Even if you were, you still wouldn't be all that important. You're just a powerless, useless, pointless, and selfish little pest who is only taking advantage of the emperor's kindness and thinks you're all that just because you're from a different world.**_

"_**You have no special abilities and would only end up getting in the way with whatever you do. So why don't you do us all a favor and beat it!"**_

Though he ended up being dead wrong about the being powerless bit, the rest of it was…for the most part true. I hated him for saying it in such a way, but he was right. In a sense, I didn't belong with the Suzaku people…and honestly, I was still so confused as to why I even stuck around in the first place.

_Why is it? Why am I still here? What's keeping me with these people? How come I still seek them out? _

No matter what I did or how far I searched my mind, nothing seemed to make much sense. From my history with all of them, there was no point in our history where I can honestly say it was anything less than aggravating or miserable.

From the very beginning…

Miaka had always been incredibly annoying, Inuyasha and Kyo just thought that I was a huge burden on them, Hikaru and Kaoru just treating me like their plaything, Nuriko was a he/she devil…the list of personal complaints with people could extend forever. In some way or another, isolation always ended up being my default setting. My sister killed herself and left me alone, my parents wished that I was never born, every single time I go into a new world, it's inevitable that I'll be forced to leave and have everyone forget that I ever existed. Due to my curse, it was only a matter of time before my Darkness went haywire and drove everyone away.

Seriously, why did I stay? Whether or not the wish was improving my life or not was a definite matter of opinion.

Things were so difficult. The fact that I made it this far was an amazing feat in itself. But…worth it? There was nothing motivating me, but I was still around somehow. My fondness to life was progressively thinning to a point even beyond nonexistence.

And it wasn't exactly making me cherish it even more—what with me lying there on a bed without the ability to move or experience the sensation of touch.

In that dark room of mine, no beam of light seemed to have the capability to survive in such an environment. Shokyoku, as the dark ring around me had long since overflowed with Darkness, trapping me in a swirling cloud of negative energy. The limits set on the mysterious entity had long since deteriorated, allowing it a taste of freedom—forgetting all sense of control, trying to release its hidden potential. The ring attempted to expand outwards, enveloping any victim that happened to cross it's path. With a spell on my sheltered solitary confinement, it too, was forced to be trapped against its will—just as I was a soul floating around, trapped in a motionless physical form.

Constantly hitting the walls to make it outside and expand, the space was transformed into a dungeon of sickening black haze from the dark ring's impatience. Candles that were once lit had been extinguished—it's hopeful glow having been absorbed by the chilling force of the Darkness.

How appropriate…

If there had been any light from the sun, I wouldn't have known. Like a heavy black curtain, the haze emitting from the ring blocked every possible entrance that any light could possibly shine its way through. My sense of time had been distorted slightly—how much time had passed? Without the light of the sun, my judgment was invalid. Had it been a few hours? A day? A week? It could have been just a lowly minute, only seemingly feeling like an eternity in the condition I was in.

Before this whole incident, the dark ring—Shokyoku's less prominent manifestation—had never been this visible to me. In the past, it would flicker in and out and even when it wasn't seen, I knew it was there—I felt her presence. But now, with the concentrated amounts of Darkness it was taking full advantage of the situation and trying to make up for the loss times during which I had kept it more or less suppressed. With its influence, the world around me was just a dense cloud of black—that was all I was truly able to discern.

Inside of me, I felt it even more now as it was the only thing I could invest my focus upon—the curse. What was inside of me felt nothing less than a plethora of diverse movie strips playing all at the same time with the volume blasting at MAX. Each strip played through the painful experiences of my crappy existence—forcing me to relive every single one of them as if I were experiencing them once again. Somehow, someway these memories managed to slip my line of consciousness for the longest time and I hadn't even realized. They were almost muted, coming only to my attention when the sudden events of the journey seemed to die down and the world around me became quiet, if only for an instance.

_**"You know, you'll never find anyone."**_

_**"How pathetic…"**_

"_**Just…go. You are giving us a headache."**_

"_**It was her fault…"**_

"_**She's a demon!..."**_

I was no longer used to this…why wasn't I used to this? It had become second nature for me to endure this curse during my younger years—especially since I was living in the moment of those memories being created.

"_**No one else bothers to even be with you"**_

"**No one** _**will help you."**_

"_**You will never understand us."**_

"_**What makes her so special?"**_

"_**You don't even matter."**_

There was a time in my life when I could remember, very faintly, having a blurred picture of the events that plagued me—their effects had lessened and I was stuck in a state of confusion. What happened during that period? My mind was blank…But I was positive that something had done something to me. I had been teased with a speckle of freedom, only to dread the day when it all came rushing back, like I knew it would. This release…was caused by something…and it did happen. How else would I not be used to hearing and seeing all of those memories again? It shouldn't have hurt that much.

So…there was no true freedom after all. This torture was no better than repeatedly dunking someone's head into water and allowing them only a second of breath before making them deal with burning lungs and a desperate need to not drown.

Upon reliving the worst of this unwanted curse, my head was pounding violently from the meshed up—yet perfectly loud and clear memories.

"_**You're just powerless…" **_

"_**useless…"**_

"_**pointless…"**_

"_**selfish…"**_

"_**You could just die for all I care."**_

"_**Get her away from me!"**_

"_**Freak!"**_

My heart was pounding as if some rock star who was having a seizure was banging away at the base drum as if there were no tomorrow. My visual recollection being the first to be targeted, I witnessed once again all of the disappointed faces—the ignorant and jealous scowls—the frightened expressions—the quivering bodies—the clenched fists—the pointed fingers—the punches—the kicks—the exchange of hurtful gossip—the isolation—the blood—the tears—the aversion of eyes—the looks that could kill—I wanted to crawl into some corner somewhere, anywhere and just scream my head off hoping that the end of my life would finally put a stop of it all.

And then, my endurance kicked back in. My ability to withstand all of this had to be retrieved once again. Forcing myself to calm down, desensitizing myself for the sake of staying sane, I used sheer willpower to mentally switch those ongoing memories into a storage system I had developed in my mind years ago—no longer allowing it to take over my entire being. This way, those harmful memories were pushed to the less prominent spot in the back of my mind to where they could continue to play, but I regained the freedom of natural thought processes without the interference of unwanted retentions.

Considering, though, that all I was able to do was lie down on a bed and wallow in my misery, the focus of said natural thoughts had happened to hone back in on those memories—only because there was nothing else to distract it during the time.

Damn. It. _**All.**_

Just then, I was surprised to discover the cloud around me beginning to swirl around feverishly all on its own. My eyes automatically caught on to a peculiar sight: a small, dark purplish-black jewel of some sort, or rather, a grain-of-rice-sized, almost unnoticeable _fragment_ of a jewel flew past me as I was only able to see such a miniscule object for a split second. The negative energy then flew into the same direction that the fragment went, beginning to concentrate itself into mini-tornado of clouded Darkness.

Unable to do anything about it, I just lied there, focusing on the scene unfolding in front of me—preparing myself for anything that could—and probably would happen. My senses, what was left of them, were put on high alert as my first instinct read this incident as a sign of danger.

_What if it's Stella? _Was my first thought. But that couldn't be since I didn't get that same chilling sensation down my spine that I usually got whenever a Shadow Maiden was around. Then again, my mind and body were all screwed up by this point, so who's to say that I didn't lose my ability to detect Shadow Maidens? If it _did_ turn out to be Stella, then I wouldn't have any means of fighting back. She'd end up winning all because I lost my mobility. I was a sitting duck for her—she'd get me, convert me over to Darkness and I wouldn't be able to lift a finger in protest. In some sneaky and underhanded way, she left me in this state—all alone and…ugh…helpless.

Damn.

All I needed was just one arm! Just one arm and then I'd destroy that bitch for trapping me in this f&%$ing in-between state!

Then, a familiar, yet unexpected female, somewhat high-pitched voice emerged from the swirling cloud. "Aki calm down—you don't have to be alarmed!" As I blinked a few times in bewilderment, the energy began to condense as it took a child-sized, humanoid form. Soon, fingers could and feet be distinguished from the rest of the body, as well as long, wavy hair that almost touched the ground. A gothic/Lolita style dress soon discerned itself from the form by fanning out at the skirt portion while the dress' shoulder portion puffed out per the style. The icing on the cake that set in stone the identity of this visitor were her eyes—those two, different-colored cat-like eyes—a bright orange in one and turquoise in the other.

A smile came to the child's face as those eyes locked onto mine.

Shokyoku.

But something was different about her. She had no technicolor to her whatsoever—except for her eyes, her whole form was in grey-scale—as if she were in an old-fashioned movie. Even her black and white dress had faded, not bringing out its usual vibrancy (as vibrant as the colors black and white could possibly be anyway). Her skin was a light grey, almost white and her usual dark magenta locks were more of a burnt-grey color.

Still despite her outer appearance, she stared at me with those big eyes of hers as a smile still played on her lips.

Seeing as how it was Shokyoku and not Stella, my adrenaline suddenly shot back down, leaving me rather exhausted, yet baffled with how it was possible for her to be out there in the real world instead of in the confines of the dark ring. Perhaps…I was just going insane and she wasn't really there…It would have taken too much energy to explore the thought.

Putting her hands on her hips, the little girl inspected the room. "So, this is what it's like on the outside? It's much too cheery." She giggled. "Too many bright colors can end up blinding a girl!" It wasn't until she made that statement that I realized how a good majority of the black clouds that were once polluting the room had been extinguished, or rather, absorbed by Shokyoku (I supposed), allowing me to recognize the room that I was brought into—confirming that I wasn't just lying around in some dark abyss. I could actually see the door and a few dressers, and the drapery of my canopy bead. The windows near the ceiling exhibited no light whatsoever. Therefore…it was nighttime…

Being lost in my thoughts caused me to miss Shokyoku's advances towards me. Before I knew it, she was hovering over my stilled body, her arm extended out near my head as it made a smooth, repeated notion. I think…she was patting me…I couldn't tell for sure.

"Oh Aki…" Her smile fell and her usually peppy, yet scheming eyes, drooped. "I can't stand seeing you like this…I'm so sorry that this happened to you—that it took all of this to happen in order for you to really understand…" How could I believe something like that? Ever since we met she had been trying to instill into my brain about how her views of the world were more ideal. "I never wanted things to go this far. I never wanted you to get hurt and lose your positive emotions." Lowering her head, she added with a sympathetic smile, "You're just not the same Aki that I love without them!"

_Positive emotions? _What did she mean by that? She made it seem like I had changed somehow. But I hadn't…this was how things had always been for me—except the not being able to move part. I didn't exactly have the motivation required to demand an explanation. With the possibility of her being there as a mere hallucination, then there wasn't much of a point in asking such a thing.

Though my memories of the time were a bit fuzzy, I could recall Shokyoku trying to keep Stella at bay back when they were in Kutou—in Seiryuu's shrine. It was a battle of whose Darkness was stronger. As far as I could tell, there was no definable winner in that situation since Chichiri ended up intervening at the last moment.

Still, none of that explained what the mysterious little girl was doing there at that moment.

"Why are you here?" I asked weakly—a bit louder than a whisper without looking directly at her. Not being able to move my head made looking at her out of the corner of my eye sort of exhausting.

She perked up. "Why am I here? Of course I'd be here! I'd never let you face something like this all alone—"

"No," I interrupted. "I mean…_how_ are you here?"

"Oh! Well…" Cupping her cheek in her hand while the other held that arms elbow, she lightly swung from side to ponder on the thought. "To save you from the long and tedious explanation, let's just say that I used the surrounding resources in order to manifest in the physical plane. So…yeah! That's pretty much how!" I sighed. _She didn't really answer the question. _Shokyoku had always been about vague answers and retaining important information. You'd think that a person would get used to something like this after a while, but mostly, it was more infuriating than anything else. Had this been on any other occasion, I'd force her to tell me. But with how things stood at the moment, I couldn't do a thing. Aside from not having the energy to retaliate, Taiitsukun told me not to use my magic since my system had been polluted with an invading, foreign Darkness that could make my powers malfunction (somewhat similarly to what happened back in the maze during the final trial)and ultimately end up in destruction.

Shokyoku held up a shaky fist and growled lightly. "This is all Nakago and Stella's fault! They were all acting as if they knew what was better for you—like they really knew who you were." She then began stomping in a repeated, bratty motion and in a huff. "I'm supposed to be the only one who knows all about you! Me! And only me! I'm the only one who understands and knows what's good for you! For anyone else to think they can even begin to believe…!" Shooting her fists downward, her stomping ceased. "I can never forgive them for doing this!" Pretending as if she could crack her knuckles, her threats persisted on, "Next time I see those two, I'm gonna—"

"Don't you _dare_ blame this on someone other than yourself!" I forced myself to cry out. In response to my outburst, Shokyoku's arms limply fell to her sides, as she blinked at me innocently and in confusion. Doing my best to scowl at her, I felt anger well up inside of me from the plain fact that had been staring at me in the face ever since my curse came crashing into me with full force. "That Shadow Maiden and Nakago may have played a part in this, but it was _you_ and _your_ mother who are the originators of my torment!" If I could, I would have shook my head then. "All Stella did was take advantage of my excess Darkness and use it against me…" Shokyoku straightened up and rested a hand on her chest near her heart as she gazed upon me with a look mixed with sympathy and guilt. I doubted at all if she even felt any remorse for what she had done. Even if she didn't, I planned on alleviating the problem the very moment I got the chance. "I assure you—once I'm able to move and use my powers again, I'll deal away with all of you…somehow…even if I'll never know a life outside of this Hellish prison." It wasn't fair…it wasn't fair at all that no one else was stuck where I was. It wasn't until I got paralyzed like this that it truly came to light how awful my life had been. I had sunken from bad to worse—a place that I didn't even think existed. Averting my eyes away from her, I added with a whisper, "It's all your fault…"

Bringing her hands down to the edge of my bed, she displayed a determined expression. "Aki, I understand why you're mad—really I do! In fact, I'm ticked off as well!" Silently scoffing, I thought, _There's no way in Hell that she can compare whatever mediocre negative feeling she has to mine. What a joke. _"But I'm not the one to be angry with. Remember that the 'curse' wouldn't even work in the first place if humans were more reliable. The effects of my influence are designed to show you their true nature—you quite literally have an innate database that permanently records and stores how cruel they can be." _Innate database, huh…_ "Other people are ignorant and choose to nonchalantly and foolishly forget the wrongs that had been done to them—which I don't think is very smart at all. The very fact that you can't do that—whether you wanted to or not—is much more of a blessing than a curse!" Being able to store all of those instances in my life where I witnessed the ever-present flaw of human nature was nothing to brag about—and here Shokyoku was revering the fact that I remember everything. She wanted me to be _thankful_ for all of this? Smiling as if her statement was correct, she said with a wink, "You've just been going about the whole idea the wrong way!"

You have no idea how much I wanted to strangle her.

Sensing that I was storing loads of resentment towards her, the little girl quickly added, "Look Aki, it's my job to keep people away to protect you and reveal their true intentions. So don't be mad at me—I'm your friend! Hate those humans for all they are and causing your pain in the first place. _They're_ the reason why you're hurting so bad!"

If I could, at that moment I would have sat up and glared at her, hoping my eyes would strike some fear into that petty soul of hers. "Saying all of that crap like you actually gave a damn…This is what you've wanted all along…"

"_**You will be all alone in this world—in a dangerous, foreign world full of mystery. They will all shun you and think that you do not matter."**_

…

"_**The more of them you add to your life, the greater the pain will be when they hurt you. And you know that pain…the despair of loneliness. You'd never experience it if you just kept yourself away from all those that could hurt you—everyone."**_

…

"_**I'm trying to give you that happily ever after Aki, but the way to do that is just let go. Let go your negative waves of energy and show others just how much pain you're in…maybe then they will finally understand what selfish fools they are. Let go of your desire to be accepted into a society that is too primitive to even see how wonderful you are."**_

For the longest time, even before her identity had been revealed, everything Shokyoku ever said had been her trying to get me to convert over to her side and embrace the Darkness. Whispering into my ear, conditioning my outlook on humans—through every chance she got, she'd use it as her advantage to have me become their enemy and join her in her in the ideals she had come accustomed to. It would seem like, if she could, Shokyoku would go through any lengths to win me over. That's all she really cared about—that "I love you oh so much" façade was a gigantic load of crap. That "innocent" child's face didn't affect me in any way shape or form…and I was onto her deception.

"Whether it was you who made it happen or Stella…the results all the same." Adding a chilling tone to my voice, I made sure that she got the message loud and clear. "Well, congratulations, I'm even more screwed up than I was before." Losing all of her confidence, Shokyoku began to lose her composure as tears began appearing in her eyes. Even with her sudden vulnerability, I continued—unfazed. "But here's the difference between reality…and that sick little delusion that keeps replaying itself in your head—I have no desire whatsoever to even be around you…" It didn't matter what show she was putting on with the puffy cheeks and the tears—I knew she only wanted to put on this—this _performance_ to get me on her side. Well, given the circumstances, I wasn't some chump who could be swayed by big, hopeful eyes. Stella may have paralyzed me, and I hated her for that, but my lifelong torture was the work of Shokyoku and her damn mother. I'd never had the pleasure of seeing Light or felt the supposed joy of genuine laughter or even felt that warmth and satisfaction a person received from being needed and appreciated. If it weren't bad enough that I had to remember every horrible thing that happened both to me and those around me, it was a thousand times worse seeing everybody else living so peacefully and content with themselves…as if they could always see the possibility of a happily ever after. To know for a fact that I would never have that…

…it wasn't fair…

Shaking her head vigorously, only a few tears managed to run down Shokyoku's cheeks before she put in the extra effort to hold back. "I never wanted this to happen to you!" She sniffed. "I never wanted you to become all disoriented and lose the strong person you had become." _Strong person that I've…become? What's she talking about? _I was the same person I had always been. If she honestly thought I was something other than what I was, then it was obvious that she didn't know me at all. Scowling towards the ground, she blinked hard and wiped her eyes with her arm before she started protesting again. "I just wanted you to know the truth about humans—that they couldn't be trusted—that they weren't all of the effort you were putting into them." Exactly how much effort did she think I invested? It wasn't like I ever got close to anybody. "You're my family Aki, my _home_. I just wanted you to be with me 'cause we need to be together in such a deceitful world—because we're superior and those humans…just aren't worth it!" Bringing back a melancholy smile to her face, she told me, "Your Darkness doesn't affect me like it does everyone else—it doesn't hurt me at all. Besides, I know your pain Aki—I've always been there for you even if you weren't aware of it. I'm the only one who can understand what you've been through—I'm the only friend you've got." It was then when she gave me a "whether you like it or not" look.

Growling, I tried my very best to stay calm by closing my eyes—not allowing my powers to escape through. _Damn if only I could move! _ "Look you, I'm not interested in playing in this twisted little game of yours. And there's no way in Hell that I'd let you turn me into a Shadow Maiden for your sick satisfaction!" Even if I didn't exactly condone anything she had done, she was right on one account: humans weren't worth it. In fact, it still remained a puzzle to me why I continued to stay around them. While growing up, I usually did what I could to avoid being around people. In school, it was sort of unavoidable—but just because I had to be around them didn't mean that I had anything to do with them. For all the years of my life, I had always wondered why I stood apart from them—why I was so different. Finding out that I wasn't human really put things in perspective.

However, none of this meant that I had chosen sides since I remain by what I had said before—neither of them looked appealing—humans only brought trouble and Shadow Maidens were a bunch of sorry bitches. All I could do…was stand alone.

"I wouldn't dream of you becoming a Shadow Maiden—in fact, I totally protest the idea," Shokyoku rebutted. Crossing her arms, she persisted, "Aside from being total posers," she rolled her eyes when she said "posers", "Shadow Maidens are basically just outlines of their formal selves colored in with ugly black crayon—unlike you who was colored with just the right colors in the perfect balance of 'sweet and spicy' That's why I love you soooooooo much!" My eyes shot open. _What the hell? "Sweet and spicy"? Who came up with a stupid phrase like that? _I also happened to notice that she said "was", implying that in some part of my life, I rose up to these standards of "sweet and spicy"—whatever that meant. Shokyoku was obviously delusional—which brought up another point: what did she mean by she loved me? The concept of love was still quite the mystery to me—a mystery that I often tried not to think about since I knew it wouldn't apply to me. I had learned about that particular emotion in school and witnessed people's different versions of it…but me, I could never for the life of me grasp onto the idea. And now this freaky little girl was claiming that she harbored this supposedly strong emotion towards me—saying it out of virtually nowhere. Did that actually mean something? Or was it a trick?

Seeing as how I was at a loss of words (or more like…didn't know the proper reaction), Shokyoku began to jump up and down, resulting in her turning around in a fit of pique. "I know what the problem is—you can't remember anything regarding our friendship. You can't even understand my feelings!" She started scurrying around the room as if she were some angry, hyper squirrel-child who ate too much sugar. In my position, it would have been hard to see her be so animated, but I was curious enough to continuously strain to look out of the corner of my eyes to see what was going on. "It's not supposed to be this way! It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair! No, no, no, no, no!" Blinking hard in order to correct my eyes, I attempted to process everything that was going on. Though I seemed to fail to forget the things she was talking about, I did remember that the last time we met the little girl was explaining stuff about me as well as reflecting every spell I threw at her. As far as I was concerned, Shokyoku seemed more like a source of information as well as a main source of my pain—nothing else.

But…_Now that I think about it…_How exactly did Shokyoku get her name? When she had first brought me into her space, I kept referring to her as "little girl" since she never bothered to introduce herself other than "the dark ring". Somewhere along the way, though, she acquired a name. She didn't have a name before that. Which would mean that something would have to have happened in order for that to happen. Did she give herself that name? No…I'm pretty sure that's not how it went. Being alone in that space all by herself for so many years, she would have come up with her own name if she actually cared enough. Let's see...I appeared in the world, talked with the at first nameless little girl, she talked for a little while (in irritating riddles for some of it…being so elusive with her answers)…blank… we fought for a moment…blank…blank… talked some more...blank…blank…blank…then she suddenly had a name…some more blanks… and then I left. _Argh! Why are there blanks in there?_ What was going on? Plus she was, for the most part, being nice to me which didn't make any sense at all. Why would someone like her even care to be nice to someone like me? It was because of my existence that she was being forced to torment me all her life instead of getting to live a life of her own—away from me. If I were her, I'd _hate_ me.

Was this all really just a trick?

Turning back around, Shokyoku put her hands on her hips—her wide, different colored eyes containing a look of determination. "I'm going to fix this…somehow. I know that I can…somehow." For split second, she blushed. Then she turned her head and gave a fake confident smile while closing her eyes. Chuckling nervously, she added, "Yeah, I know that I said 'somehow' twice…b-but that' only because this requires a little bit of thought." Letting out a small cough, her face went back to determined—the embarrassed blush disappearing. "First things first…you have to distance yourself from these humans you've—" Quickly, she changed what she was going to say. "…these humans that you _used_ to be attached to. Their problems aren't yours—ours—so there's no point in sticking around for them any longer. Knowing those brain-dead monkeys they're bound to screw things up eventually." Part of me really wanted to agree with that. Their plentiful dilemmas and drama hadn't exactly done me any good. Then that made me wonder: were they honestly holding me back from achieving my wish? I sighed. Or did this whole situation that ultimately ended in my immobilization turn out to be some cruel joke or sign that my wish was just some crazy dream that could never come true?

Hearing shuffling coming from my side, I looked over to see Shokyoku pacing back and forth with a hand holding her chin in thought. "All of that is well and good I suppose, but the problem still remains that you can't move." Stopping to glance at me, she then started up again with her striding. "I'd be more than happy to move you but…" Groaning, she fell to the ground and crossed her legs, keeping mind of her dress, resting her head on her hand. "My connection to this plane isn't as strong as it could be...therefore this physical form of mine is too unstable."

Pretty much losing all motivation to confront her anymore, I sighed and dropped my eyelids halfway, not caring to look at her anymore. "Unstable?"

She nodded. "Yeah." For a few seconds, she didn't say anything, but I was pretty sure that I could hear faint footsteps next to me. "Watch this." Not feeling like complying, my eyes continued to stare at the ceiling of my canopy bed. Shokyoku pouted. "C'mon Aki, watch!" Figuring there was nothing better to do, I looked at her as best as I could just to humor her.

Next to the door was a dresser with an impressive, multicolored vase placed on top of it. Considering it was in such a lavish palace, you know that it has to be nothing less than priceless. I knew it was there to add flare and an aesthetic taste to the space, but frankly, I didn't give a damn.

"This is what I mean by unstable," Shokyoku told me. Extending her arm out, the girl's tiny hand reached out and grabbed the vase, holding it in the more slender part of the structure in order for her to have an easier grasp on it. Holding it up to her face, Shokyoku's expression was fairly indifferent, showing that she didn't exactly care much for the pottery either. That was when something surprised me. In an instant, the fragile vase phased through her hand and fell to the floor, shattering immediately on impact as its many shards scattered all over. Shokyoku didn't even look shocked or mildly surprised. All she did was stare at the now broken remains of the (once again, extremely expensive) vase and sigh. Putting her hands back on her hips, her head turned back to me. "See? I can only make contact with a solid object for a few seconds—maybe a little longer if I concentrate." Hanging her head, she added meekly, "But definitely not long enough to get you out of here." _Even if she could touch me, it's not like that small body of hers could actually carry me. _Her aspirations were obviously bigger than her sense of logic. She began to whimper, "Dammit…"

Just then, a sudden cadence of footsteps could be heard from the outside—quickly getting closer and progressively louder. "Aki! Are you okay?" Someone came rushing through the door—the loud slam causing the room to vibrate and make the objects in the room shake for a split second. The remaining black wisps of Darkness in the room began to swirl rapidly as the intruder interrupted its steady flow in our confinement. With the increasing negative energy, my vision began to become clouded once again—allowing me to only see the thick, black winds of the hurricane. "I heard a crash in here, ya know?" _Oh…so it's Chichiri. _Not exactly a threat, but not really welcomed either. Right as I was about to avert my eyes due to disinterest, they widened instead from the sight based at the room's entrance. A faint yet brilliant golden-yellow appeared, outlining a humanoid figure. The light seemed to shine past the threatening winds, proving to be my only point of reference in this chaotic abyss. Even as my eyes strained painfully to shift them the way I had, my curiosity and interest had been aroused from the peculiar phenomena. Never before had I seen such a radiant glow…it almost seemed to call out to me. However, being trapped in my own body made the whole thing seem like a huge tease—just a treat that the universe decided to whip out in order to intensify the searing agony.

_Where is that coming from? _

"Seriously?" Shokyoku scoffed. The Dark energy then concentrated itself into one spot as it brought as it rushed into the palm of the little girls' hand—almost as if she were some kind of vacuum cleaning sucking up all of the dirt without effort. Soon, I was able to decipher the objects in the room as well as the room itself once the air was clear from Darkness. "Stupid monkey barging in for something so stupid." She crouched down to the floor and fidgeted with the sharp shards all around. "Nosey vermin…"

"Huh, this is quite the mess here, ya know?" The monk must have been talking about the broken vase. "How exactly did this happen? Did you use a spell? That would have been against Lady Taiitsukun's orders, ya know?" His voice became less perky. "Or did you…walk perhaps?"

Staying silent for a few seconds, I replied with, "I didn't do it." _What's up with him? Can't he see Shokyoku? She's sitting there plain as day. _Before, I was really the only one who could even see the dark ring. But that was only at times…it wasn't always visible to me. And since my journey had begun, I had heard her voice when no one else could. And now she was here—in the physical word though not exactly perfect in the technical sense.

Actually, I wasn't the only one who could see her…Tasuki could as well. After coming back from her space, he admitted that to me. It was peculiar that out of all the people, it was him who could already see more of me than anyone else ever could.

…

…

…

Aside from that…

I supposed that even though she left her space, Shokyoku could still only be seen and heard by me—almost as if she were a ghost or something and I was a medium. Either that or I suddenly developed schizophrenia. The only silver lining there was that none of those were the case due to plausible reasons.

"Hey Aki, there's someone or something else in here with you, isn't there?" He asked. _Figures. Of course he can sense her. _More than anyone else I had ever known, Chichiri was rather perceptive, despite what one might think from his innocent, faux face. "I mean, I'm just wondering. I could be completely wrong, ya know?"

"Huh, so the blue monkey can't see me," Shokyoku mentioned in an exasperated yet condescending tone. "Didn't expect anything less from such a primitive species." I noticed how her tone almost completely changed once Chichiri walked into the room. Now it seemed more like she was talking at him than talking with me.

Once again, the faint, golden halo progressed closer, revealing that it was Chichiri who was emitting that Light. The more that I noticed it the more I realized that it wasn't that impressive. In fact, the glow was flickering in and out—like a failing light bulb. He couldn't hold onto that power he was summoning—that was visually apparent with the struggle shown on his face.

Well perhaps he shouldn't be even trying.

"So…how're you doing? Feeling any better? We've all been worried about you, ya know?" _Yeah, sure you have. _"Everyone else wishes that they could be in here to talk with you, ya know?" He chuckled. "Even Nuriko tried to break his way through to come see you!" I immediately sneered at the sound of Nuriko's name being said to me. That was how I knew Chichiri was lying to me. There was no way that Nuriko would give a damn about me. And it wasn't like it mattered to me whether or not Tamahome, Miaka, or Hotohori felt sorry—I didn't need their pity. Their attentions would soon be shifted and it would only be a matter of time before I became yesterday's story and moved to the bottom of their priorities lists. _Please just save me the crap now and leave me be. _"You're probably wondering how I'm doing this, right?" The guy had the capability to read my mind. Whether or not Stella impaired the capableness of him probing my thoughts was still indiscernible, but nonetheless, he still had the ability to read me pretty well—much to my chagrin. The bigger question was if he caught my comment about not wanting him around—though I was a bit curious as to what magic was allowing him to glow. Right has he was about to continue with his explanation, he took a seat on the edge of my bed. "I'm pretty sure you've learned by now that everyone has Light and Darkness inside of them since birth, ya know?" Shokyoku was the first one to tell me that.

"Of course she knows that, _I'm_ the one who told her." Shokyoku's voice said from across the room. "Leave it to a human to be slow from the get-go."

Not being able to hear her to argue back, Chichiri kept his focus on me. "Well, using that knowledge, I've learned how to actually use my Light," He crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side, "not to its fullest extent, however. Especially since people shouldn't be able to access either their Light or Darkness on their own, ya know?" Turning his head and down to face me, he smiled. "Actually, you're the exception, ya know? You're capabilities are much stronger than mine when it comes to summoning Light." _What does he mean by that? _I had never been able to call forth Light—I didn't even know what it felt like. It was beginning to feel as if he were making fun of my inabilities and rubbing into my face how he could do something that I should be able to do. "Not at the moment of course…but…" His smile widened as he tried his best to not look too gloomy. "We all believe in you…so get better soon, okay?" _Who the hell does he think I am? _I wasn't some genie who could grant my every whim. If I had that ability, wouldn't this moron think that I'd have fixed myself by now? This wasn't some everyday sickness that one could get over with a little rest and TLC…this was—this was…well…complicated. And I certainly didn't need things getting more screwed up.

I needed to be able to walk again.

_Maybe Shokyoku can't do anything…_I looked up at Chichiri's hopeful face. _But maybe he can. _The monk specialized in magic, and chi, and stuff like that so he had to have known _something_ that could help me. It wasn't like I was willing to put my faith in him or anything, I just needed to use anyone that could fix what Stella had done since it was so obvious that I wouldn't be able to get to the bitch on my own. What a big hit to the ego it was knowing that I had to rely on everyone…when no one could be trusted. Already being in that vulnerable state were torment reigned day and night was horrible enough without having to allow others to see me in my misery.

_If I'm going to get my way in this, I'll have to get a bit out of character. _I began to beg as I swallowed my pride. "Please Chichiri, I need your help."

Shokyoku shot up from the ground and shouted in the background. "Aki! What're you doing?"

He looked surprised from my sudden cooperativeness. "Sure Aki, anything! I'm here to help, ya know! So what is it that you need me for?"

Running up to yell at him in his ear Shokyoku's volume remained high. "What do you think she wants simpleton? She's gonna ask you to fix her." Remaining worked up, she stepped away and pointed an accusing finger at him. "Don't do it Aki, you don't need him! This human will bring nothing but bad-luck!"

Ignoring her foreboding, I put on a weak, fake smile—forcing it was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. My words came out as a pleaded whisper. "I need you Chichiri—help me out of this…" If I actually had any mobility, I'd add a little more to the act by tugging on his sleeve like some sad child. However after some point, I'd probably throw my hands up and quit the whole damn charade from the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

Face twisting into an uneasy expression, he turned away from me to avoid my gaze. "I'm really, really sorry about this, but…I can't make the pain go away, ya know?"

I didn't accept that. "Please Chichiri…"

Instead of refusing me once more, the monk stayed quiet as he searched through his thoughts. "Well…" _He's caving. _Fake sincerity and you could get anything…interesting… "I can't exactly undo what the Shadow Maiden did but…I can get you out of this bed, ya know?" _Well mobility is better than nothing. _"There is a way to make this happen…however it comes at a serious cost. It's really risky, ya know?"

"There, see?" Shokyoku chimed back in. "There's already a risk and he didn't even do anything yet! Human? Can. Not. Be. Trusted! Completely incompetent in every way. Putting your life in his hands will be a big mistake!"

My eyes sent her a quick, threatening flash. _Will. You. Shut. Up? Stay out of it you miniature pest! _She was beginning to give me a serious headache—making me regret keeping her alive as long as I had.

Luckily, Chichiri didn't happen to catch my nonverbal threat to the being next to him. Closing his hand, there was a flicker of white light. Then as he opened his palm, a silver ring emerged and grew steadily—changing from the size of a penny to the size of a smaller Frisbee. The strange ring hovered over his hand for only a few seconds before losing its majestic glow and falling into his grip. Once the light dimmed out, I found that the ring's edges were an intricate, braided design—a surge of energy raced through the twists adding even more bewilderment to my person.

I blinked a few times while my brain attempted to fathom on its own the object that was presented before me. Chichiri explained. "My mentor gave this to me just in case you wanted to move around before you healed, ya know?" _So once again Taiitsukun was one step ahead. _If that hag was so damn important in the Universe of the Four Gods, then why the heck couldn't she do anything to heal me herself? Why send her lackey to do things for her? How useless that woman was. Her role in that world didn't even make any sense—what made her so freakin' high and mighty in the first place? It wasn't like she actually did anything important. In fact, she probably only brought me into the picture to do her dirty work. How irritating… "You'll be able to move just fine if you put this on your head, ya know? But here's the thing…" _Of course there's a catch. _"You, uh, won't be able to feel anything still…and…well…"

_Just spill it! _Containing my inbuilt assertiveness, I gently asked, "What is it?"

He sighed and scratched his cheek sheepishly, attempting to stall. "Well…er…If you were to use it, you'll lose all of your emotions. Period." I gasped lightly. _Lose all of my emotions? What…what would something like that be like?_ The whole idea of it was sort of difficult to imagine."If you were to go out in your current condition, certain…_handicaps_ of yours would end up…um…_enabling_ the people around you, ya know? So Lady Taiitsukun just wanted to take some…_precautions_…haha…" _In other words, Taiitsukun thinks that I'm some dangerous monster who could end up hurting people if my emotions weren't kept in check._ Shokyoku as the dark ring would always bring out the worst in people and at the same time, making them feel downright awful—experiencing only a fraction of the agony I had to endure all of my life. Now my Darkness was flaring like mad, so it was no wonder why I had to be put into a room that would prevent my power from influencing anyone. You could tell that Chichiri was trying to explain the whole situation in the most docile way possible, but no matter what the delivery was, the message was still the same—I was the type of person you had to approach with caution. There might as well have been a "BEWARE" sign stapled to my forehead. "Aki, for what I think are obvious reasons, you shouldn't go through with it, ya know? But it's your decision so I won't stop you—"

Before the monk had a chance to finish his reasoning, he unexpectedly stopped in the middle of his sentence—his face reading alarmed. At precisely the same moment, the world seemed to spin around me—turning completely distorted and indiscernible with lightning flashed of purple strikes appearing in my vision. Blinking hard, I endeavored to distill whatever was occurring. Opening my eyes slowly, I was shocked to find that the purple flashes still persisted—almost like someone was flipping the switch on to a room in a randomized rhythm. I closed my eyes again.

_Please…stop it! Go away! Stop…_ This time, I kept my eyes closed up until Chichiri abruptly got up, dropped the ring onto the bed, and took a few steps forward. "That presence…" With the numerous flashes, I was forced to squint in order to see. Though I wasn't sure, I think that he looked back at me while he said, "Sorry about this—I'll be back to check in on you later." _What's going on? _Closed my eyes again. "Try not to worry about what's going on—we'll handle it, ya know?" Just like that, a similar slam from earlier was heard, though I still kept my eyes shut to avoid the flashes that were plaguing me.

_Why won't this stop? What is this?_

"Damn, I recognize that feeling…It's a Shadow Maiden," Shokyoku hissed. Hearing that prompted me to shoot my eyes open, despite the irritating flashes.

Glaring to nothing in particular, I asked with a strained voice and through gritted teeth, "Is it _her_?" Since my body couldn't feel any sensations, the flashing and dizziness must have been an alternate way for my mind to alarm me to the appearance of a nearby Shadow Maiden.

A few seconds of silence before she responded, "I think so…"

_She came back for me…_If there was anybody more deserving of my wrath at that moment, it was the one who took away my ability to take care of myself—making me look like some weak fool. Stella played with me as if I weren't even a challenge—caused me to wake back up into the nightmare that was my life. And I had a fairly good reason to think that she's the one who was screwing in my head in such a way that was influencing my sense of judgment. Some things in my mind just weren't making much sense so I wanted—no, _needed_ to take my frustrations out on someone.

_That slices it. _

"Shokyoku!" The little girl jumped at the harshness of my voice as she slowly turned to face me. "I'll need you to put the ring on my head." She may not have been able to hold onto it for too long, but she should have had enough concentration to do what I demanded from her.

"What?" She slammed her hands on the bed and got in my face. "Now listen to me Aki, I do not trust _anything_ those humans and especially that woman Taiitsukun give to you. I mean, take away your emotions? That's absurd! You've already been messed up enough by Stella! And I forbid that trinket going anywhere near your beautiful head. I mean…" Coming closer to me, she wrapped her arms around my head as if I were some cherished stuffed animal or something. "You'll be a completely different person without your emotions and I don't want you to change anymore." She growled. "That monkey does not know what he's talking about. He calls this a solution to the problem? He's lucky that I don't show him my ugly side—"

"Dammit Shokyoku we do not have time for this!" I shouted as loud as I could manage. "I refuse to just sit here like this and do nothing. It's horrible knowing how pathetic I must look right now… and what would Kajou say?" _She'd look down at me in disgrace…that's what would happen. _To think that she'd turn her back on me for a second time if she could—as if dying on me wasn't bad enough…"If I am going to suffer, then I'm going to make sure that I won't be the only one."

Shokyoku sat up and stared down at me, her differed eyes showing concern. "But your emotions—"

"F%$# my emotions! I don't give a f$#ing damn!" The dark winds in the room began to start up again—its force making everything in the room sway and fall over from its influence. "As far as I'm concerned, my emotions can just go to Hell…as long Stella and anyone else who gets in my way goes down with them." Tears clouded my vision without warning, soon falling and rolling down my cheeks. _I'd rather not feel anything than have to go through life like this much longer. _Shokyoku slowly rolled off of the bed—a sadness in her eyes as she looked down at the ring next to her resting hand. Her lips were shaking, as if she wanted to protest some more. But she knew my answer—I was dead-set on doing this._ Is it worth it? I don't know…but…its' better than nothing…_ My voice softened. "Please Shokyoku…I need this…"

It took a few moments of silence as she kept her eyes shut. Then she bared her teeth and shrieked just as she picked up the ring and jammed in onto my head.

* * *

><p><em><strong>~*With Stella, after her fight with Aki*~<strong>_

There the powerful Shadow Maiden stood, in some a large chamber constructed with what seemed like black crystal. The lighting in the space was dim—the only lighting coming from several torches emitting what seemed like a purple and grey flame. Even the ceiling was ominous as it couldn't have been seen past the dense, eerie black fog that covered it. Stella stood alone in between two long columns of lesser Shadow Maidens that seemed to stretch on for forever, each one of them glaring at her with their glowing yellow eyes as they swayed from back and forth. Stationed in front of a tall, flat slab of crystal that displayed specific images on its surface, she ignored her subordinates as she smugly watched the events that had unfolded with Akimoto once her friends came in and "saved" her. Everything seemed to go downhill for little Aki after that attempted rescue—she was a complete wreck. On surviving on half of her emotions and memories? That ended up turning into a rather entertaining spectacle for the nefarious Stella.

With the Cheshire-cat-like smile plastered on her face, the Shadow Maiden had her arms crossed as she just witnessed Akimoto's outburst against her "friend" Nuriko.

_"__Hearing your voice has always disgusted me you fag," _The red-eyed woman shouted in fury. She was being carried by the one named Tamahome as she stopped to have a "chat" with the cross-dresser Nuriko. The mere sight of him absolutely infuriated her. The sight was just too precious, widening Stella's grin._ "Don't insult me with your faux sympathy."_

The Shadow Maiden giggled. "This certainly wasn't exactly how I planned things to be but," her Southern-Bell accent came through clear as day, "I'm mighty satisfied with the turnout—things couldn't get more entertainin' than this!" Before, Akimoto was loyal as could be, though with a bit of an edge, and now she was chewing her friends out left and right—as if they were her enemies.

"You dare laugh at your mistakes Stella?" A woman's voice roared out from behind the voyeur Shadow Maiden. Her body shuddered a bit before slowly turning to the one who had addressed her so threateningly.

"N-No! Of course not Your Highness!" The Shadow Maiden stuttered as she spoke humbly to the mysterious feminine figure sitting atop a high, blackened throne—her grin shrinking down into nonexistence. "I'm not exactly proud of everythin' that perspired milady, but, if I may point out, they didn't exactly win—"

"It's not about winning or losing! It's about getting Aki to join us—here, where she rightfully belongs." The woman's voice became even sterner as her hands clenched the arm rests. "And you couldn't do that."

Stella tried to reason with her. "If I just had a little more time—"

"It doesn't matter anymore! It never mattered…not at the rate things were going…" The woman paused as her mind wandered off into her thoughts. "From the beginning, I've sent out my Shadow Maidens to observe Aki and her progress—seeing if she was worthy enough to be a part of the revolution." She chuckled slightly, making Stella feel a bit uneasy from the sudden shift in attitudes. "As expected, she didn't disappoint." Then her voice went back to menacing. "But then, nobody took into account how she'd react to the attacks led by you all—she misinterpreted what was going on. Instead of revering us, she felt frightened and even shreds of hatred, pushing her away from what we know is best for her destiny, making her cling to those useless humans as support—even if she wouldn't admit to doing so." Sharpening her glare, the woman's words seemed to have cut right through Stella as if they were a chainsaw. "Directly forcing her to accept the truth is not the efficient way of going about this. You, Stella, proved that point a little too well by failing so miserably on your little plan." Stella took a few defensive steps backward. "What I should do is punish you for your embarrassing disappointment."

Eyes widening with fear, Stella spoke out to save her life. "Your Highness—it was a mistake that shall not be attempted again—I promise ya that. Just please spare me—"

The woman held up a hand. "Let me finish." Stella immediately kept her mouth shut, not even thinking of ever interrupting again. "Our methods were…pushing her away. But with this new development," She smirked. "Well, let's just say that the rules of the game have changed. I'm actually rather pleased with the turnout actually."

The yellow glow from Stella's eyes instantly shimmered with the apparent praise from her monarch. Smile creeping back, she managed to say, "Th-Thank you milady! And there I was beginnin' da think that you were gonna kill me."

"Oh no, I was," The woman intervened—drowning Stella's retrieved confidence once again. "But then I thought of the possibilities your screw-up could do for us." She explained herself. "Before, Aki was much more in tuned with her Light than I really wanted her to be. Despite the curse I put on her, she still managed to somehow overcome adversity. Although I respect her strength and willpower, I do not appreciate that it's dedicated to the humans and the ones she has so foolishly trusted to be her 'friends'." She growled as she pictured Akimoto laughing and having cherished experiences with the ones she had come to meet on her journey. "It's sickening…seeing her happy with that sorry excuse for a species…when she should be here…with us." Sighing, the woman rested her head on her hand, her lips curved into a frown. "I'm ashamed to admit that I was beginning to have doubts about whether or not we could Turn her—that we'd have to kill her without allowing her to live in the truth…because of course, she cannot continue living and fighting for _them_. However," She grinned at Stella, "Your little blunder gave us back the home-field advantage—_and_ it made me aware of what was necessary in order for us to get our way."

For what seemed like forever, the woman sat there in her seat, playing with the ideas in her head as Stella watched and waited for her to make a move. It didn't take long before the silence got to her. "Well, don't leave me hangin' with anticipation—what is it?" The woman shot an intimidating glance at Stella, causing her to withdraw a bit and respectfully bow and add, "Your Highness…"

Flipping her long hair, the woman informed the curious Shadow Maiden. "If you're that impatient to know, then I'll tell you Stella." She pointed to the tall crystal slap, revealing an image of Aki being confined to a barrier-protected room in the Konan palace. "Aki now only has half of her emotions—the negative ones, and as an added bonus, her happy memories have been wiped out as well. While I'm sure that this wasn't your intention, things couldn't have played out any better. No longer is she so faithful to the humans she had allied herself with. She's on the fence—skeptical of their trustworthiness and wary of their actions. No longer is Light muting my gifted curse on her—she hears and sees loud and clear the evils of man—just as she once did before _they_ got to her. More than anyone else _she_ knows their flaws and their repeatedly occurring sins."

Shooting out of her throne, the woman stood and raised her hands in the air with delight. "Now her Darkness is blocking the Light and therefore growing closer to us than ever before!" Losing some of her excitement, her hands fell down to her sides as she began making her descent from the high throne. "Because of my daughter and curse, she'd be too wounded to recover both her memory _and_ her emotions." In the image of Akimoto, the dark ring around her began to pulsate and grow exponentially—emulating the forcefulness of a deadly hurricane as it swirled and hit all four walls and corners of the room. She was sunken in a dreadful, personal abyss. "Yes, it's all a matter of time before she permanently belongs to me."

"All of that is dandy and all Your Highness, but," The woman faced the bold-speaking, doubtful Stella who was glancing between the image on the crystal and the woman fantasizing about Akimoto's destiny. "What about this guy?" With a finger, she touched the crystal and the image rippled, changing to show a scene with a flame-headed man.

This didn't seem to faze the woman making her way down. "Ah yes, Tasuki—an interesting, yet meddlesome addition to Aki's tale. I'm familiar with him."

"Won't he be a problem? I mean, if he were to touch Aki, I can imagine this plan goin' down the drain…" Stella crossed her arms. "They do have that sparky-bond-thing goin' on after all. I say we just kill him and extinguish the threat here and now."

Once the woman reached the bottom of the stairway, she halted and looked up at replays of when the bandit and Akimoto had a connection. "No, we can't dispose of him—not yet anyway."

"What'dya mean? It'll be simple to take him out!"

The woman sneered at her. "I'm not saying that we _can't_—you foolish girl. I'm saying that we won't." Seeing the confusion on Stella's face made the woman sigh in exasperation. "His death would be too much of an impact on Aki. If we were to end the lives of anyone close to her than that will produce the opposite effect of what we want."

"And that is what milady?" Even as the woman explained things slowly, Stella still didn't seem to catch on to the gist of what she was saying.

Lowering her head in shame for the Shadow Maiden, the woman walked up to the crystal slab and peered up at the playing images. "We want Aki on our side—therefore she has to accept and trust us. If we go around killing anyone she's made any kind of bond with, we'll just stay labeled as monsters and she'll want nothing to do with us." Punching the crystal as hard as she could, a menacing black energy sprayed out from the crack she made, shutting off the playing picture. As blood trickled down her fist, the woman smiled. "This…erasing of her emotions and memory is a blessing in that it more or less wipes our slates clean and raises our ideals above humans, even if only by a little." Slowly, she turned to face Stella who continued to look at her curiously. "So for now…we'll lie low—allow this change in events to take its course on its own and see where it leads. This can only be a great help to us as the scale tips in our favor."

"So we won't do anything about Tasuki?" Stella asked, trying to make sure that she understands _all_ of the woman's intentions so that she wouldn't make a mistake again. "Their bond—"

"Won't change a thing. They haven't developed enough together to cause any real threat. Even if he were to touch her, try as he might, there's no way in Hell that he could reverse what had already been done." Putting her attention back onto the crystal, a plethora of moving images of many different worlds containing people Akimoto has met and even ones she hasn't been to, appeared like some sort of collage. She crossed her arms and grinned widely at the glow from the pictures. "But don't you worry your pretty little head Stella. For one day, every single human will be dealt with—none will be spared. Darkness will consume Light—creating an eternal night—taking its rightful place as the dominant element and ruler of the universe…"

_It all begins with you…_

_My dear Akimoto~_

***Aki now has the enchanted ring on her head that drains all of her emotions—making her expressions seem nothing less than that of an android. And in the shadows, the forces of Darkness plot to bring her over to their side by taking advantage of the situation! Will Aki decide to stay on the side of the humans and Suzaku Warriors? Or will she fall victim to the same fate as the other girls who made the same journey? How will her friends deal with the mounting complications? Well, I guess you'll have to find out next chappie!***

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><p><strong>That was the chapter folks! How did ya like it? =3<strong>

**PLEASE REVIEW! Tell me your opinions, predictions, hopes, anything that spiked ur interest during the chapter—anything! For every new review I get, the less likely the sky will end up falling on us. Please, do it for Chicken Little—take the burden off of him X3**

**Ooookayy…this chappie came out a tad longer than expected…Gomen..^^". **

**If any of you have a DA account, can you do a favor for me? I need more points in order for me to get commissions to help promote this story. Unfortunately…I'm poor. So! If anyone would like to donate points, I would love you forever**

**Oh! And if you wanna see a few new pix of mine (one being a pic of Aki and Nuriko), then check out my DA gallery!**

**There have also been some awesome people who took requests from me and drew Aki. So go to my Favorites gallery and check those out as well (especially if u wanna see a pic of Aki and Tasuki and Aki and Chichiri). More to come in the future!**

**Thank you all once again for reading!**

**Until next time, C ya!**

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><p><strong>Here are the trivia questions and such for ya~<strong>

***LH5W Fan-Questions #2! Since Aki isn't human, do you think that she's still related to her parents? Do you think she's related to Kajou?***

***LH5W Trivia #5! In the first draft of this story, the first person that Aki was to meet was Tasuki.***

***LH5W Trivia #6! Aki's age has changed throughout the years of development of this story. During the first draft, she was to be a sophomore or junior. But once I graduated high school a few years later, I decided to make her a senior instead.***


	37. LH5W Anniversary Special, Part 1

**Hey everyone! Happy Anniversary!**

**Welcome to the special 3-part omake of _Love Hurts 5 Ways_! It's June 8 and you know what that means? Well, it means that it's been exactly 1 year since I first uploaded this story! =D**

**And in celebration of today, here is a special omake chapter—meaning that this is just for fun and has nothing to do with the original story. But I guarantee that it WILL be entertaining. So we're gonna take a break from the somewhat depressing state we left the original story in and have a party with the cast of LH5W! You, as a loyal reader, have been invited to the event.**

**This chapter will also feature many snippets, here called, "clips", which will serve to help reminisce about memorable moments in the story in the past year. You'll see what I mean ^_~ Maybe one of your favorite parts will show up! **

**This special, because it ended up so long, will be delivered in 3 parts. The first part will be uploaded on Friday, the next on Saturday, and the third on Sunday of this special anniversary weekend! Also head over to DA to check out the special picture that was made just for this day! =D**

**So without further ado, let's get the celebration under way!~(as well as my failure with comedy ^v^")**

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><p>Greetings humans.<p>

By my introduction, you can probably tell who I am. But since I figure—no—_I know_, that pretty much _all_ humans are incompetent, I supposed that it cannot be helped but to reveal my identity.

My name is Shokyoku.

Though the name was only given to me a little while ago, I cherish it very much because it's what Aki named me! So from now on, that is what everyone should refer to me as. You humans are lucky that I don't force you to call me your superior, Shokyoku-sama, or even Your Majesty. Though I and everyone else from my race are far more valuable than all of you, I really don't feel like exerting too much of my strength on such lower life forms.

Don't think that I can't see the way you're staring at me. You probably think I'm full-of-it and rude for not giving you a more…_deserving_ hello. Let _me_ just tell _you_ something. I didn't even want any of you coming to this thing. In fact, if I had things my way, the story would just be about me and Aki. But somewhere along the lines, _someone_ thought that it was necessary to have an antagonist, a conflict, a setting, some rising action, and all of that other pointless stuff. Personally I don't see the problem with having just two characters that complement each other so much! *cough* Me and Aki *cough, cough* Ahem. Excuse me~

Okay, now I'm stuck getting _that_ look from people? Look here you, when I say that I "love" Aki, it's like a best friend. My very, very, very, VERY best friend! A friend that I can always have picnics with, play many different games with, go on walks in the park, play on the swings…maybe build a sandcastle

*sparkles in the air, all around her head while she blushes*

*ahem* *becomes serious again*So get that nasty, human mind out of the gutter. I'm a little girl (as far as you all know anyway~). Indecent bunch of monkeys...

Now I'm obligated to tell you all what's going on here. We're about to go into a room where a party is being held. But it's not some every-day, stupid, poorly-hosted, monkey-infested party. No, it's a _special_, stupid, poorly-hosted, monkey-infested party. It happens to be June 8—it's been a whole year since this story, _Love Hurts 5 Ways, _began. It's only been a few months since _I_ showed up and had a wonderful "first" encounter with Aki—the thing that _should_ be celebrated—but apparently we're celebrating the story's progression and how she gained her awesome powers and grew as a person. *sigh* As well as her relations with her monkey friends…yadda…yadda…yadda. As if they really matter. As far as I'm concerned, all of those humans are useless background characters. But what does _my_ opinion matter? Apparently you readers with absolutely no taste want a more…"developed" story and "in depth" interactions with "meaningful" characters.

Getting back to the point, and long story short, a party is being thrown and the Creator/Author found it necessary to invite you guys along as well. It would also probably interest you all to know that many of your favorite characters from both past and present will also be attending. Not my favorite choice, but at the risk of being kicked out of the story, I can't completely add in my two cents about it. But really, as if the author would kick _me_ out. Aki needs me for future character development—as well as some juicy secrets that are going to be revealed. *wink*

We're about to enter now.

Of course, I still can't be seen by the other characters—not that I'd ever want to carry on a conversation with those monkeys anyway—but I will probably stand off in the background and relay my opinions whenever I see fit. So don't be surprised whenever my voice pops in out of nowhere. Let's put it this way, you guys shouldn't even be able to _see_ or _hear_ me—only Aki can as far as things are going right now. Consider this a happy day for you, after all, I'm allowing you the honor of hearing me.

Well, I suppose I can't stall this any longer.

Time to step inside.

Be ready for anything…

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><p>Standing tall were a set of double doors with fancifully colored ribbons decorating the edges as it stays closed for only a few seconds more. A sign hanging around the handles each say "Private Party". It's difficult to determine exactly what's going on inside as the light coming from the cracks in the bottom revealed shadows going back, forth, and meshing into some ambiguous form, blocking whatever the light source happened to be. Various voices could be heard at once, not speaking in any particular rhythm or pattern. Whatever was happening, an aura of positive energy was practically emitting strong like the rays of the sun—enough to put a smile on your face before even stepping in to see what all of the excitement was about.<p>

Without warning, the doors swung open to a large, well-lit room filled with familiar faces—a blend of various emotions mixed into the overall friendly atmosphere. Overhead, there hung three intricate and bright crystal chandeliers that illuminated the whole space. All around the upper cracks of the walls were lavender and pale-yellow banners. The most prominent one was on the back wall in front of a luscious buffet that spelled out, "Happy 1st Anniversary Love Hurts 5 Ways!", accompanied with helium-filled balloons of complementary colors.

To make the room more comfortable, there were couches and cushions placed in planned-out spots, most notably a spot in the center where four couches were set in a square, facing in to make conversation among guests easier. In another corner of the room was a bar equipped with a plethora of beverages as well as its own bartender ready to serve. All drinks are free! After all, it's a special day!

Scattered around the room were the members of the Ouran High School Host Club and members of the Suzaku 7 who were already introduced in the story.

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><p>Shokyoku: Don't expect a description of every single one of them. By this point, you all should know very well what they look like. If you don't…use some imagination you uncreative monkeys. Or better yet, go back and read the story. And this time, actually <em>pay<em> attention. Okay?

Oh, and for those of you who are confused, there is a reason why these particular groups were chosen to be here. _Love Hurts 5 Ways _was put into the crossover section for the anime _Ouran High School Host Club _and _Fushigi Yuugi. _So _of course_ these guys are here. Use your brains for once in your life.

Invited Guest: But Miss Shokyoku! Aki went to five different worlds, why aren't the people from the other worlds here as well?

Shokyoku: You're right. I guess some of you are capable of being somewhat perceptive! Well, let's just say that some of the invitations may or may not have had a wrong address on them. Gee, I wonder _who_ was in charge of mailing those things…Silly me!

Invited Guest: If you don't like everyone here except for Aki, then why didn't you just make it so that no one showed up?

Shokyoku: Why are you making it sound as if _I_ did anything wrong? Besides, if I _had_ done this alleged wrong-doing *wink, wink*, then a mastermind such as myself would have enough brains to know that if so many people didn't show up, a certain protagonist would get suspicious. And this female lead _certainly_ isn't stupid to not be. *threateningly while cracking knuckles* You calling Aki stupid?

Invited guest: *eye twitches* N-No! Of course not!

Shokyoku: That's what I thought! Back to the party~

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><p>"This party was such a great idea! I'm so glad I decided to show up." Nuriko sat comfortably on one of the couches, practically hogging the whole thing as he extended his legs to the other end. "What a wonderful time to relax and just have some fun!" Unlike his ancient Chinese character role in the story, this former cross-dresser as well as his other friends from the <em>Universe of the Four Gods<em> came to the celebration in casual, modern clothing that wouldn't normally be seen in their world. Nuriko, for example, wore a long, red sleeved shirt with a black vest over it and dark blue jeans for pants. Even with all of that on, it would still be pretty easy to mistake him as a woman. The way he sat wasn't exactly helping either.

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><p>Shokyoku: Oh, and don't expect a description of everyone's clothes. I'm praying that you're all intelligent enough to imagine modern clothing on everyone. This is an omake people. Too much descriptions will make it stale~ And if any of you make a crack about anyone being OOC, I'll personally slap you.<p>

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><p>Miaka and sat on the opposite side from her purple-haired Suzaku warrior, her boyfriend, Tamahome, sat right next to her as he enjoyed a plate of hors d'œuvre's . Not too long before, the girl was trying to get a few pieces off of his plate, seeing all of that assorted food. But the man managed to fend off her advances…for now. Miaka responded to Nuriko. "I can't believe that it's been an entire year since the author published <em>Love Hurts 5 Ways! <em>It really didn't even seem like that much time had gone by…"

"Believe me, it would feel a lot longer—"

"If you had been in the story earlier—"

"Like us!" The twins Hikaru and Kaoru popped up from behind Miaka and Tamahome, making them both jump and Nuriko laugh. "You guys didn't even show up until Season 2," said the younger twin Kaoru.

Hikaru came in next. "Not only have we known Aki longer, but we're _still_ being referenced even during _your_ screen time in this present season."

"They even gave us a cameo in Chapters 26, 27, 30—"

"Alright we get it already!" Tasuki shouted from the bar, shaking his fists at the twins. "Ya been around longer—just shut'cher traps already! It's not that big a deal."

Mitsukuni—"Honey"—skipped over to the bandit giggled. "Aww. Tasu-chan is mad!" The small teen tried to get Tasuki to smile by pulling the corners of his lips upwards. "There we go! Don't be jealous now."

Just as the red-headed man was about to chase after Honey, Chichiri came out of virtually nowhere and held him back as he struggled to get free. "Let me at 'em! He's old enough fer me ta pound on! I've watched parts of _Ouran, _he's not that innocent!"

"Calm down Tasuki—he was just playing with you, ya know?" The monk smiled nervously as he feared that his friend would end up making an unnecessary scene.

Haruhi stood in front of the buffet table as she witnessed what was going on between her fellow Host Club member and the two Suzaku warriors. She sighed. "When you think about it, they've actually had more screen time than us."

"Haruhi…"

"You're on their side?" The twins asked.

Tasuki chuckled as a smug expression wiped onto his face. "Betrayed by one of yer own—if that's not karma, I dunno what is."

The cross-dresser from Ouran Academy shook her head and smiled. "I'm not betraying anyone. It's just common sense. I mean…time wise _in_ the story, yeah, we've been around longer since Aki was with us for a few months. But when you think about chapters…"

"Oh, I see what you're getting at!" Chichiri dropped a fist in his hand. "Though you Hosts technically had her for a while in the time span of the story, we had her for more chapters! She's been in our world for the entire second season so far which has been about 19 chapters and you guys had her for about 6, ya know?"

Before Chichiri could even think about it, Tasuki had rushed over to Honey and began rubbing the smaller teens head roughly with his fist while grinning vengefully. "Who's jealous now?"

"Tasu-chan! That hurts! Stoppit!" Grabbing the bandit's wrist, Honey cried out, "I politely said, STOP!" The Host used only a fraction of his mighty force to flip over the poor unsuspecting Tasuki, and sent him flying clear across the room—his scream could be heard getting fainter as the distance grew. It didn't take long before he hit the wall on the opposite side, leaving a crater in the shape of his twitching body.

Chichiri scratched the side of his cheek sheepishly. "I think that was a bit much, ya know?"

Laughing, Honey's rubbed the back of his head. "Oops, I guess you're right Chi-chan!" Suddenly, the small Host began sniffing the air and his head snapped in the direction of a desert cart that just entered the room. Sparkles came into his eyes as he hugged his stuffed-bunny tighter. "Look Usa-chan! So many cakes and cookies…" Drool dripped from his mouth. Not a second later, he zoomed to tackle the unfortunate guy who was just trying to do his job.

On another part of the room…

"It's really a shame Hotohori. You would have been an excellent addition to our Host Club," Tamaki, the overly-dramatic leader of the Host Club told the Konan emperor. "Your beauty truly outshines that of a regular commoner, my good man." Both of them sat at a small rounded table, sipping tea out of seemingly expensive china cups.

The royal Suzaku warrior flashed him a smile. "You're very wise for such an observation Tamaki. But I must remind you that I am no commoner, I'm an emperor of a very prestigious country. That job alone takes up a good amount of time so it's unfortunate that I must decline your offer." He took a sip. "Even I'll have to admit that you're quite charming as well—I could even go so far as to say that your elegance matches that of a prince!"

Tamaki grinned. "My dear Hoto, don't you mean that my looks match that of…a _King_?"

Hotohori smiled back, though this time it seemed forced. "No, I meant what I said."

A small vein popped up on the Hosts' cheek has he persisted with the faux smile. "Well then I'll correct you my friend."

Konan's emperor waved him off politely. "No need. As an _actual _emperor, I'd like to think that my judgments are fairly valid." If one were to read in between his sincere façade, they would see the statement, "I gave you a compliment—Just. Take. It."

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><p>Shokyoku: Believe it or not folks, but this whole back and forth fight for kingly dominance thing goes on for another three minutes. So, I'm just going to bend space and time by grabbing this universal remote here and…*takes out the remote and presses the fast-forward button*…speed things up.<p>

…

…

…

O…kay…that should be good. *presses button to resume normal play*

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><p>Nuriko closed his eyes and rested his hand in his hand while venturing into his thoughts wistfully. "Oh I remember when my agents first suggested that I become a member of the Host Club. It was such a tempting offer and I was so flattered!" Sighing, he flipped his bangs then folded his fingers and blushed—eyes sparkling in no particular direction. "But I just knew that my big break would manifest itself out there somewhere. And now~" In a flash Nuriko appeared next to Hotohori, wrapping his arms around the emperor's. "I couldn't be happier with my current role."<p>

Hotohori closed his eyes in exasperation. "Nuriko, could you please let go?"

The purple-haired Suzaku warrior immediately backed off and turned around, holding his cheek as a tear formed out of the corner of an eye. "Excuse me Your Highness! I got a little ahead of myself there. After all, you can't rush a happily ever after!" In his free hand was a small bottle labeled "fake tears". "So I shall patiently wait!"

Hikaru and Kaoru peeked from behind a couch as they observed the events that just perspired—especially the bit with Nuriko's faux sobs. "You gotta admit, he's pretty good," Hikaru noted.

"Yeah," Kaoru added on, "but that's kind of our thing—I thought we were the only ones clever enough to use tears-in-a-bottle…"

Stroking his chin, the older twin became rather skeptical. "Looks like our brand too. There's no way that's a coincidence…" Those two were always known for putting on rather convincing performances for their clients. But only those in the Host Club knew that the vast majority of the time, they were using fake tears.

Pushing up his classes, the vice-president of the Host Club stood behind the spying twins. "I sold it to him of course. For a while, Nuriko here has been a client of mine—ordering packs of those fake tears. It earned the Host Club a little pocket change."

"Kyouya-senpai! You're selling our secrets to another group!"

"It's not exactly authentic if everyone's doing it!"

Haruhi popped in, her face unfazed. "_You're_ worried about authenticity? You guys use fake tears, leading on the ladies to think that your twin-cest routines are genuine. I know it's for the sake of making our clients happy, but _come on_…" Always had to leave it to Haruhi to bluntly point out the obvious.

It didn't take long before the twins jumped out of their spot and embraced the female Host from both sides—making a Haruhi sandwich. "You hurt us deep Haruhi~"

"But not enough to turn us away!"

She grimaced. "You guys are too much…"

Figuring that he was still a part of the conversation, Kyouya addressed the situation at hand. "I didn't mean it to offend. It's just business…nothing more."

Meanwhile, at the desert cart, all Hell had broken loose between the two people who loved cakes, pastries, and cookies the most: The ever ravenous Miaka Yuki, and the living sweet-tooth, Mitsukuni Haninozuka. Each party was on opposite sides of the room, struggling as they were being held back from clawing each other's eyes out.

"I saw that last piece before you even thought about it, so it belongs to me!" Miaka shouted as Tamahome held her arms tightly to avoid her escape.

Honey shook his head vigorously while his tall, better-built cousin, Takashi Morinozuka, struggled somewhat to restrain him from unleashing his fists of fury. "Nu-uh! I smelled that banana-crème cheesecake before it even came into the room—my name was practically on it! So stop being a meanie and listen to your elder!"

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><p>Shokyoku: For all of folks out there who are baffled by that statement…<p>

Shame on you.

If you guys knew anything about anything, you'd know that despite the way he acts and his size, Haninozuka is actually 17 and Yuki is 15. But if you ask me, they both act like they're 3. Honestly, why does Aki hang out with these people? I just don't get it.

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><p>At first, the whole thing was friendly. She'd take several cookies and cupcakes, he'd enjoy a couple dozen scones and tarts…but once it came down to the last piece of cheesecake, the two desert lovers ended up putting their forks in at the exact same time, starting the ridiculous war that was presently resuming.<p>

Before too long, Nuriko sighed and got up from his comfortable spot on the couch, walking in between the two parties as he clapped a few times. "Okay people, this whole thing has been fun and all, but aren't we supposed to be celebrating the anniversary of _Love Hurts 5 Ways?" _He put a hand on his hips._ "_It feels a lot more like we're doing a whole bunch of random hijinks for no real reason."

"Yeah, what's up with that anyway?" After a good several minutes, Tasuki finally recovered from his encounter with Honey. Brushing it off as if it were nothing, he crossed his arms, contributing more to the conversation. "I thought we were here ta do somethin' important? I mean, don't get me wrong, the sake here is pretty damn good! But I wanna little more to this party, if ya know what I'm sayin'."

Smiling mischievously, Tamahome slid over to Tasuki and nudged him with his elbow. "Finally back on your feet, huh Tasuki? Or maybe you just stayed down from the embarrassment of being beat up by a little kid?"

Grabbing Tama's collar, Tasuki erupted, "He is _not_ a little kid. That short, damn punk is a demon in sheep's clothing. He pulls ya in by lookin' all nice and all that crap—but he's not getting me with that nice-guy act. I'm too smart for that!"

Even with the looming threat, Tamahome only grinned in response to Tasuki's mixture of humiliation and anger. "Smart enough not to fall for it, but dumb enough to push it too far."

The bandit's fists clenched around the fabric of Tamahome's shirt. "I ain't afraid to take ya down right here, right now Tama!" Feeling that his work is never done, Nuriko came into the picture and shamelessly punched Tasuki hard in the back of his head. Letting go to tend to his soreness, Tasuki grabbed his head and barked at his fellow warrior. "What the hell?"

"You're acting like an idiot—can't you just apologize for everything and be done with it? 'Cause you're clearly not going to win here." Taking this deeply into offense, the red-headed bandit was just about to give a retort. But unfortunately for him, Nuriko decided to steer the conversation back to the track it rightfully belonged. "Now to officially enhance our experience here…hmm…" In the background, you could hear Tasuki flailing around trying to bring the attention back to him and his complaints.

But he was ignored.

Part of the anniversary party was meant to reflect on the things that had gone on in the story for the past year. But so far, the whole thing has just been interesting exchanges between the Host Club and the Suzaku 7. However, something had been missing…Something important…

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: What a bunch of morons!<p>

* * *

><p>Almost as if she had the ability to catch onto Shokyoku's message (which wouldn't actually be possible since she can't see or even here Shokyoku), Haruhi's face suddenly developed a very prominent "Aha!" expression. "Oh wow. How didn't we see this before?" Everyone's head immediately snapped towards her in curiosity. "Aki-senpai isn't even here!"<p>

…..O_O….

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: Seriously, they are morons…I can't believe that humans have survived this long, I really can't.<p>

* * *

><p>"WHAT?" The whole room was in an uproar with the announcement of the revelation. If they had nothing else in common before, now they all shared the exact same "DUH" expression as well as a similar sense of stupidity.<p>

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: I knew Aki wasn't around—I was just wondering how long it would take until the light bulbs finally clicked on. If it weren't for the author telling me directly to show up to this thing to keep you all informed, I'd be with Aki right now instead of having to listen to these monkeys. If she doesn't show up, that's fine. I'd rather not have her exposed to these lame individuals.<p>

* * *

><p>The vast majority of the room hung their heads down in shame as a dark cloud loomed over all of them. Miaka was the first to speak on her own. "You know…I feel kinda bad for not realizing this sooner…Sorry Aki-nee-chan…" An uneasy chuckle escaped pass her lips.<p>

"What kind of friends are we to have forgotten such a dear and valuable friend?" Tamaki exclaimed, managing somehow to get a single spotlight onto him while the rest of the room went dark. "Here we were, celebrating such a glorious day and we didn't even notice the injustice that was unfolding before our very eyes." Dropping down to one knee, the king of the Host Club folded his hands and looked up towards the light as golden sparkles gently rained down onto him. All of the guests could really do nothing more than stare in a mixture of disgust, fascination, and an all around sense of "oh brother". "Dearest Akimoto—my sister, wherever you are, I ask that you find it in your caring heart to forgive us—"

"Alright so what're we going to do?" Nuriko interrupted, not caring if he cut-off Tamaki's heart-filled apology. "This party would sort of be for nothing without the main character—we're just going to have to forget about the fact that we left her behind and find a solution."

Unsurprisingly, Tamaki gasped in shock from his delivery being cut short. Tears streaming down and eyes as wide as a begging puppy, he crawled up to the purple-haired Suzaku Warrior. "That was so incredibly mean! How could you block out such an important proclamation? Are you _that_ cold?"

Nuriko sighed. "Honestly if we let you go on like that, we'd be here all day and never get anything done…no offense."

"That's kind of true…sorry to say," Miaka admitted.

"Yeah, just be tough for once and man-up already!" Speaking out from the rest of the crowd, Tasuki joined in with the unfair picking on Tamaki. "A stupid speech ain't gonna get anything done—we need action."

Hotohori shook his head. "Such a pity that you can't get your subjects to listen to you."

Mouth gaping open, Tamaki turned to Haruhi and placed his hands on her shoulders, looking down at her, straight in the eyes—a serious look plastered onto his flawless features. "My precious daughter Haruhi, tell me that you loved my meaningful speech…"

She blinked a few times as she searched her mind for an answer. "Sorry Senpai, I have to agree with them."

Freezing in a statue state from both hurt and shock, the end result led to him crouching over with his knees tucked in off in the farthest, darkest corner of the room, back facing everyone as he sat pathetically in self-pity. He mumbled to himself, "Even Haruhi…"

"Aww! Tama-chan is off in his emo corner again!" Honey exclaimed in a way-too-perky manner. Walking up to his leader with a long stick in his hand, the small Host began curiously poking at Tamaki as if he were a dead animal. "This one might last a while folks!" It took a few seconds for everyone to get their mind off of everything that just perspired, but eventually, things got back on track for the sake of the anniversary.

Clearing his throat, Kyouya steered everyone away from Tamaki. "Shouldn't we be working on how to get Akimoto here? After all, without her, this whole chapter would just be a meaningless crossover."

Miaka smiled. "Now, I wouldn't say that it's meaningless, but it would be much more fun to have Onee-chan here."

"But why isn't she here?" Tamahome asked. "There's no way she wouldn't know about this." Having well-enough knowledge about the girl, he ended up answering his own question. "She's probably hiding out waiting for everything to just blow over. Man I wish that she'd just let loose every once in a while."

"Eh, give 'er a few drinks and she'll lighten up just fine!" Tasuki proudly noted.

Turning around and lowering their heads a bit, Nuriko and the twins whispered to each other to avoid the bandit from hearing what they had to say.

"He does know that that wouldn't work, _right_? Aki can't get drunk," Hikaru pointed out.

"Isn't that sort of why he lost that whole drinking contest that had a while ago?" His younger twin, Kaoru, asked.

Sighing, Nuriko addressed the issue. "Now, now, it's not _completely_ his fault for being an idiot. He's not supposed to find that out until later in the story. When Aki tells him," he chuckled, "I'm sure it will be hilarious."

"Hey, wasn't Chichiri here a while ago?" Haruhi's observation once again led everyone to wonder what the heck was going on. Snapping their heads from left to right to all around, a feeling of bewilderment stroke the guests. First they found out that the main person wasn't even there to celebrate a milestone in the story and now someone else went missing! What a day that was turning out to be.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared in the center of the room—the shapes of two beings emerging from the center.

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: Okay, now it's time to switch out of this crappy 3rd person POV and give Aki back her spotlight!<p>

* * *

><p>I didn't expect them to find me—I didn't <em>want<em> them to find me. My life was already so eventful, was it too much to ask for a day off from everything, from everyone? No. At least it shouldn't have been.

There I was, in my apartment, innocently watching TV, when I felt an odd, yet familiar presence fill the contents of my room. Before I even had a chance to react—really, I was literally stuck in the same state, in the middle of a sentence, when he found me.

"Take down that ugly vampire Buffy!"

Boy was I really regretting the one time I actually chose to speak to the television.

It wasn't until I saw everyone's amused expressions that I realized that they heard loud and clear my enthusiastic cheer. My whole body was frozen with embarrassment. A very evident warmth traveled across my nose and spread all over my face, probably making me seem dangerously close to a ripe tomato.

Then, the worst part happened.

The laughing.

In my mind, I made a mental note…to my…fictional Death Note: _3:15pm, Chichiri gets hit by a bus. _

Without finding the proper way to respond, all I did was crouch down low and hide behind my bangs, allowing them to fulfill the function I grew them to do. _How embarrassing! _All I wanted to do was just die at that moment. But of course, we all know that the universe just isn't that fair.

The cackling that filtered through the clearest was that of my stupid ex-boyfriend and his stupid twin brother. Nice to know that I was providing them with such _entertainment_.

Rolling on the ground in such a way that their standing bodies couldn't withstand the weight of their laughter, I resisted every urge to make the ceiling cave in on them.

"Akimoto Tsubaki is a _Buffy the Vampire Slayer _fan girl!"

"Who would've thought?"

_3:20pm, Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin get thrown out of a plane...and into a volcano._

Clenching my fists, I steadily crept closer to them with an intent to kill—the very evident blush still painted on my face. Feeling a sudden tug on my collar, I looked back to discover Tamahome, who was preventing me from committing a homicide.

"C'mon Aki, you have to admit, it's pretty funny. We just didn't expect that from _you_ is all." Of course, he said this with an outrageously wide smile, telling me that he had been one of the ones who was laughing that the discovery. Once again, my response was to just crouch back down onto my knees and trace out no specific shape on the ground with my finger, hoping my silence would make it so like I disappeared. _Out of all the times for someone—anyone, to find out, it had to be on a day when everyone I know are brought together into a single room. F$#k my life. _

The worst part was that there was no way to take any of it back. *in my head, a stream of tears comically running down my eyes*

Putting a finger under his lip while pondering, Nuriko gasped as an epiphany hit him. "You know, now that I think about it, this actually explains a lot! Aki's bursts of confidence _do_ resemble that of Buffy's, don't they?"

My eyes widened as my blush intensified. I tried to protest, "That is _so_ not why—"

"Alright! It's clip time people!" Mitsukuni announced out of the blue.

"What? 'Clip time'? What the hell does that mean?" I asked, sort of afraid of what the answer would be.

Chichiri looked puzzled. "Didn't anyone tell you?" My eyebrow twitched from the stupidity of his question. _No, I'm only asking 'cause I _know_, _I thought sarcastically. Almost as if he were speaking more to an audience than me, the monk held up a finger in explanation. "Part of this special is pact-full of clips, ya know? Little excerpts of the chapters that were uploaded in the past year will be shown for reminiscing purposes, ya know?"

I grimaced. "I'm not sure that I like that very much."

"Too bad!" Snapping out a small fan, Nuriko laughed snobbishly a few times while hiding the lower half of his face with said item. "Everything's already been set up and ready to go at our signals! Almost anything can trigger them really. Quite the technology I must say, being able to show the right clips right when we need them."

Kyouya helped with the explanation. "It's a state of the art computer program—latest model—still a prototype. It has the capabilities to read memory of a human brain and project those images onto a screen without any type of film or data."

"Couldn't get much more convenient than that!" Nuriko added.

Giving him a skeptical look, I asked. "And you were in possession of such a device, because…?"

Of course, Mr. Smartypants didn't hesitate with an answer. "The Ootori police force worked with a company of scientist during the development of this invention. If successful, it would prove quite useful with recovering the memory of victims and solving difficult cases. I thought that _you_ could at least figure _that_ much out Akimoto." _What the hell is that supposed to mean?_

"I don't like that much either." Hearing Tasuki say that made me almost want to hug him for seeing things my way—_almost_. Sure, another person's vote wouldn't win me my way, but it was nice to know someone else was on my side here. But he just had to be himself, buy stepping over the line. "I mean, come on! It's not like she really did anything all that important—so she flashed around a few spells and went through unnecessary melodrama. No one wants to see any of that crap again." Clenching my fists, a vein bulged from my head. "I say we look to the future and—" Without thinking, I threw out the Hammer of Justice and swung, hard, allowing Tasuki to be caught at close range as it painfully sent him flying onto the wall on the other side of the room—right next to a crater that looked quite similar to his shape. Guess I wasn't the first one to teach him a lesson that day~

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: *pfttt* HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ! Wait, I hope they caught that on tape. Too funny! That flame-headed monkey got what was coming to him!<p>

But anyway, like everyone said, yes, this is more or less a clip show. `And here are the times when Aki was in battle and resembled _Buffy the Vampire Slayer _with her banter and amazingness_._

* * *

><p><strong>Clip-Set #1—"Them's Fighting Words!"<strong>

_Chapter 5: The Difficult Truth_

_Aki was fighting Naraku by herself, with a wand she didn't know how to completely use. Yet, when things were getting dangerous, she finally managed to conjure up the flames that she wanted. _

_**I managed to form a whip of fire at the tip of the wand, stretching at about ten feet.**_

_**"What's wrong Nay-Nay? Upset that I barbequed your chances at winning this fight?" **_**Okay, I may not be fighting to kill this guy—at this point, I'm fighting just to get out of this fight. I'll take this as a win any day!**

_**"Why you…!" I happened to notice that the parts of him that were destroyed never came back. I would have been a fool to not take this opportunity. The moment I cracked my whip, a wave of fire triumphed over Naraku, charring his detached head.**_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 9: Us Against the World<em>

_After fighting off Shadow Maidens for the first time, Kaibrara High School was left in chaos and confusion. Taking advantage of the situation, some bullies intercepted Aki's escape and attempted to harass her. Not feeling like letting the jerks off, Aki kneed one of them harshly in the crotch. _

_**"Dude, you just got owned by a girl!"**_

_**"No I didn't! She just surprised me," He erupted. This made more people to be tempted to stop and look. At this point, I really didn't care anymore. In fact, I wanted them to hear what I was going to say.**_

_**My voice got low and lacked any and all softness to it. "Give it up. I didn't surprise you. I kicked your sorry, jerky ass and you know it. If I were you, I would just cut the crap now and stay there before I make you eat the disgusting hand you touched me with. " **_

…

_**"Then you get the nerve to mess with me! Big mistake!"**_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 11: Take a Crazy Chance<em>

_The fan-girls of Ouran didn't want to accept Aki as a Host. But even with the hurtful things they said about her (not exactly their fault, Shokyoku was at work here), she knew the girls were in trouble because of a vision. Rushing in to save the day, Aki came face to face with a group of thugs who had a vendetta against the Host Club. _

_**"**_**Seoshi!**_**"**__**A tough dome of energy surrounded the girls, repelling the guy's advances. For my safety, I tried my best to make the barrier as invisible as I could.**_

_**"What the hell was that?" The guy roared.**_

**_Kicking open the doors open, everyone in the room gasped. Feeling pretty confident, I decided to go for the classic witty banter. "You boys haven't been playing very nice. It's time I gave you a time out." _Yeah, it was cheesy. Do I care? Not really. The situation kind of called for it.**

_**"Who's the wench?"**_

**_"Oh my gosh, why is it that whenever I go to a new place, someone calls me that? Can't you bad dudes ever come up with a better noun? Or is your vocabulary _that _limited?"_**

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 17: What Lies Beneath Part 2<em>

_Trying to escape the thousands of Shadow Maidens chasing her, the wandless and powerless Aki ran from her date with Dark to lead the enemies away. Running up into a tall tower, she found herself backed into a corner. That was when Krad showed up, whose glowing white purity was enough to fool anyone into thinking that he was a good guy. Aki saw through his façade. _

_**Slowly extending my hand, Krad's smile began to widen. That was when I pulled back—completely faking him out. I smiled deviously—a skill I learned from the Hitachiin twins. "You're gonna have to do way better than that in order to fool me. Maybe those things you said were the case, but even so, I'd never buy that crap about you being my guardian angel. I'm pretty damn sure that an angel is not supposed to make a person feel like said angel should be listed on the list for biggest creeps." His smile faltered. "Your clothes may be white on the outside, but I have a feeling that your fleece **_**isn't**_** as white as snow."**_** Man! That felt good!**

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 18: Room for Two—Wait, What?<em>

_Upon meeting back up with Miaka Yuki after not seeing her for 5 years, Aki was reminded of the time the two meet. It was when Aki was 8 years old and Miaka was 6. A group of boys were picking on little Miaka and Aki came to the rescue. _

"_**I'm glad that you guys know math, but what does that have to do with anything?" I asked without showing fear.**__**There wasn't any way I could respect people who ganged up on someone like that. Regardless, it didn't matter how many of them there were. This whole thing was going to end up exactly how it always did.**_

…

_**Knowing that I had already won, _**I told them in monotone, "If you want the pain to go away, then you'll give the girl back her bear and go home." And with that, the boys immediately got up, threw the bear to the ground, and ran off. **_  
><strong>_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 23: Unexplainable Spark<em>

Shokyoku: This one is actually one of my favorites X3

_Yet another case of damsel in distress. Aki had to come to the rescue once again when some waitresses were being harassed. _

**_"Look you big jerk, the lady said to leave her alone," I said out loud. Pausing what they were doing, all of them looked over at me. "Don't you think it's a bit sad that you have to come to a place where the girls _have_ to stay? Obviously your experience with women leaves a lot to be desired." Closing my eyes, I sighed. "Well, I suppose that's to be expected with an ugly bunch like yourselves."_**

**_Feeling that I stroke a nerve with that last comment, I opened up one of my eyes to discover that the band of punks was coming to my table._And so it begins.**

**_"You dare call us ugly, wench?"_Yup, and there's that uncreative name they all like to call me. _"We can really mess you up for that!"_There's the threat they think they can initiate._They all circled my table._There's that whole theory about how they surround me and think that will actually help them. Jeez, it's like these guys are a broken record—or a re-run of a bad sitcom.**

_**Making sure that my face stayed stoic, I told them, "Okay, this is gonna go one of two ways. Either you do the moronic, unoriginal thing and attack me—or make me mad—ultimately ending up in your asses being thrown out the door, or you can be smart and leave."**_

_**"What? How dare you speak to us like that!" Cooling his anger a bit, the guy added, "Do you really believe that a girl like you could actually take us? You probably wouldn't even be able to take one us down."**_

_**"Yeah, what makes you think that you will get through this without punishment?" One of them reached out to grab a few strands of my hair—which I allowed him to do only to fuel my anger and rationale for beating him to a pulp even more. "But perhaps if you apologized to us in some way, we may turn our heads from this whole ugly scene."**_

_**I smirked. "What ugly scene? You mean your face?"**_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 23: Unexplainable Spark<em>

_The first time Aki met Tasuki, she though he was a chauvinistic jerk and he thought she was a troublesome and irritating woman whom he shouldn't have given the time of day to. Feeling insulted, Aki challenged him to a fight. At first, he didn't accept, but come on, we all know _that_ didn't stop things from moving forward!_

_**Taking in a deep breath, I shouted, "You think you're a real man? Ha! Real men wouldn't back down from a fight! Unless…you're scared to face off with a woman!" He stopped. "You can't just expect me to let you walk away from this after talking to me like that, do you?"**_

…

_**"A piece of advice: when going up against me, I suggest that you get rid of that smug attitude—that's **_**my **_**thing!" When he turned to face me with an obviously irritated demeanor, I didn't waste any time in focusing my energy on my first attack.**_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 33: Assurance<em>

_While Aki was infiltrating Kutou, two thugs thought that they could jump her. They were in for a surprise when she whipped out her kunai and showed them a trick they didn't expect. _

_**Gripping onto the handle with full force fueled with anger, I told them with a chilling voice, "I'll tell you bastards what I will do—I am going to throw this weapon into the air. And before it touches the ground, you two will no longer be able to move your bodies or even flap those disgusting holes you call mouths. Crying out for help won't even be an option."**_

_**With cruel laughs they asked, "Are you threatening **__**us **__**woman?"**_

**_I shook my head. "Nope. That's a _promise."**

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: You guys get the point~<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Well, sorry to leave it that way guys, but that's the end of Part 1! We have much more reminiscing and antics to go. Cuz come on…we know some crazy stuff is bound to go down with the Hosts and the Suzaku Warriors. I wonder how Aki will deal with it all~<strong>

**Look out for Part 2 of the 3-part anniversary special tomorrow! ^_^**

**C ya!**

**P.S Please review. I wanna know if I'm not totally failing at trying to be funny with this special X33 Hope you're all enjoying yourselves so far!**


	38. LH5W Anniversary Special, Part 2

**Here's Part 2 of the Anniversary Special folks! Enjoy~!**

* * *

><p>"Huh," Haruhi began, "I never thought about it much before, but Senpai does resemble Buffy, doesn't she?"<p>

_You guys are all chumps! I wasn't trying to imitate Buffy! _So I liked _Buffy the Vampire Slayer—_big deal! I thought she's awesome and I respected what she stood for. She's the _exact_ opposite of those horrid "damsel in distress" fairy tales that I hated so much. I honestly thought that the only thing that could possibly make this whole thing worse would be if I wore a t-shirt designed with Buffy's face all over the front and back. Not like I owned such a thing….

Hotohori placed a hand on my shoulder and flashed a charming smile. "It's nothing to be ashamed of Akimoto—I think it's cute how you have someone you admire. "Almost instantly, I felt better. _Hmm…a majorly hot guy thinks that my admiration is cute—this, I am okay with! _It wasn't hard to ignore Nuriko's blazing anger in the background. In fact, I was sort of smirking in the back of my mind.

Before I had a chance to pretend that everything was alright, my arms were tugged by two separate arms leading me away from my comforting by Hotohori.

I was unfortunately being sucked into another Host Club charade. The two beings hooks around my arms were, of course, Hikaru and Kaoru. But they, and the other hosts, sans Haruhi, were each sporting white-powdered make-up and long, sharp fangs. To top it off, their whole vampire bit got cheesier with the addition of cloaks and, as a whole, looked like one of the most cliché-ish Halloween costumes, ever.

I didn't even need to say anything to get Tamaki to come into the picture, majestically whiffing a black rose. "If Aki is so fond of this Buffy, then we shall dedicate a day where we play the part for her!" After sighing, my scowl deepened. "I can see it now—the handsome male Hosts, Haruhi included, will play the part of the irresistible creatures of the night that girls now fancy so much." He opened his arms in welcoming. "The moment the ladies see us, their wildest fantasies will come to life and we will have put a smile on those beautiful faces. One by one, a smile will run across their faces the moment they get a sight of such charming vampires. And at the end of the day, we'll know that it was us who did the good deed!"

Quite flatly, I told him, "Okay, umm…if you're basing any of this on Buffy, like _at all_, then you do know that the kind of vamp you're sporting is dead wrong, right? Aside from the lack of cliché, outdated clothing, _those_ vampires aren't exactly pleasant to look at once they go into their blood-sucking mode—"

Ignoring pretty much everything I said, the twins stood in front of me with an outfit on hangers in their hand, placed in such a way to where it looked like they were checking if it would work for me or not.

"Y'know, we decided that if we're going to play the vampires," Hikaru began.

"Then you can play 'Aki the Vampire Slayer'~!" Upon further inspection of the costume before me, I realized that it was a midriff-showing, tight, black leather, sleeveless top and to compliment it was a pair of skin-tight, red-colored, leather pants. That's when I immediately thought, _Oh heeeellll no. _

"You can just put your hair in a sexy high pony-tail with some stay hairs off to the side—you know, in that cute way—"

"And as an accessory, we thought that since you already have a kunai, you could use that as a stake. Pretty smart, huh?"

Those guys were really shooting for the stars if they honestly believed that I'd go along with this. As much fun as they were having, I felt that it was my job to put them down before their hopes got too high. "Bite me," I threatened in a somewhat irritated tone. Sometimes I really wished that these Hosts would go talk a long walk on the short pier. For Pete's sake, I wasn't even a Host anymore! They really needed to just drop it.

"Oh, we intend to!" Tamaki walked in close and put his finger under my chin, lifting my face up to his while his violet eyes seemed to sparkle. "With us as handsome vampires and you, our feisty slayer, perhaps we can create a little heat for the ladies, hmm?"

Riding on Takashi's back, Mitsukuni wore a similar costume as the others except his came with a pair of black, small, and cute bat wings that he wore on his back. To be honest, he was unbelievably adorable. Though, I couldn't show any hint of weakness at the present moment. "We came to suck your sweet blood Aki-chan! Promise that it won't hurt!" The huge smile that played on his face showed that he was having too much fun with this. Looking down at his cousin, Mitsukuni asked, "Don't you wanna join in on the fun Takashi?"

The only response we really got from him was, in monotone, "Boo—fear us." _Oh Takashi…so enthusiastic. _

Kaoru then moved into wrap his arms around my waist as Hikaru hung around my neck. Simultaneously and with a hint of playfulness, they whispered, "You know you can't resist us~"

A random flat-screen emerged on the scene unexpectedly, but instead of the picture, the first thing that came to my attention was the blood-curdling, yet excitingly happy squeals coming from the speakers. I could identify those sounds of swooning anywhere. It was the fan-girls of Ouran.

"Ooo the Hosts are all dressed up as hot vampires!"

"Look at Tamaki and Kyouya, they looks so cool!"

"Honey is just adorable!"

"Forbidden brotherly love among the undead—how touching!"

"Haruhi's fair complexion makes him the perfect vampire hottie!" _Wow, they seriously still think she's a boy?_

"Hey look, it's Aki!" My whole body twitched. "She's going to be the slayer?"

"Awesome!" Out of everything at Ouran, I deeply believed that their constant fan-girlyness was something I really could have lived without. Honestly, every time they spazzed out like that, I felt as if a part of my sanity was being ripped away.

Not exactly having the patience to deal with them at the moment…

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: Not to mention that they weren't invited,<p>

* * *

><p>I shook off all of the Hosts that were on me and took out my Hammer of Justice. Swinging it at the screen, I sent it soaring across the room towards Tasuki, who was still recovering from my last assault on him. Eyes growing comically wide, he shuffled out of the way before the flat-screen could crash into him.<p>

Almost in the blink of an eye, the bandit ran up in my face and yelled, "What the hell you psycho? Tryin' ta kill me twice in a row?"

Scoffing, I turned my head and only glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. "Please, you wouldn't have _died_ you big baby. I hit you with a toy and I knew you could avoid the TV."

"If yer bein' so damn nonchalant about it, why don't _you_ be the one hit with the hammer fer once?"

Smirking, I faced him and winked. "Only _I_ get to play with _my_ toys Fang-boy." I knew I grabbed victory the moment I managed to get him to stutter foolishly and blush a bit.

Without warning, Miaka's voice broke the little back-and-forth between Tasuki and I, her perky voice adding on an extra bit of annoyance to the question I was sort of dreading. "Hey Onee-chan, if you like _Buffy, _then does that mean that you're a fan of _Twilight _too?" The very mentioning of the title of that awful story sent a shudder coursing throughout my entire body. No actually, I think it was more of the thought of her actually insinuating that I'd even consider liking that book/movie was what sent that shudder through me.

Seeing the falter in my demeanor, Tasuki's confidence returned. A mischievous gleam shone in his amber eyes. "Oh, ya know, ya do seem like the type o' chick who'd be into that gooey, sparkly vampire love crap. Tell me Aki, whose team are ya on?"

_Team stick my foot up your ass. _"You're treading on _dangerous_ waters there Fang-boy," I threatened—narrowing my eyes at him, shooting daggers that I hope pierced him bad enough to match the aftermath of a game of darts.

Patting my head, Tamahome did a horrible job with trying to make the situation any better. "There's no shame in liking it Aki—we wouldn't think any less of you." _If you don't want to lose that hand, you'll stop patting me like a puppy. _

Tasuki chuckled. "I dunno, I think I would—" I shut him up abruptly with the demonic glare I sent his way, complimented with the Hammer of Justice hiding behind my back.

"Tasuki, stop making fun of Aki-nee-chan—plus you're making it seem like liking _Twilight _is a bad thing." Miaka slid up into his face in an accusing manner, wagging a finger in his face. "You're not saying that it's a bad thing…are you?"

He started to shrink from the pressure. "N-no?"

"You _do not_ want to upset a _Twilight _fan-girl!" Rolling up her sleeves and cracking her knuckles to show that she meant business, Miaka stood over the cowering Tasuki as lightning flashed in back of her. _Damn, she's serious about this. _Twilight _fans are scary! _"Team Jacob all the way!" She announced.

In defense, the flame-headed bandit held up two hands to peacefully fend her off while he nervously chortled. "Okay, okay, it's all cool—we're cool here! Y-You can be whatever team ya want. It's all cool!"

Turning my back to them, I placed my hands on my hips and huffed, "Wuss."

Placing their elbows onto Tamahome's shoulders, the twins had a rather amused look in their golden eyes. "Sorry Tama."

"It looks like Jacob is your new competition!"

Without even giving a fight, Tamahome noticed Miaka's dedication to her _Twilight _cause. Not a moment later, the man retreaded to Tamaki's emo corner. But instead of crouching down in Tamaki's signature position, he just leaned his head up against a wall while his face became petrified with a soulless expression. "Why Miaka? Aren't I enough?"

Hikaru, Kaoru, and I all looked upon this sad spectacle with "oh brother" expressions. It was I who decided to go the extra mile and point out the obvious. "This would be a lot funnier if it wasn't so pitiful," I bluntly admitted.

They nodded in agreement. "Agreed."

Kaoru's answer varied a bit. "I dunno, I still think it's sort of funny."

Leaping over joyously, Nuriko talked sweetly to the sulking Tamahome. "Don't be so down in the dumps Tama-kins. Would you feel better if you got a hug from big sister Nuriko?"

Tamahome sighed, not having enough motivation to face his fellow warrior. "No, not really."

After sighing, it occurred to me just how out of hand this whole _Twilight _and vampire business was getting. Everyone in the room seemed to have caught some kind of fever for the supernatural—and _that_ wasn't natural. With those bunch of people, it was expected for things to get crazy. I mean, come on! The Suzaku Warriors _plus_ the Hosts of Ouran? That practically screamed mad house! I had enough control over myself to handle them separately, but at the same time? It was a complete wonder how I kept it together so well.

However, it was boiling down to the last straw with all of this talk about _Twilight. _'Cause come on…IT'S TWILIGHT! Those vampires aren't even vampires! They're elves with pointy teeth and glitter glue on their skin. Buffy's vampires could wipe the floor with those _Twilight _pansies.

You know, sometimes I wondered if Bella was a Shadow Maiden. Seriously! She's emotionless and empty on the inside, and she seems pretty dark. So why not? But then I thought, no, that's impossible. Shadow Maidens have more style.

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: For all of you <em>Twilight <em>fans giving Aki a nasty look right now—deal with it. She's entitled to her own opinion. And frankly, her opinion matters more than any human.

* * *

><p>I shook my head. <em>You know what? I'm not getting into this. The madness must stop. <em>

Taking a deep breath, I projected my voice. "ENOUGH!" Just as my voice echoed off of the walls, everyone in the room turned their gazes towards me. Soooo many eyes were just staring at me as if they all had x-ray vision or something. An itching sensation kept eating at me and eating at me until I couldn't stand it anymore. Was it possible to feel so many eyes on you? Before I knew it, my face was starting to heat up from the pressure. To remedy my obvious discomfort, I turned my back to them and cleared my throat. "Ahem. I've delayed asking this long enough. Why the heck is everyone here anyway? I deserve to know why I was so rudely kidnapped from my own home."

They continued to blink at me in bewilderment as if I were speaking some foreign language or something. Finally, Chichiri broke the ice. "It's June 8, ya know?"

My eyebrow rose. "Yeah, so?" As far as I was concerned, it was just another day.

Mitsukuni jumped up and down. "It's _Love Hurts 5 Ways' _anniversary!"

"Almost 500 reviews, over 400,000 words, and 37 chapters!" Tamahome praised. "Not to mention a bunch of alerts and favs on as well as watches and such on Deviant Art! Who would've thought that the story would get this successful in a year?"

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: Who would have thought that the author had enough patience to keep doing this story? If it were me, I'd get tired of working with so many of those monkeys. Or maybe I'd just have all of them jump off a cliff~<p>

* * *

><p>Taking out a calculator out of virtually nowhere, Tamahome began to calculate something. "According to these numbers, if this story weren't just a fanfiction, we'd be making…" His eyes lit up, becoming huge with sparkles and all. "Some serious cash!"<p>

_Keep dreamin' dude. Too many copyrights to deal with. All of those mangakas would have the author's hide if she even considered making an anime out of this. Too bad though, it would be pretty awesome. _

But anyway…

"Well, that's nice and sounds like a blast," I noted with a hint of sarcasm. Making my way towards the door, I added in a passive way, "Congratulations to all for your hard work over the past year and I hope to see you all bright and early on Monday morning—" My legs halted suddenly as they were lassoed from some unidentified person. A slight tug from the rope and my legs were led in their backwards direction while my front slammed right into the ground.

Umm….ouch?

As if I were a fish being reeled in, my intense frown and increasing hatred for the whole situation was riddled on my face as my capturer proudly spoke. "We can't let you go _now_," Nuriko. Of course. "The party is just getting started!"

"You're the main character of this story, ya know?" Chichiri chimed in. "It wouldn't be any fun to celebrate without you!" Just as I was brought back in, I tried to tune out everyone's voices to avoid having my powers reflect on my emotions—though I was slightly unsuccessful at allowing a slight breeze to pass through.

"It's a good time to reflect on everything that's happened so far Senpai." Even Haruhi was supporting all of this. And usually she was on _my_ side!

Sitting up and sporting an irritated expression, I focused on the rope. Almost instantly, a portion of it burst into bright flames—the straw popping and sizzling as the fire ate its way through. A second later, I was free.

Luckily for them.

Standing up in a huff, I chose to ignore that I was just man-handled against my will and that pretty much all of them deserved a good bop on the head by my hammer. Before I lost the control to be merciful, I took a deep breath and exhaled. "Look, I understand why you're all here and why you're so darn happy-go-lucky. But you can be just that without me around. Parties like this just aren't my thing." Never have been. Plus I always hated being the center of attention, so you could imagine how I highly disliked the events that were perspiring.

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: Ready to play clips showing Aki's dislike for parties and being around crowds.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Clip-Set #2—"Party's over!"<strong>

_Chapter 12: With Friends Like these_

_Being a Host meant having the attention of a bunch of fan-girls. Aki had trouble adjusting to her new role. _

_**Remember that whole speech I gave a while ago where I mentioned that I was in no way shy and the mere look into my eyes sent people running? Yeah…you can just take that loud of crap and dump it in the nearest garbage can. Believe me, this was the case before coming to this world. I was avoided and intimidating. Now, people (girls) fuss over me and always want to talk to me. In the past, I couldn't even imagine a time that something like this would ever happen. I was so used to the idea of being alone that I had developed a tough shell that made me supposedly cold and independent. Since being isolated wasn't an issue here, all of my usual tendencies sort of just…fizzled out. Now it turned out that I might actually be a shy person by nature.**_ **When the hell did that happen?**

_**"Aki? Would you like some of this tea?" One of the girls asked.**_

_**Blushing at the gesture, I quietly said, "No thanks."**_

_**"I don't think she likes tea very much. She almost never drinks it."**_

_**"What is it that you like to drink Aki?" A girl offered.**_

_**"Umm…" Thinking about it, I finally came to an answer. "Hot chocolate, I suppose…"**_

_**"That is soooo cute! She has a sweet tooth like Honey!"**_

**That's not really true.**_**"No, I—sweets aren't really my…"**_

_**They started to squeal. "Look at how shy she is! It's so adorable!"**_

_**"The perfect modest bride!"**_

_**I couldn't help but blush some more. Being surrounded like this was so unnatural to me. Crowds weren't really my thing exactly for this reason.**_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 13: False Impressions<em>

_After managing to get Hikaru to herself for the day, Aki led him to a cheery festival. This sort of setting left Aki uncomfortable, so she just decided to stay away from the festivities. _

_**The moment we bought our tickets and walked in, Hikaru wanted to go on and play pretty much everything. So I let him go off and be giddy while I found a place to sit and watch. Fun, social events like this were never really my thing. Whenever I actually decided to go to a party—that Saru dragged me to—all I did was sit in the corner watching everybody else have fun. The whole thing was so unnatural to me, so I never enjoyed myself. No one bothered to get me involved in the activities, and Saru usually saw a bunch of other friends and ditched me, leaving me alone during the whole thing. In the end, she would tell me how I needed to just let loose and relax, how she shouldn't have to stay with me the whole time in order for me to have a good time. Well, that would have been good and all, but isn't the point of social events to be social? It's just sad to be going on your own for hours pretending like you're actually having a good time. There wasn't any point in kidding myself.**_

_**I eventually lost sight of Hikaru in the crowd, and accepted the fact that he left me there, just like Saru used to do. This time, it was on my own free will, so I wasn't going to complain about it. I was already happy knowing that he was pretty much back to his old self. It was the least I could do for him after he made me feel better about being in this world.**_

_**"Hey Aki!" Hikaru ran up and grabbed my arm. "Let's go have some fun!"**_

_**"No, it's okay…"**_

_**He sat down next to me. "C'mon! You think that you can't have as much fun down here as you can in the sky?" I gave him a look. "Okay, maybe not. But we can come pretty close!"**_

_**"No, really. It's okay. These things aren't really my style."**_

_**"You invited me here."**_

_**"Yeah but…It's just not my thing."**_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 14: Emotional Depths<em>

_After a fight with Hikaru, Aki had yet another reason to avoid attending the huge birthday party for the twins. Instead of joining in on the party, she sat outside, alone. _

_**Sounds of talking, music, and laughter filled the Hitachiin property on the night of the big party. The whole mansion seemed to be in a buzz for the celebration of the twins' seventeenth year of life. Except for family, there were very few guys attending the party as opposed to the many fan-girls who were invited to attend. It seemed like truck-loads of presents in the shape of a mountain were piled up inside—all from loved ones and close friends. Lights emitting from the area were so intense that barely any stars were even visible in the night sky. Nonetheless, there was definitely a cheery atmosphere in the air making anyone who even went near the celebration to feel instantly happy.**_

_**Except me.**_

_**Instead of going inside and enjoying the party, I avoided everyone—after separating with Haruhi—by going into the extremely gigantic (darn rich people), yet beautiful garden in the back of the mansion. Getting far enough from everyone that I possible could, I finally ended up in front of an area with a large white gazebo.**_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 25: Siren's Song of the Suffering<em>

_After Tasuki, Aki, and Chichiri saved the people of a small village, the townspeople threw a whole celebration in their honor. Aki pretty much didn't participate in anything, only watched everyone else have fun. At one point, she ended up sitting on a roof with Tasuki (who at the time was known only as Genrou). _

_**"Besides, I'm not an alcoholic. That stuff is a luxury that I don't get the pleasure of havin' all of the time, even if I wanted to. Plus, you gotta understand," Putting his hand on my shoulder, I turned to him in an alarmed state. His face seemed slightly flushed and his eyes a bit droopy, the apparent scent of alcohol rolling off of his breath.**_ **Yup…he's drunk.**_**"I hadn't eaten or drunken anything decent in weeks! Those damn jerks back at that inn sorta interrupted my meal, remember?" Nodding, I signified that I recalled that day quite well.**_**Maybe not a heavy drunk, more like buzzed, tipsy at best.**_**Without warning, he put his arm around my shoulders and started to chuckle. "Plus, you gotta lighten' up Aki! It is a party after all. Sometimes, one needs to have a good time!"**_

_**Taking my hand, I took his from around me, causing his arm to drop to his side. "No, I don't. Scene's like this aren't really my thing."**_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 31: When One Door Closes<em>

_Tasuki had taken Aki out to celebrate reaching their goal of finding the Sacred Blood Lily and making it out of the maze. The topic of Aki's near-death experience caused quite the stir with Tasuki—making everyone stare at them. Aki did not approve. _

_**"Don't talk like that!" He yelled out, unintentionally knocking over his precious bottle of sake. It didn't even seem to matter to him at that moment. "Don't you ever feel regret fer choosing ta live! I don't know about you, but I'm happy that we brought'cha back—it wasn't time fer you ta go."**_

_**His feelings were strong, I could sense them from where I was sitting. And his concern was sort of making me…happy. "Genrou…" But he was starting to make another scene.**_

_**Scooting out of his seat, he gazed down at me with determination burning in his eyes in order to get me to see things his way. "Death is so far away, so it's not worth mentionin'. And if ya**_ **ever** _**consider killin' yerself, I swear that I'll—"**_

_**"Genrou control yourself! Everyone is staring at us…" As I spoke, I absolutely refused to allow my peripheral vision to work. I**_ **did****not** _**want to see those accusing eyes on me again.**_

_**"I don't care—I'm tryin' to make a point—"**_

**_"Point received." I spoke through clenched teeth. "Now sit down and _shut up!"**

* * *

><p>"Alright so we're starting to show clips again?" Nuriko excitingly asked.<p>

My eyes narrowed at him. "No, I was making a point—"

Giving her a forced side-hug, the Suzaku Warrior looked down at her with a peculiarly evil sparkle in his pink eyes. "There's a clip I've just been meaning to show and you simply _have_ to see it Aki!" As I tried to escape the position I was in, it proved futile with his super strength holding me in place. "You see, I bought it from Kyouya over there and it was just an opportunity I couldn't pass up!" My stomach curled a bit at the mere mentioning of Kyouya Ootori's name. Whenever it came to selling any kind of merchandise, the guy could be as drastic and crafty as needed in order to make a profit off of it.

* * *

><p><strong>Clip-Set #3—Nuriko's secret files—REVENGE <strong>

_Chapter 27: From Deception to Auras (Part 2)_

_The maze was putting Aki, Chichiri, and Genrou (Tasuki) through their first trial. Aki was forced to see Genrou as her ex-boyfriend, Hikaru, making things incredible awkward for the small group. To add to the awkwardness, Chichiri used a spell on the two of them, binding their hands together in order to help Aki learn how to see auras…it was a complicated situation. Somewhere along the way, Aki and Genrou were arguing and it ended up with the two of them falling into a mud puddle. That was when Chichiri suggested something…_

_**"There's a hot spring not too far from here, ya know? You two can just go wash up over there!" Clapping his hands, he said, "We should just all go take a bath, ya know?"**_

_**Giving him a blank face, I shuffled through his words. "We should…all…take a…bath?" The light bulb finally came on. **_**"****What****?** _**You want us to do**_ **what****?"**

_**His eyebrow cocked up. "What's wrong?"**_

_**"What's wrong? Have you forgotten that Genrou and I are bound together? If we go into a hot spring, then we'll have no choice but to be right next to each other!"**_ **Not to mention that he looks exactly like someone I have feelings for—that, plus the fact that my hormones would pretty much explode would be a good enough reason to not go through with this.**_**"Bottom line is," I crossed my arms in an "X" shape, "I won't do it."**_

_You all know that this didn't go exactly the way she wanted it. The two did end up going into the bath, but Aki conjured up a wall to separate the two (as separate as they could have been with their hands practically glued together). _

_Here was Aki's Letter to the Universe describing the situation:_

_**Dear Universe,**_

_**What kind of f#&ing humor do you have? This is so f%&#ing messed up! Why the f%& are you making me do this? You did this on purpose you vast piece of shit! I can't believe this! Because of that damn mud, and that f&%$ing bond, I was backed into a stupid corner—forcing me to get into that damn hot spring…with Genrou. And what was the big idea with making him look like Hikaru? That's f&$ed up! I'm not even going to mention how the both of us managed to get our clothes off. That's a secret that I will take to the grave with me. I did what Chichiri said and made a wall using Earth between the two of us, but because of the physical bond, he and I were forced to sit near the edge in order for our connected arms to stay comfortable. But this whole f&%#ing situation is uncomfortable! I didn't understand why that damn monk couldn't just unbind us for this. I'm beginning to think that seeing auras isn't all that important. You've done some messed up things before: beating me up, sending me to different worlds without my consent, falling through the roof of a strangers house, making me wear one of the worse school uniforms ever—but this was really low…making me sit in a f#%$ing hot spring without clothes on next to a man! I loathe you so f&%ing much you f#$&ing bastard!**_

_**Love Always, with a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE amount of sarcasm,**_

_**Aki**_

_**P.S Did I mention that you suck? 'Cause you do.**_

_As you can tell, she was upset. _

_It was a long, awkward situation. _

_Later that night, the group was attacked by three large, invisible snakes. The only way to beat them was for Aki to learn how to see auras. Having a sudden revelation, Aki was forced to get Genrou into a rather sensual position in order to achieve her new skill. _

**"****Seoshi."**_**Once again, the dome covered us in its protective essence. My plan consisted of not allowing those snakes to disturb us. I knew that he would start asking a bunch of questions, I so I moved fast. Positioning myself in front of him, I put my free hand on his shoulder, using my force to push him down to the ground, landing me directly on top of him.**_

_**His face started to turn a bright red as he noticed our position. "What are you doing?"**_

_**It was only natural that my face was flushed as well because ordinarily, I would never make such a bold move. "This isn't what you think it is—I promise you. But I do need you to trust me, okay?"**_

_**The color in his face didn't waiver. "We don't have time for whatever you're going to do Aki. Chichiri—"**_

_**"I already know about him. I'm doing this so that we can help him…as well as get out alive. So can you just be quiet? I…I need this…" Swinging my leg around for a better positioning, I slowly closed my eyes. If I just got a feel for his flow of energy—his as Genrou and not Hikaru—then I could break this illusion once and for all! With my free hand, I felt around his face, his chest, discerning the differences between the illusion and reality. The whole structure of his face was different that Hikaru's and their hair felt dissimilar—somehow, Genrou's was smoother and of course the parts were in different places altogether. I had kissed Hikaru, I've felt him in an embrace…there was no question that these two were different…**_

* * *

><p>I just stood there with my mouth gaping open, a way too apparent blush smeared across my face as we all watched the clip end. Something told me that Tasuki's expression wasn't too different from mine. In fact, because of our bond, I knew he was just as dumbfounded as I was. <em>No one was supposed to know about that. We swore that we'd never talk about it ever again—that it never happened! WHAT THE F# &amp;KING HELL? <em>It wasn't _my_ fault that all of that happened. Chichiri bound Tasuki and I together—there was no choice but to do the things that had to be done! No one was supposed to know!

"Oh wow, who would have thought that Aki was that bold? It's kind of admirable." My whole body tensed the moment the murmuring began.

"Exactly how many bases do you think they've gone past?"

"Do any of you know if those two are going out?"

"I'm a little sorry that I missed that…the whole thing must have been hilarious!"

"It must have been so awkward…I kinda feel bad…"

Clenching a shaky fist, I breathed fire while roaring at Chichiri and the bandit. "WHO LEAKED THAT FOOTAGE? I WANTED THAT DESTROYED!"

Face as red as a tomato, Tasuki yelled back in retort. "What're you yellin' at me for? Why the hell would _I_ want people seein' that? I promised that that day never happened just like you did, so don't blame this on me!"

In an instant, Tasuki and I immediately switched our attention to the blue-haired monk, who had shrunken into chibi form in fear of our wrath. "It wasn't me, ya know? I promised too!"

Remembering who it was that showed the clip in the first place, we ganged up on Nuriko, who looked just as content as ever—standing ever so smugly with a wide smile on his face. Pointing a finger at him, I hissed, "Prepare to die Nuriko."

Giggling, his expression seemed unfazed by my threat. "Oh, Little Aki, this is just payback for that tiny incident that happened back in Chapter 22."

Relaxing a bit, my curiosity took hold. "What _incident_?"

"You know…back when you took that iPad away from Miaka and practically announced to the whole world that I was a man by showing them that unnecessary clip~"

Searching my memories, I tried to remember what the heck he was talking about. Not much brain power was required in order for it to finally hit me. Trailing my eyes downward to the corner, I sweat-dropped and scratched my cheek sheepishly. "Oh…that…"

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: A clip set isn't really needed here to show what happened. So I'll just tell you lazy bunch of humans who refuse to just go back to Chapter 22 and look it up.<p>

You see, back then, everyone thought that Nuriko was a woman. Yup, he's a sad excuse for a man and lacks any hint of masculinity. But anyway, after Yuki and Aki found out, they decided to keep it a secret. However, through a situation that I don't feel like explaining since you could just access the chapter in the click of a button, everyone found out about Nuriko's secret.

The thing is that Aki wasn't there to see the big reveal so at the end of the chapter, she replayed the scene that she missed for the audience to see. Apparently, the non-sport Nuriko retained some bitterness from that. *scoffs* Leave it to a human to get worked up over something so futile.

* * *

><p>"That isn't <em>nearly<em> as bad as you showing this clip to people!" I was pretty much near the point where I'd send a huge _Dragon Slave _a point-blank range, but the better part of my judgment instructed me otherwise. "That. Wasn't. Cool!"

Walking past me in a blasé manner, he began to shamelessly snicker, "What's done is done, can't take it back now!" Quite impressively, he was able to control himself well enough to tone down his amusement. "Let's just be adult about the situation. So no hard feelings, alright Little Aki?" Oh how I wanted to hurt that boy. My whole being was practically itching to get him back _somehow_.

_3:45pm: Nuriko gets abducted by aliens and painfully dissected. _

_Yeah, I wish. _

_Okay, calm down Aki. Nuriko is not worth it—he's just trying to mess with you. Do not, give him the satisfaction of knowing that he can do that! _It took a few reps of that in my brain to refrain me from going nuclear on the Suzaku Warrior.

Refusing to even address Nuriko, I calmly turned my attention to the business tycoon who sold the footage without remorse. "Kyouya, I don't even _want_ to know how you got that footage. But what I _do_ want to know is why in the right mind would you sell it to _him_?" My voice strained progressively at the same time my volume rose. _Seriously, out of all the people in the world, WHY HIM?_

_Stay calm._

Clearly there were those who were immune to my natural-born ability to intimidate. Kyouya didn't even jump from my death-threat. Then again, he never really was one to freak out or show more than three emotions. So I probably shouldn't have taken it too much to heart. He explained himself. "Since we are unable to make a profit off of this fanfiction, I figured that selling this clip to our clients would earn a decent amount of money." _You're selling me out? You big, two-faced, pale, glasses-wearing jerk!_

Somehow, a new flat-screen TV popped up out of nowhere and displayed the many fan-girls of Ouran, all with DVD copies of what was just shown. A bunch of pink and red hearts pretty much flew around all of their heads in response to the phenomenon.

"I can't stop watching it! My heart flutters every time!"

"Aki gets to do so much on her journey and with good-looking guys too!"

"I definitely wouldn't have minded being bound to Tasuki."

"She's so lucky and cool—" Not giving them any more opportunities to swoon, I brought out the Hammer once again and swung at the TV hard enough to send it across the room with alongside its comrade I wrecked earlier. _The Host Club is rich, they can afford new flat screens. _

_Now…_

_4:00pm: Kyouya Ootori falls over a waterfall with sharp rocks at the bottom. _

Inching closer to Kyouya, Tamahome took a peek at the glasses-wearing Host's little black book that contained records of all of his Host Club sales and profits. "Hey, Kyouya. That's a lot of money you have there. How about you and I split this whole business fifty-fifty? What do ya say?" He asked hopefully.

Kyouya pushed his glasses up. "No, I don't think so."

He didn't give up. "But I—" Before Tama had a chance to attempt to convince his acquaintance, I blasted him out of the way using a gust of Wind so that I may intercept and convey my disapproving feelings towards Kyouya.

"Seriously though, you had no right to do that." I explained with as much restraint as I could manage.

Tamahome rushed up to me in a huff. "I was right in the middle of a potential business contract and you got in the way! Just because you're sore about this whole thing doesn't mean that the rest of us have to be—"

"Tough." Stomping my foot on the ground, I made a pillar of Earth rise up and launch him out of his spot, sending him flying back towards that unfortunate side of the room that had been so brutally abused all day long. Really, there was a TV graveyard, not to mention a bunch of craters in the walls…

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: Let's call that the Wall of Despair…or maybe…the Wall of Dejection…I don't know—right next to the famous Emo Corner~<p>

* * *

><p>"Akimoto," My attention was once again turned to Kyouya. "Perhaps you wouldn't be so high-strong about this if you had nothing to hide. That's the only reason why you're being so irrationally defensive." <em>Irrationally? I'll <em>show_ him something that's _irrational_! _

Right as I was about to beat the living daylights out of Four-Eyes, Mitsukuni's voice projected a pretty surprising statement. "You know…Aki-chan isn't as innocent when it comes to guys as we initially thought." The short and adorable Host giggled while playing with Usa-chan. "She may not be _completely_ risky or aware of her popularity, but I saw what was going on~"

"Huh?" My face shifted into a staggered expression. Never would I have expected him to say anything like that. "What do you mean my 'popularity'? I'm not popular—with anyone." Didn't mean for that to sound depressing or anything, it was just fact. Because of certain circumstances, I was never really voted into "fan favorites".

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: You're <em>my<em> favorite! I'm your number 1 fan! The rest of the monkeys…can die for all I care.

* * *

><p>"Oh contraire ma soeur!" Tamaki elated—a huge smile on his face as sparkles just seemed to follow him. "Not only are you popular amongst the ladies of Ouran, but your charm escalates further than that!" <em>See? This is why I didn't want to be here today. I hate being the center of attention like this. I could not possibly be the most exciting thing in their lives. <em>"I have a feeling that you don't believe me…" _Well, you wouldn't be wrong. _"But don't fret! I shall provide evidence by showing these clips in high hopes that they will enlighten you!"

I sighed. _Great. _

Shokyoku: Showing clips of some of the times Aki connected with men throughout the series so far. Ugh.

* * *

><p><strong>Clip-Set #4—"Y-You really like me?"<strong>

_Chapter 4: Rough Feelings? The Fire Within_

_Being only a Witchling at the time, Aki was still learning how to use her powers. They were so unstable and unreliable that her friends in the Feudal Japan world, especially Inuyasha, didn't want her to fight. Aki, being who she was, didn't accept that. On the night of the new moon, when Inuyasha was temporarily turned into human, Aki decided to go off and face Naraku to prove herself. The over-protective Inuyasha woke up and tried to intercept. _

_**"You aren't going out there alone!" He roared.**_ **If it were up to you, I wouldn't be going anywhere at all during any time.**

_**"Well, you sure as hell aren't gonna go," I stepped closer. "Out of my way."**_

_**"No!"**_

**_"I can do this!" Inuyasha extended an arm out and grabbed mine, using enough force to keep me me from going off. He may have been a human, but he was still a guy and my muscles and everything were weaker than his, putting me at a disadvantage when it came to brute strength. All I could do was stand there, wand lowered but still glowing. His notion was so unexpected that i was stunned. A part of me wanted to be mad at him for holding me in such a way, but i knew he was only doing it out of concern. Every inch of me wanted to just drop my guard right there—and my wand._**

**_But I just couldn't do it._**

**_There wasn't any time to be feeling mushy stuff now._**

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 9: Us Against the World<em>

_Living with the Sohma's, Aki immediately developed a crush on Kyo, but she had always been too shy to act on feelings like those. It wasn't until he decided to trust her that the two finally started to click in the way that she wanted. _

**_The cat has never truly been a part of the Zodiac, that's why no one really knows about it. Most of the family doesn't even want to acknowledge me. My father hates me and my mother…" On an uncharacteristic impulse, I really wanted to reach out for his hand. But out of fear of what his reaction would be, I restrained myself. "probably killed herself because of the freak I am."_** **I knew that those with the curse had it bad, but…I didn't know that Kyo was in this much pain. He knows what it's like to be alone. He also knows…what it's like to lose someone because of who you are.**

**_My hand twitched a little, and then my arm moved on it's own to gently place my palm over the back of his hand. The notion made us both blush a little, but it was understandable. I was just relieved that he didn't pull back._ We're kindred spirits, he and I. _It was hard to tell on what level his pain and suffering was to mine, but, for the most part, he actually seemed to get where I was coming from. And he knew that I wasn't looking for sympathy, just like I knew he wasn't. "Kyo," Was all I could say._**

**_Before there was any progression to what seemed like the beginning of something, a rather loud voice came rushing in. "AKIIII!" A blond hurricane came dashing in and knocked me down to the ground. A poof of smoke later, and low and behold, a bunny was there._**

**Dammit Momiji. You're sweet and all, but you have the worst timing EVER.**

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 14: Emotional Depths <em>

_During an argument, Hikaru confesses to Aki that the only reason he did the things that he did was because he wanted her to stay with them, but he's convinced that she didn't really like them—that she wouldn't care if she left them behind. She tried to prove to him that her life there was one of the best experiences in her life. He got the message loud and clear._

"_**This whole time, you've been acting like you hated being with us. Is it true? "**_

**_Starting to snap out of the trance, I shook my head feverishly. "No…I don't hate being with you guys. I…I don't hate being here."_** **I can't believe it...He had done all of that just to get me to stay. I can't believe how wrong I was about him. And yet...all of this could be lie... _Still thinking, I looked back on the day I woke up in the bed in the mansion. Since that day, I've been made to think that I had friends for life and I didn't even realize it. My mind kept telling me that I'd just end up hurt again, that I couldn't trust anyone. Believing that completely clouded my judgement and my heart. The truth is that I'll probably still keep thinking in that manner...it's how I grew up after all, but maybe I could take a chance on this whole "trusting others" thing. You know, just to see what it's like...It'll take time, but...I'll work on it, little by little._**

**_"Look, after all that, I wouldn't be surprised if you did want to leave. Just…go." He turned to walk away. In an instant, I ran up to him and grabbed his hand._**

**_"I'm not going anywhere!"_**

**_"What reason do you have to stay?"_**

**_"You! I care about you too much to even think about leaving." Realizing what I said, I ignored the intense beating of my heart and extended my arm up and around his neck, closing the distance between us while bringing his face down to mine. Without another word, our lips met. Relaxing into it a bit, he managed to return the kiss and wrap his arms around my waist, lifting me up to match his height better on the steps. Parting our lips, the kiss deepened as he brought our bodies even closer together. My whole body tingled at how amazingly soft his lips were. When we finally broke, his eyes opened followed by a wide smile._**

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 16: What Lies Beneath (Part 1)<em>

_Emiko Niwa had set up a date between Dark and Aki in order to get her mind off of leaving Ouran. Being the huge playboy that he was, Dark used little effort to but a lot of natural charm and charisma to throw her for a loop. _

_**"You don't have to be with me out here Dark."**_

_**"I know I don't **_**have to****.** _**But I want to. You're a very attractive woman." When I finally looked at him, I saw that he was intently looking at me.**_

_**Feeling slightly intimidated, I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. "No I'm not."**_

_**"Ah, I see. You're just like Riku: so modest about your good qualities."**_ **He knows Riku?**_**After thinking for a second, I realized that it made sense considering he was a huge flirt. "It's actually quite cute when some girls deny things like that."**_

…

_**Dark smiled at me softly while leaning his head on his hand with his elbow in the table. "Try it. I guarantee it's the best cake you've ever had."**_

_**"I'm not really into many sweets."**_

_**"It's delicious, I promise."**_

_**Looking down, I scooped up a small piece and put it into my mouth. My whole body felt pleasantly warm the moment it touched my taste buds—it was like, fluffy, chocolaty heaven.**_

_**"Oh my God this stuff is amazing!"**_

_**Dark saw my reaction and closed his eyes while he smiled genuinely. "Told you."**_

_**"How did you know about this cake?"**_

_**"The recipe had been passed down in the family and I was tempted to try it some years back. Never regretted the decision." He opened one eye. "You have some frosting on the side of your mouth."**_

_**I blushed. "I do?" Grabbing for my napkin, I lifted it to wipe it away. Putting his hand on mine, he said, "No, let me get it." Scooting his chair closer to mine, he grabbed my chin and lifted my face to his. A second later, he lightly licked the frosting off causing me to instinctually fall out of my chair—shuffling to get back up and away from him, face fully red.**_

_**"What the hell?"**_

_**He snickered. "You're just too cute when you get worked up."**_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 19: Twist of Events<em>

_Aki was just sitting there casually thinking about her life in general and how things were going when Hotohori decided to come over and chat with her. Being one of the most attractive men that Aki had ever seen, she was a bit uneasy around him. But he was more than happy to spend some time with his new, fascinating companion. Without any hesitancy, he would flatter her in a way that she wasn't used to._

_**"You're not married?"**_

_**"Of course not! I'm only seventeen (or eighteen) but that's a different story! Me, married?" I laughed nervously. "Yeah, right."**_ **Hikaru and I never had a chance anyway. The universe simply wouldn't allow it…**

_**"Huh, it puzzles me. Such an exotic and rather attractive woman such as you is not married yet. Well, it's a loss to those men out there—especially the fool who gave you that bracelet and had the indecency to let you go." My face remained red and warm.**_ **Exotic? Attractive? Is the emperor flirting with me?****My brain came up with a rationalization.****Okay, he's an emperor, so he probably flatters everyone he meets. It's all a part of being diplomatic. It's in his blood—he's been learning to do that for years.**_**He continued to watch me and I tried my best to not look away. "You know, I don't think that I've ever met someone with eyes like yours. You truly are from a different world."**_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 22: Hearts of Purity, Because I Care<em>

_At Mt Taikyoku, Nuriko and Aki watched as Hotohori and Tamahome gave blood to Miaka. During the time, Nuriko actually apologized to her for being a jerk. Believe it or not, but this was their first attempt at bonding. He makes her a promise. _

_**"I know that I'm the one that made your dark ring or whatever stronger." My face fell. "It happened that same day I called you those things. It probably had something to do with that awful, awful feeling Tama and I had after I made you mad." He sighed. "I have significantly more class than to lose my cool like that, so I really do wish to apologize. You're going to suffer more because of me…"**_

_**Waving my hands in front of his face, I talked frantically. "Damn Nuriko, you're bumming me out with all of this. You're not usually so easy to break—it's kind of disappointing. And about my dark ring, it's no big, really! I've had this thing nearly my whole life and it used to be even stronger. I could take it then and I can take it now. If I have anything to blame, it's my temper."**_ **And over-sensitivity**_.__**I hit him on the back. "So, come on, perk up!"**_

_**After blinking a few times, he beamed. "You know…you're alright Aki! However…" He grinned deviously. "You'll never be quite the lady I am. I mean, I outrank you completely!"**_

_**Giving him a sly look, I asked, "Oh really?"**_

_**"Yup! You're a complete lost case when it comes to being lady-like. I mean, you're etiquette and poise isn't all that great and your looks are dull at the very best—"**_

_**Making that fireball appear in my hand again, I said, "You're pushing it Nuriko."**_

_**He laughed before putting my arm down and extinguishing the fire. "You didn't let me finish! Since you're pretty much a lost cause, I've decided to keep my promise to you."**_

_**"What promise?"**_

_**"Don't you remember? I promised you last night that I would get you a man! I'll make it a special project of mine."**_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 27: From Deception to Auras (Part 2)<em>

_Aki and Tasuki (called Genrou then) had a real rough start in their friendship. They didn't trust each other and always thought that the other was getting in the way. There were points on the both of them that the other didn't approve of. But after the universe-formulated maze put them through their first trial, the two softened up to each other and decided to make peace. _

_**"Truth is, you were an' still are kind of a distraction." I narrowed my eyes at him right before he added, "But as far as distractions go, you aren't all that bad. You [and Chichiri] are actually entertainin' company to have around." I found myself smiling a bit and looking away with a slight blush—pretending as if his words weren't affecting me in any way. Never did I think that he'd be so sincere about**_ **anything****.**

_**"Genrou…I—"**_

_**"We should just be friends already."**__**What?**__**"And not just that, instead of ya doin' somethin' stupid and reckless when you fight, we should just be partners in battle—ya know…fight together as equals…I guess…Watchin' each other's backs."**_

…

_**"You two do know that things you're saying is sort of in violation of the 'forgetting everything' agreement we just had, right?"**_

_**"Oh come on!" Genrou walked up to me and put his fingers on the side of my lips, manually stretching them into a smile. "Lighten' up! You're gonna permanently be a wet blanket if ya go around actin' so damn nonchalant all the time." He gave a toothy smile that showed off his fangs.**_

_**Slapping his hand away I attempted at keeping my tough exterior. But knowing fully well that the atmosphere between the three of us had changed for the better, I gave a deep, seemingly exasperated sigh. Looking at them out of the corner of my eye, I gave a sideways smile. "Alright then, we can start over. I accept your friendship."**_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 28: Real Confidence, True Strength<em>

_Being without their powers, Aki and Chichiri had to fend for themselves in an underground cavern. Not being used to not having something to defend herself with, Aki became irritable and frightened. Luckily, Chichiri was there to comfort her, even if she didn't want to accept the gesture at first._

_**I didn't expect it when Chichiri's arm unexpectedly wrapped around my shoulders, causing me to instantly tense up with his touch. "Everything will be okay, ya know? I'll keep you safe, and I'm sure that if Genrou were here, he'd do the same thing, ya know? So don't worry!"**_**But! I don't need you to keep me safe...I shouldn't need anyone...**_** He flashed me a cheery smile, and with that mask, the atmosphere could have easily lightened up. But…**_

**It doesn't feel right having to depend on someone other than Kajou.**

_**"I can imagine how weird it feels to become the one who has to depend on others. But you have to realize that sometimes it's necessary and accepting it is just fine, ya know? There are those out there who care about you and want to keep you safe." **_

…

**Chichiri appeared from behind, and placed a hand on my shoulder (somehow, his mask was already back on his face. Sneaky one, isn't he?). "You did good Aki."**

**Talking through short bursts of breath, I told him, "Yeah, well...you did better." Then, with a slight blush on my cheeks, I said in almost a whisper, "Thank you for being my rock Chichiri..." Of course, with that mask, he couldn't help but look cheerful from what I told him. But I knew, almost for a fact, that Chichiri's real lips were smiling as well.**

...

**_I really appreciated the comfort that he gave me back in the cave—even if I didn't accept it for the majority of the time. He really was a kind person and a really great friend. If I had a big brother, would he be just like Chichiri? Was that what it was like to have an older male sibling? Well that was how he was starting to look to me…like an older brother who actually wanted to look out for me and guide me in the right direction._**

* * *

><p>Did it even matter that I was blushing beyond all reason? No. Wanna know why? It's because I finally knew and accepted the fact that this stupid clip-show idea was going to keep going whether I wanted it to or not. And I really didn't. But we all know by now that the universe is messed up.<p>

"Dammit people! Couldn't any of you see that those moments were _private_?" _Jeez! There was a reason why me and the other person weren't in public during those times. _Gazing over at Hikaru and Tasuki, those two had suddenly lost their somewhat hyper-drive from before and ended up with flushed faces, avoiding eye contact from anyone. Crossing my arms, there was another point I wanted to address. "There's another reason why seeing those clips were bad…" My sentence trailed off. The next part I didn't exactly want them to hear me say.

I was never really proud of how I kept jumping from world to world falling for whatever guy was good-looking and who gave me the time of day. In a way, I had to thank Taiitsukun for taking me away—otherwise, I could have made some huge mistakes.

Inuyasha…

Kyo…

Hikaru…

And Dark…

It wouldn't have worked out—there was nothing there to really base a relationship on.

Besides that…

I really wasn't as popular as they made me seem. As a person, I'm completely socially inept. I both understood people, and yet they baffled me. I had always been the observer and never included.

But I was used to that.

This whole journey had quite literally turned my whole world upside down. Suddenly, I get thrown into groups that didn't repel me on an instant. But…um…I don't know…when you see all the nice moments all pressed together like that last clip-showing, then yeah, it would seem like my life is all rainbows, sunshine, and cute guys. Please. If my life were really like that, do you honestly think that I'd be trying so hard? Get real.

I'm just a player in the grand scheme of the universe—

"Hey Aki, if you're done monologue-ing, we've got an important revelation to share with the readers!" Nuriko pointed out, completely throwing off my groove.

Giving a look of confusion, I wondered what exactly was going on. "Wait…what?" Right as I turned around, I found that everyone was bunched up together almost as if they just had a team huddle during a football game or something.

_I smell conspiracy. _

"Yeah, once the clips were over and you started thinking about part of your life story and trying to get the sympathy vote, the rest of us got kind of bored and decided to hold a small meeting!" Gasping slightly, I was taken aback. _Wha-What? Bored? _In my mind I began to cry a little from the hurtful blow they just caused._ But…it's important for character development…_

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: Aki isn't boring! You guys are lucky that I'm not allowed to hurt you!<p>

* * *

><p>This time, it was my turn to go into the emo corner and drown in my misery. But instead of crouching down like Tamaki, I just leaned my side against the wall with my back towards the merged groups. Holding up my arms, a soft-ball sized fire-ball instantaneously combusted in my palm while I played a continuous record in my mind, <em>I…am going to kill them ALL.<em>

"C'mon Aki-nee-chan don't be like that. It's supposed to be a happy day, remember?" _Easy for you to say. People won't gang up on Little Miss Priestess of Suzaku. Who exactly was supposed to be having fun here? 'Cause it definitely isn't me. _

Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I looked over to see that it was Haruhi who had come to comfort me. "It's not that big a deal Senpai—we're all just trying to make the best out of this anniversary. And you're a huge part of the story, and I'm sorry to say this but…as the main protagonist, you're going to get a lot of attention. A lot—like so much you're probably going to drown in it." My whole body completely turned to stone the moment she said that to me. _I don't want to be the center of attention! _Not being able to detect my distress, she kept going. "You should see all of the pictures of you up on Deviant Art! Not to mention that those get transferred to Google and other search engines. And when you think about it, people all around the world are watching you and know who you are—"

Tamahome came up from behind her and put his hand over Haruhi's mouth. Smiling nervously, he told her, "I'm pretty sure that you've said more than enough."

_All that attention…_

_So many eyes on me…_

"Onee-chan?"

_Pictures all over the internet…_

"You think Aki's broken?"

_Why…_

_WHY? _The _Fireball_ in my palm began to grow and violently dance around as Wind assisted in its power.

"Oh no! She's finally lost it!"

"Put that fire out!"

Not a second later, a shower of chilled water showered down onto me, completely drenching everything and extinguishing the flames. Soaking wet and clothes clinging to my skin, I dropped my arms and turned around. Looking past my wet bangs, I discovered that it was Chichiri who had a huge bucket it his hands.

"Sorry, but I kind of had to, ya know?"

Once again, everyone was staring at the soaked spectacle before them. Not favoring the idea of catching a cold, I disregarded both the fact that I was once again in everyone's sights, and that someone actually had the nerve to pour a bucket of freezing-cold water onto me.

Feeling the heat return to my face, I meekly asked, "Anyone have a change of clothes?"

* * *

><p><strong>Well, that's the end of Part 2! Tomorrow, the finale of the Anniversary Special will be released. Look forward to it!<strong>

**C ya!**

**Please review onegai~~^_^**


	39. LH5W Anniversary Special, Part 3

**ALRIGHT! 500 REVIEWS! You guys are so incredibly awesome! I know I normally put a list of all the people who review…but as you can imagine…it's…umm…too long ^^" But just know that I am eternally grateful to you all! *hugs and cake all around***

**This is the final part of the Anniversary Special! Srry this came out so late in the day…some of my work got erased and I had to do it all over again . I had to stay up all night to finish because of that…ugh…**

**Well anyway, enjoy! Luv ya guys!**

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: 15 minutes later~<p>

* * *

><p>If it weren't for Chichiri's teleportation ability, I wouldn't have been able to go back to my apartment and change into a dry set of clothes (long, grey cotton pants and a black tube top). Out of all the things planned for my day, never in a million years would I have expected for all of this to go down. Well, maybe not a <em>million <em>years, since other, bigger things have surprised me, but still. Perhaps there was a third curse on me—a curse where I would never be allowed a chance to relax! To always be around a bunch of crazies who had nothing better to do than to come and influence my day.

Instead of saying anything to anyone upon my return to the party, I just took notice of one of the couches in the center of the room and plop myself down—pretending as if I didn't give a damn.

But honestly, my patience was running thin. No, really. I was ready to either just give up, or let all Hell break lose—whichever one of the extremes seemed more appropriate at the time. Everyone else seemed more or less aware of this and kept their distance as they tried to determine how exactly I would handle everything.

Taking the bold move, Mitsukuni decided to be the first one to break the ice. "Hey Aki-chan, you wanna hear what we all came up with earlier? It's something we've been hoping to tell you and the audience!"

Giving him a passive glance, I sighed and responded, "Whatever…sure, why not?" They did mention earlier that they had a revelation of some sort at their little conspiracy meeting.

Kyouya took over the explanation in the know-it-all fashion he was so custom to. "Well, we've evaluated all of the men that you've become interested in since you began your journey." _Are you guys honestly that bored? _"And there was something that we noticed a few patterns. One of them being that you fell for two guys who's hair color was closer to red on the spectrum. Also, two of them had yellow-ish eye colors. And finally, two of them had fangs complimented with somewhat irritable attitudes."

I cocked an eyebrow. "What exactly are you getting at?" Just by adding those things up, I had a feeling that I knew what dangerous direction they were going in. For once I was hoping that they proved me wrong.

Holding up a finger in explanation, Nuriko continued where the Host left off. "If you rule out Dark as the outlier, since he's really the only one whose looks and personality differ from everyone else's, the it's pretty obvious who you're likely to either fall in love with or kiss next. I mean, your pattern has become pretty predictable Aki."

"Pattern? I don't have a 'pattern'." I scowled at him. _Do I?_

"Yup! We all talked it over and it looks like…Drum roll please!" A spot-light spontaneously came on and under it stood Takashi with a snare drum. With the drum sticks in his hand, he effortlessly rolled them onto the crisp-sounding percussion instrument. Extending his arm out pretty far, Nuriko managed to reel in one of his fellow warriors. "Tasuki is the one! I congratulate you two on many years of happiness!" That boy was much too amused by this.

"WHAT?" Tasuki and I shouted out at the same time. I was so appalled by the statement that I immediately shot out of my seat. How could they even conceive such a ridiculous impression? It was bad enough that they felt that they needed to invade my love-life (or lack of one), but now they were playing compatibility test. And I was pretty damn sure that they didn't have the right authorization to do either.

Even Tasuki jumped quite a few feet, eyes popped out as wide as dinner plates. "Wait, when in the hell did'ja come up with that lame-brained idea? And why wasn't I a part of it?" The fiery-haired bandit complained. "I was in that damn meetin' too and no one ever said that!"

Chichiri answered first, "It was just one of those times when everyone already knows the answer to something so it wasn't worth mentioning out loud, ya know?"

Tasuki began to stomp his foot a few times. "No, I don't know! Excuse me fer not havin' telepathy like you Mr. I-Can-Read-Minds-And-You-All-Can't-'Cause-Yer-Chumps pants! I demand a re-count!"

Looking a bit troubled, Chichiri told him, "It's not really something you can re-count, ya know? And don't blame me just because you fail at deductive reasoning."

"You damn traitorous monk!—"

"Out of all the people in the world, your conclusion came out to _that guy_?" Using my thumb, I motioned over to Tasuki while addressing Nuriko and the other spectators.

"Hey! I take offense ta that!" The bandit shouted over. "What's so bad about _me_? You made it sound like Ima bad catch er somethin'!"

Shooting him a look, I was somewhat surprised that he put himself out there like that. "Oh will you drop it? You're supposed to be against this too. Don't change positions so quickly."

"I'm not! I'm still against it. Just don't pin me as undesirable!"

_Okay, I'm leaving that one alone. _I faced Nuriko and Kyouya once again for the answer. "Well? Explain yourselves!"

"Explain what? You like guys with red-hair, some kind of yellow-eyes, and fangs. Tasuki is the obvious choice!" Nuriko cheerily pointed out. I was _seriously_ close to bringing down the house on that guy. But the better part of me was trying to convince myself that about 90% of what Nuriko ever said was specifically meant for getting under my skin. For the sake of everyone's safety, it was probably best for me to stay calm.

Haruhi sighed. "Senpai, I am so sorry for you having to deal with their rash reasoning's…" _You say that, but I don't hear you disagreeing. _

"If you two are so indecisive about it," Mitsukuni suggested, sporting a sweet smile, "then maybe we should show that clip of you two in the hot spring again to confirm!"

"NO!" The two of us loudly protested. Sometimes, I had to stop forgetting that Mitsukuni was older than he looked, and that he was secretly more conniving than he led everyone to believe. No one else may have caught on, but I had a heightened sense of observation.

Through the middle of the commotion, my ears caught onto a muted giggling. Looking over, I noticed Miaka standing with a grin on her face and eyes closed while she stood with Tamahome.

"This is an odd time to laugh, don't you think?" I asked her, slightly curious about what she was so glad about.

When she opened her eyes, the smile remained, but she looked a bit more solemn. "It's just nice to see you surrounded by so many friends Onee-chan. Whenever something really good happens to you, that curse of yours always seems to get in the way. You could be in the happiest place ever, yet there would always be something holding you back. I mean, when someone even _mentions_ the curse, you'd fall into some sort of fierce depression…" Just as she said that, the whole room went quiet and focused in.

Sweat-dropping, I politely asked, "You mean like what you just did?" A dark cloud hovered over everyone's head as the atmosphere completely shifted.

Miaka blinked a few times and laughed nervously while put her finger under her lip in bewilderment. "Oops…"

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: You know, I always took offense to whenever people call me a curse. It's so incredibly rude! Despite my name, I am a positive part of Aki's life! It just depends on how you look at things and overlook some of the…unfortunate side-effects. It's all for the greater good…really!<p>

Wait…what am I doing trying to explain myself to humans? Pft. You aren't even worth the explanation…

* * *

><p><strong>Clip-Set #5—Negative Curse<strong>

_Aki had never been allowed to live a normal life. Thanks to a combination of curses, one known as Shokyoku, she had been forced to endure alienation, neglect, and constant disappointment. Though she maintained a tough front, no one could even imagine the trauma that had built in her for so long. _

_**"There is a mysterious ring of dark energy around me.**_

…

"_**You guys can't see it, but it's there—it's always been there…as long as I can remember anyway.**_

…

_**"I know it sounds weird, but it's true. Some kind of negative aura has always been around me...like, a physical, more or less_ , legitimate _one. When I was younger, I used to be able to see it. I was in the center of a dark ring that pretty much effected anyone who got close. Causing anyone that it agitated to feel misery or anger beyond all belief... Perhaps other people couldn't see it, but it kept them away. I'm pretty sure it's still there, but…dimmed, I guess. It's really hard to explain. But because of all that, it's been hard to really be me to anyone. No matter how much I wanted to be. Things have been…" I paused to think about a word to describe my years if isolation. "…difficult."**_

…

"_**Every single day, I was forced to live through every painful experience almost as if it were happening over and over again. The feelings I had would remain, the torment never ceasing. I could still hear my cries of agony and sink in the depth of hopeless ness—every little memory that made me want to cry.**_

_**Remember earlier when you guys suddenly felt cold and miserable? Well, that's what it does to people—it brings out the dark, horrible emotions that everyone has buried deep inside of them…and amplifies them."**_

…

_**So…there was no true freedom after all. This torture was no better than repeatedly dunking someone's head into water and allowing them only a second of breath before making them deal with burning lungs and a desperate need to not drown.**_

…

_**I was conflicted.**_

_**And I was alone.**_

* * *

><p>I knew that Miaka didn't mean to say anything like that, so I didn't blame her, but anything regarding the hex on me was always bound to bring any sort of celebration to an end. The sudden manner in which the feelings in the room had shifted sort of made me feel bad. Though Miaka was the one to bring it up, I was technically the originator.<p>

Sigh.

Just then, someone took my arm and brought it over my head, proceeding to move it around in such a way that caused my body to twirl. A few times around, and I found myself standing in a waltz position with Tamaki—our hands held up together while my other hand rested on his shoulder and his other hand on my waist.

"My dearest Aki, do not fret on things that make that beautiful face of yours so sad. We do not regret the day we met you. In fact, we're all here to celebrate all of the fond memories we've had with you and the accomplishments of the past year. There is simply no time to be down. Now," He winked at me, emitting such charm and radiance that practically blinded me. "Show us all that wonder smile of yours." Having it been a while, I actually forgot how incredibly sweet Tamaki was. Though overly dramatic, I was always sure that his personality was genuine. And even if I never had a crush on him, his flattery always made me blush.

But…

We were now hitting a point where this was getting a _little_ too far out of my comfort zone-like so far that not even the Hubble telescope could spot it. If it wasn't bad enough that the mushiness level was somewhere in the reds, but this whole thing had become a two-person performance that everyone seemed to be eating up. _Really? They couldn't focus on anything else?_

Releasing myself from the King of the Hosts, I took a huge step away from him to widen the distance. "Really feeling the love here Tamaki, but too much of it can be a bad thing…"

"Nonsense! It's love that makes the world to round!" Stretching his arms out and hoping for an embrace, I groaned a bit and thought, _Well, can't say that I didn't warn him. _Not a second later, his persistent advances led to his face meeting the flat of my shoe as I held up my leg in affection defense.

"I'm not a sob story Tamaki, so give it a rest already." Even with my huge hint, he still tried to hug me, but to no avail.

Feeling only for a second that I was in the clear, I was suddenly bombarded by two people, resulting in my slam to the ground, landing Miaka and Mitsukuni on top of me.

"It's always better to smile Aki-chan! Or do things that make you smile—like eating a bunch of cookies and cakes!" _That's your thing…_

"We're really trying to make this a fun day for you Onee-chan. Try giving it a chance before you knock it—just let loose!"

Not really giving much of a fight, I couldn't help but think of the times when I used the curse—Shokyoku—to get myself out of situations, or the times when it—she—was just convenient. If those two weren't my friends and if I didn't know her dangers, I would have totally used Shokyoku to get Mitsukuni and Miaka off of my person. Okay…maybe I wouldn't have, but it was nice to know sometimes that she was there.

* * *

><p><strong>Clip-Set #6—Positive Curse<strong>

_**I still had the dark ring to protect me, so I was never, ever defenseless.**_

_Chapter 18: Room for Two—Wait, What?_

_During Aki's flashback of her meeting with Miaka Yuki, she reveals just how she was able to make the bullies, who were tormenting the young Miaka, back off. Even though Aki didn't yet know the truth of the dark ring, she put it to good use. _

_**There was an incredible urge to clench my fist, but the self control Kajou had taught me told me to hold back. I remarked quietly, "You guys could never make me cry. Vice versa, however…" Feeling the anger well up inside of me, an odd feeling went throughout my body had somehow…branched out. All of a sudden, the group of boys started to shiver and hold themselves, with looks of fear in their eyes.**_

"_**Wh-why do I f-feel so cold?"**_

"_**Dude, you're crying!" One of them pointed to another.**_

_**He countered, "Shut up! You are too." They all sank to the ground all saying how they feel something bad and it frightened them to death. None of them could explain what was going on with them, but I knew. This was what happened when people got too close to me. Their minds would recall how they felt when they were the most miserable and make them emotionally experience it once again...but much, much worse—whether or not the catalyst for the fear was actually there.**_

_**Knowing that I had already won, I told them in monotone, "If you want the pain to go away, then you'll give the girl back her bear and go home." And with that, the boys immediately got up, threw the bear to the ground, and ran off. **_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 24: Bandit Fever<em>

_When they first met, Aki challenged Genrou (Tasuki) to a fight (she was annoyed of his rudeness and chauvinism), the battle initially started off as something serious. But somewhere along the way, it turned rather childish with cheek pulling, tripping, etc. At one point, the two ended up in a rather sensual position. Shokyoku didn't take that very well~_

_**"You had me there for a second, but like I said before," he smiled devilishly, "you can't wi—" Right as I put my hands over his to prevent him from pulling any more, the peculiar spark from before surged between us. "…win…" He stopped pulling a wave of pleasant and warm sensations played throughout my body, going back and forth as if the two and us were sharing it.**_

_**So there we were, on the ground, him on top of me as we stared at each other from the jolt. Finally realizing what kind of position it looked like we were in, my face instantly turned red and, for some reason, the dark ring around me suddenly pulsated, sending out a wave that would have normally been absorbed by my enemy, causing them to shrivel up in depression. This time, the wave seemed to hit the guy…like physically…causing him to be pushed off of me. Sitting up, I looked over at him who was rubbing his head.**_

_**"What the hell was that all about?" He asked.**_

* * *

><p>When someone is forced to live with a particular curse like I had, they come to realize a few things. One of the important ones being the ability to look past all of the bad stuff and learn to use it as an advantage when you can—when you have lemons, make lemonade (except for those times when the sour lemon juice happens to run into an open wound and then its hurts like hell).<p>

As I sat up, Hotohori made his way over and offered a hand to help me up, just like the perfect gentleman. I would have been a fool not to take it. "I for one am overjoyed with the progress you've made, and to know that the curse on you has weakened—or has been made under control. I find that you are happier when you don't have to worry about such a thing." When he helped lifted me up, he looked down at me with his soft hazel eyes. "We are now free to celebrate with you and show our appreciation." Feeling my cheeks burn, I thought, _Why do words always sound so much better when he says them? _

"Having that said!" Nuriko blurted out, ruining any moment with Hotohori, which was probably his plan to begin with. "Let's return back to that other little matter that we were discussing before! Your lack of a love life!" My scowl returned with a vengeance. _Dude...so uncalled for. _When I turned around to face him, my mouth dropped open to see the ridiculous scheme he had set up next. There Nuriko was, with Tamahome, sitting behind when looked a lot like a lemonade stand, except it said "Kissing Booth" at the top.

My arms hung down in disbelief. "Do I even want to know?"

Nuriko chuckled and motioned with his hand for me to come over. "Of course you do silly! This kissing booth isn't for our sake, it's for yours!" _What the hell? _"I promised you that I'd find a man and this is probably the most ingenious way to do so." _You know…I heard eHarmony is a pretty good site…_This plan had stupid written all over it. There was no way that he thought I'd actually go for such a thing.

Holding up an empty jar labeled "$$", Tamahome grinned widely when he told me, "And this is where all of the profit is going to go. Yup! A nice place where Kyouya doesn't have access." He yelled over to the glasses-wearing Host. "Hear that Ootori? You don't get any of the cash because you were stingy earlier. This is poetic justice at its best." I rolled my eyes. _Oh brother._

_Well, I better stop this before they start to believe that this actually has a chance. _Settling on a resolve, I brought out the Hammer of Justice, lifted it up high, and swung it straight down onto the booth, crushing it to pieces with a single strike.

"Hey what's the big idea—" Knowing perfectly well that I couldn't hurt Nuriko with the toy hammer because of his super strength, Tamahome was fair play, so I was free to hit him as hard as I wanted.

And so I did.

The teal-haired boy was hit straight up into the ceiling, putting holes into at least three of the floors, before he came crashing down onto our floor, right at the foot of his girlfriend.

Reaching up in pleading, Tamahome struggled to say, "M-Miaka…" But she stood with her arms crossed and cheeks puffed.

She did not approve of the booth either.

Holding him up by his collar, a demonic expression had rolled onto her face. "I can't believe that you'd exploit Aki-nee-chan like that just to earn a few bucks. You jerk!" Bringing her arm back and somewhat downward, she released an intense uppercut that sent him bashing through the ceiling once again, but landing a bit further away. Talk about tough love!

Boy were we REALLY abusing that room. It was a good thing that we had rich people on our side *cough, cough* Host Club *cough*

Feeling that Tamahome was in "good" hands, I turned my attention back onto Nuriko. "And as for you…I am soooo not desperate enough to do something like this. And if you have any more idiotic suggestions, please don't include me in them because I guarantee you that I wouldn't be interested in your kind of 'help'." Yeah, he promised to find me a boyfriend. Was I beginning to regret that? Yup.

Out of nowhere, a familiar male voice whispered into my ear. "I'd definitely like a piece of that action~" Am arm wrapped around my shoulders as a figure positioned himself behind me. Curious me turned my head to the side to see who it was and I was met by a pair of lips pressing against mine.

In the background, Tasuki and Hikaru jumped up with shocked and angry faces, pointing an accusing finger at the man who was so bold as to kiss me.

"What the f&%king hell?"

"He can't do that!"

The two guys gave each other suspicious glances.

"Hey, if you two broke up, then why do ya care so damn much?" Tasuki asked him.

Hikaru asked a counter question. "If _you_ don't like her like that, then why do _you_ care?" Static electricity cracked in between their deathly glares towards one another.

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: GET AWAY FROM MY AKI! I did not give you permission to soil her!<p>

* * *

><p>With my heart racing from the unexpected greeting, my brain was also in jumbles as it tried to process what was going on. The connection that did seem to make its way through was that a.) this was an extremely cute guy, and b.) I was really enjoying the kiss.<p>

Breaking away slowly, the man smiled as his fierce purple eyes gazed right into mine. "Hey pretty lady. It's been a while~" Brain still wasn't putting the pieces together fast enough. _Purple hair…purple eyes…hot…_

I gasped as the realization hit me. "Dark! You're here!" The fact that he just came out and kissed me out of nowhere was making much more sense now that I knew who he was. Dark Mousy was just not the type to be shy about those sorts of things. He was casual about kissing, even if the girl he was locking lips with wasn't even if his girlfriend.

He closed his eyes and maintained his charismatic smile. "Of course I am! I wouldn't miss this for the world."

Behind him, walking up was two others I hadn't expected but was sort of happy to see. With his long silvery hair and cute dog ears, Inuyasha came into the picture (wearing casual, modern-day clothes which made it sort of odd, but not in a bad way) along with sexy carrot-top Kyo. It wasn't much of a surprise how shocked I was by this reunion. Kyo and Inuyasha did not seem like the type of people to show up to such a thing—Dark did—but…here they were! Seeing those guys was a real treat!

* * *

><p>Shokyoku! I can't believe that that lower life-form had the nerve to just kiss her like that! Well I have every reason to—<p>

Author: Shokyoku! Just introduce them already!

Shokyoku: Fine…Some of you may be asking why the mutt, the cat, and the flirty bird are all doing her as well as why the casts from their particular anime aren't here. Well, they are the only ones who matter so why include unnecessary people. Of course, they're all unnecessary to me…except Aki.

Author: Why weren't they here earlier?

Shokyoku: The invitations got…umm…_lost_?

Author: …uh huh…

* * *

><p>The half demon approached me with his arms crossed, with only a slight half-smile to show that he wasn't being a Scrooge. "I can tell you've gotten stronger Aki." <em>Damn-straight I have! <em>

Smirking, I told him, "Wand no longer required. And Fire? Not. A. Problem."

"Hey Aki, congrats on the 1-year," Kyo softly punched me on the arm in greetings.

"Thanks! But really I couldn't have done it without you guys—it's more of a congrats to all of us." When I thought about it, that was probably one of the most positive things I had said during that entire party. In combination to that epiphany, I glanced around to the rest of the room to find that the Host Club members and the Suzaku Warriors were all intensely glaring at me.

"Onee-chan…why were you so nice to them?"

"He were trying to get you to smile from the start—"

"And then you go behind our backs and smile just for these guys?"

Not showing them any sort of backing down on my actions, I told them, "Hey, I'm in the right here. _They_ didn't kidnap me and include me in a bunch of hijinks."

Speaking of hijinks, the excitement went back on track when Miaka decided to be sneaky and carefully creep up to Kyo from behind, resulting in her leaping out towards him. With not enough time to react, she wraps her arms around him. And not a second later, _poof! _A white poofy cloud emerged where Kyo once was. When it cleared, we all saw that what once stood in Kyo's place wasn't there anymore. Instead stood a small orange cat…that had a very apparent look of annoyance on his cute little cat face.

Crouching down to get a better look at the feline, Miaka smiled as she attempted to play with him. "I'm really sorry about that Kyo—I just wanted to see if it was true of not."

Understandably irritated for having been turned into a cat, Kyo yelled, "Of course it's true you stupid girl! Why couldn't ya just ask?"

Not catching onto the negative energy, the girl couldn't help but fall for his adorable cat form. "You are so cute! Wanna be my kitty?"

"No I'm not—and no I don't—"

Poor Kyo. Mitsukuni decided to get in on the action once he saw Kyo in his Zodiac form. Speeding over faster than the speed of light, the small Host picked up unfortunate carrot-top and hugged him like no tomorrow. "Kyo-chan is just so cute! I want one! I want one! Hey Takashi!" He called out to his cousin. "You think that I'd be able to get one of these?"

For the second time during the party, Takashi spoke. "He's a person Mitsukuni—so he's not for sale."

"Aww…" He pouted. Instead of setting him down, Mitsukuni just started to swing Kyo around. "But I really want him!" The swinging continued to a point where I was getting dizzy just watching the whole thing go down. However…better him than me~

"Umm…Honey-Senpai?" Haruhi put in her two-cents. "I don't think that swinging him like that is such a good idea…" The whole thing was sort of hysterical once you thought about it. Part of me felt sorry for Kyo, but the other part was being greatly entertained. Seeing the way that things were unfolding made it so that I couldn't help but remember when I first met the Sohma's and learned of their interesting family secret.

* * *

><p><strong>Clip-Set #7—Sohma encounter<strong>

_Literally dropped into the Sohma's home unexpectedly (by Taiitsukun), Aki found herself in the presence of a mysterious family. _

_**When the world finally went back into focus, I shot my upper body up and shouted to the hole while showing my fist at it. "What the hell Taiitsukun! Who the hell even does things like that? I—"**_

_**That was when I realized that there were two guys staring at me.**_

…

_**"WILL YOU GET THE HELL OFF OF ME! I CAN'T BREATHE!" Gasping, I shifted a bit to see what, or who I was sitting on and all I could see was an orange cat who had its paws covering its mouth. I quickly scooted over and picked up the small creature that was gasping for air.**_

_**"I can't believe that I landed on a cat!" Looking over at Yuki, I gave the best apologetic face I could. "This is your cat, right? I am soooooo sorry that I almost squished it!" Then I blinked a few times and gave the cat another look. **_**Did this thing just talk? And...is it glaring at me?**_**  
><strong>_

_**Yuki immediately lost the sweet tone in his voice and looked away. "It's not my cat. You can continue using him as a cushion if you like, Miss Tsubaki."**_

_**Assuming he was joking, I gave a brief laugh and looked the now growling intensely cat that was, I swear, glaring at Yuki. "I just like you to know that I really like most animals, especially cats, and didn't mean for this to happen. Even if you are…" I smiled sneakily, "a**_ **talking** _**cat."**_

…

_**Without any warning, there was an**_ **_evident _poof**_! __**followed by a bunch of white smoke. Realizing a while ago that carrying a wand around would be a HUGE pain the ass, I managed to find a way to make it disappear into a space and make it materialize when I needed it. Knowing that, it instantly appeared in a string of light into my hands, ready for anything and everything. But I definitely wasn't expecting **_**this**.

_**Standing in front of me was a nicely built guy…And he was not…wearing…**_**anything**._** Nothing. At all.**_

_**My face instantly heat up and turned my body around the fastest I could.**_ **OMIGOSHOMIGOSHOMIGOSH!**_**Was all I could really muster in my head. Since that was true, I figured speaking may come out as complete loud and obnoxious gibberish. I was honestly getting dizzy just thinking about what I just saw—from knowing he was still standing there!**_

…

_**"The point that Shigure is trying to make is that you saw something that was supposed to be a secret." Yuki calmly explained after cutting off Shigure.**_

**Yeah, I can see why you would want to do that_. __"I don't mean to pry or anything, but what exactly was the thing I saw that was supposed to be a secret?"_**

_**"Hmm…where to start…Well, Kyo isn't the only one in the family that can transform. Yuki, and I as well as ten other Sohma's can turn into one of the animals from the Chinese Zodiac."**_

* * *

><p>Taking notice of how Kyo was being abused (once again…poor guy), Inuyasha watched in disgust. "Tch, you don't see me becoming pathetically vulnerable by turning into some dumb animal—especially not some cat." The tension between canines and felines apparently extended to demons as well as one could tell by the condescending statement.<p>

A glare of death shone in Kyo's eyes in response to the derogatory statement. Struggling more fiercely than before, the orange cat was able to escape the clutches of Mitsukuni and Miaka, allowing him to extend his claws and aim for Inuyasha. "Who're you callin' pathetic half-breed? Reaching out before Kyo could make contact with Inuyasha, Chichiri caught him in mid-air by the skin on his back.

"It's supposed to be a fun day, ya know? So let's try to avoid as much violence as we can." Apparently the monk blinked every time I hit someone with the Hammer. This party was definitely _not_ a violence-free zone. Our wreckage of the unlucky place had been proven that time and time again.

"Wait a minute…" After simmering in a previous statement of Inuyasha's, Tasuki found it appropriate to respond. "Don't'cha turn into a human once a month?" On the night of the new moon, Inuyasha's human DNA takes over, suppressing his dog-demon DNA, causing him to become human.

Catching onto his point, Hikaru and Kaoru add, "So wouldn't that—"

"Make _you_ sort of vulnerable?" Well, they had a point…

Stuttering as if he didn't expect anyone to bring up that fact, Inuyasha cleared his throat and turned his back to everyone to hide his embarrassment. "W-Well, that's different. It's once a month and…" Turning his head to narrow his eyes at Kyo, finished with, "At least I still have opposable thumbs and an ability to fight on more of an equal playing field with my opponent. Oh yeah, and it helps to be taller than a foot."

Erratically moving his arms and legs, Kyo twisted and turned like there was no tomorrow. He seriously wanted to mess Inuyasha up! Chichiri seemed to have been having some trouble keeping the cat from causing a stir—'tis the unfortunate role he had chosen. "It would be wise to stop insulting him. Keep the peace, ya know?"

Pushing up his glasses once again, Kyouya groaned. "This nonsense has gone on _long_ _enough_." The harshness in his voice prompted the room to not really go completely quiet, but silent enough for him to make his message known. "Everyone is here for a purpose, so stop fooling around!" _Really? There was actually some purpose to this madness? _If the purpose was anything other than "give Aki a headache", then I would have been truly surprised.

"Yay! Mommy is taking charge!" Applauding as if this was one of the most spectacular scenes he had ever witnessed, Tamaki smiled approvingly at his Vice-President and addressed Kyouya by a more detested (but liked by Tamaki) title. "A well balanced family only works if at least one parent puts their foot down—I must say Bravo for attending to your role Kyouya!"

Squeezing the skin in between his eyes, Kyouya mumbled, "Idiot…"

Sharing similar feelings to the drastic turn that the celebration had taken, Hotohori sighed. "It's wonderful to see everyone in such high spirits, but I do feel that things have gotten a little…"

I completed his thoughts. "Out of hand?" Sighing, I tried to think of a way to get everyone's attention—not that I wanted their eyes on me again, but finding a way out of that unbearable randomness seemed to be top-priority. As a light bulb appeared over my head, a mischievous smirk wiped across my lips. _This oughta get their attention. _I began to cast a spell _"Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows. Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows…" _A Darkness collected all around me as red and black lightning sparked repeatedly in my hands. Feeling a dramatic shift in energy, people were starting to take notice and their eyes grew wide with fear. _"I pledge myself to conquer all the foes who stand. Before the mighty gifts bestowed in my unworthy hands…"_

"No, wait Aki! Hold on!"

"Don't use that spell—it's too dangerous!"

"You'll kill us all!"

"_Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess!" _Collecting the destructive Darkness in the middle of my collected palms, everyone gawked in horror to the evil I would release upon them. The room tinted a bright red, flashes of blinding light became ever-more apparent with the appending doom. _"Dragon Slav—_Psych!" In an instant, all of the negative energy with the black and red lighting and such disappeared altogether, resulting in a simple, small puff of smoke coming from my hands. Straitening up, I smiled triumphantly. "Well, now that I've gotten you're attention…" I stopped my sentence mid-way when I found mostly everyone turned to pale statues from the previous fear. Had I gone too far? Oh well~ _Shake it off you bunch of wimps. _Putting my hands on my hips, I continued with what I wanted to say. "If you all want to have a party, then fine, I've made peace with that. But can we _at least_ stick to the plotline?" _Otherwise this thing will never end. _

Unfreezing from their petrified states, the merged groups talked amongst themselves in a reasonable volume to come up with a reply.

"So what exactly do we do now?" Tamahome asked. "I sort of forgot the things that we actually planned to do…" _See? This is what I'm talking about! Randomness screws everyone up. _

Nuriko crossed his arms as he thought about a solution. "Well…we've wasted quite a bit of time." Resting his head on his hand in sorrow, he mentioned, "Oh darn we won't be able to do the karaoke contest anymore. And I was so looking forward to that!" Had I known something like that was planned, I'd have been out of there ages ago. "What a pity too. Aki was going to sing a lovely song for us!"

I said flatly, "No I wasn't."

"But Aki, you've sung so many times before, why not now?"

* * *

><p><strong>Clip-Set #8—Sing with a purpose<strong>

_**In times like this, it made me feel better to sing. Singing had been a sort of outlet I discovered years ago—helping me to slightly unwind.**_

_Aki didn't like to sing for other people. It was a secret talent that was supposed to be a private matter. However, since things didn't always go her way, Aki sometimes found herself singing on _some_ sort of stage for _some_ type of audience._

_Chapter 14: Emotional Depths _

_During the night of the Hitachiin twins' birthday party, Hikaru, who was Aki's new boyfriend, and Kaoru had cleverly planned to get Aki to sing for them as a present. Of course, she didn't like the idea especially with all of those people watching her. But…_

**A…song? Wait a sec…that's not just a circular platform, that's a stage!**

_**The twins stepped forward. "In honor of our birthday—"**_

_**"—we request that the commoner, Aki, who doesn't have the money to buy us a present, sing us a song."**_

_**"A nice one too."**_

_**"What makes you two idiots think that I could sing?" I shouted.**_

_**They wrapped their arms around each other's waists. "We heard you singing on that day you woke up."**_

_**"Instead of recording it and watching it over and over again on our phones,"**_ (**Bastards),**_**"**__**we wanted our own personal concert. So, what do you say?"**_

_"You might be crazy_

_But have I told you lately_

_That I love you?_

_You're the only reason that I'm_

_Not afraid to fly, and it's_

_Crazy that someone could change me_

_Now no matter_

_What it is I have to do_

_I'm not afraid to try_

_And you need to know that_

_You're the reason why!"_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 25: Siren's Song of Suffering<em>

_Facing quite a dilemma consisting of siren-like Shadow Kissed women and zombiefied men, Aki, Chichiri, and Genrou (Tasuki) seemed to have been backed into a corner. Thinking quickly on her toes, Aki took a gamble at a possible solution._

_**"You think that whole trick you did with me could snap those guys out of it?" Genrou pointed to the still trapped men. Thinking about his suggestion, I rolled it over in my head.**_

_**"Probably not…they aren't the ones being possessed by darkness…If they were the ones who were Shadow Kissed, however…then a similar thing would get them out of that miserable state…"**_ **But that's where the problem lies. How do I win against people in their own element?**_**I listened to the never ending melody, watching the men continually fuss, attempting to escape captivity.**_ **The song…****An idea suddenly hit me. ****What if there was a way that I could block the frequency of the song and fix everything?**

_**Chichiri spoke my thoughts. "If we could just stop that song somehow, then we would be the ones with the advantage, ya know?" Fortunately for him, I had already thought of an idea—but I wasn't going to like it.**_

_**I sang.**_

"_Wish I could put a spell on you,_

_Wish I could make you feel like I do,_

_Wouldn't that be sweet?_

_So magical!_

_Wish I could blink and wave a wand,_

_Get everything that I ever wanted._

_And put a spell on you,_

_And make it all come true."_

* * *

><p>The entire time, I was scowling at that stupid invention for showing those unnecessary clips. And by showing all of those times I sang, people are going to figure that it's only fair that I sing for the anniversary party.<p>

Folding their hands and looking up at me with large, pleading, puppy-dog eyes, Miaka and Nuriko requested something of me. "You did all that singing before and you won't sing for us?" _Told you. _

"Please Aki-nee-chan? We'll love you forever!~" _Dammit. _People weren't supposed to know that I had a good voice. Now they always expect some freakin' concert out of me as if I were some personal jukebox.

Even with their pitiful positions, I declined. "Nope, sorry. But I don't like to sing for crowds. Plus, let's get something straight. The first time I sang on this journey was supposed to be for myself, the second time I was tricked and backed into a corner, the third time I was pressured and obligated, the fourth time, I needed to sing in order to defeat the enemy, and the fifth time, I was in a dark place and needed an outlet. Under _none_ of those circumstances did I sing for a crowd because I wanted to."

"Aww…Aki's so selfish sometimes…"

"Well, we can't pressure her, I'd feel bad." At least Miaka had some courtesy.

Changing the subject before this one got out of hand like the others had, Chichiri pondered. "So…what other clips could we show?"

The somewhat irritating thing about that invention Kyouya brought was that, technically, the sky was the limit. I mean, whatever people could think of, it would show. And peoples brains contained a lot of info. _We could be here *gulp* forever! Oh God no…_It didn't take long before Haruhi came up with something. "Well, seeing her progress…I've always been sort of curious with how Aki-senpai did her training."

* * *

><p><strong>Clip-Set #9—Training Days<strong>

_Chapter 4: Rough Feelings? The Fire Within_

_Still learning how to use her powers, Witchling Aki figured that she at least had the basics of Water, Earth, and Wind with her wand. But every time she'd try to use Fire, it would malfunction and come out as an explosion. Here's an excerpt from one of her Letters to the Universe:_

_**Damn that stupid element! According to element compatibility and stuff, the opposite of Wind is Earth, so **__**that **__**should have been the problem, not Fire. But no, I had to get screwed over with a bunch of freaking explosions that come out of my wand or at my target whenever I try to use Fire. WHAT THE HELL?**_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 8: Shadows From the Past<br>_

_Even though Wind was Aki's primary element, there were times when her control on it wasn't that great. In fact, whenever her emotions got too strong, there'd always be a threat of something being blown away. While chasing mysterious shadows, Aki's uneasiness with not knowing how to deal with the unknown threatened to provoke a tornado._

**_For some reason, the wind started to blow more than usual again. A whirlwind around Kyo and I surrounded us as my thoughts sank more and more into confusion. The moment I took notice, I tried to stop it with my thoughts, but that proved futile with my head all in a jumble._**

**_Kyo protectively embraced me the moment he realized that the wind was blowing more fiercely, forming a mini cyclone ready to lift us off the ground and violently throwing us. "What is this?" He yelled out. But not a second after doing so, he transformed into a cat. He was now too light to keep himself from flying away, so I grabbed him and held his small feline body close._**

**_This power was going too far. I growled before I boldly shouted, _"Wind I command you to cease this instant!"_ As that was said, the wind didn't hesitate to stop—it just instantly stopped blowing. By this time, both Kyo and Shigure, who was standing and watching everything from not too far away, were staring at me with the biggest mixture of confusion and concern I've ever seen._**

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><p><em>Chapter 12: With Friends Like These<em>

_When Aki first entered the world of the Host Club, she was told by Taiitsukun that she had the ability to fly. Of course, nothing comes easy so Aki had to practice and see if the old woman was just playing her or not. So when the Host Club when to the beach, Aki went off by herself to do some practicing. The results were less than satisfying._

_**Jumping from the top of a tall rock, I concentrated my energy onto my body. Letting all of gravity go, I hovered successfully over the sand. The moment I felt that I finally had it, I fell straight to the ground, butt-first. Rubbing my bottom, I slowly stood up.**_

**Dammit! Why can't I get it? Flying should be simpler than this**_. __**I considered using the Wind to help me float, but deep inside, I knew that would be cheating. Damn technicalities.**_

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 29: The Show of the Century (Part 1)<em>

_Having been lectured by Genrou (Tasuki) some time before about needed another means to protect herself using other means than just magic, Aki thought what better than to learn how to use the kunai that Hotohori gave her properly? Of course, her incredible inability to use normal physical means to defend herself made itself known when she pretty much failed at sparring with Genrou. _

_**He chuckled, bearing his fangs, avoiding yet another one of my swings. "Yeah…fer some reason, I don't think that that will be much of an issue." As much as I didn't want to admit it, he had me outmatched. I jumped and stumbled along in my attempts to get a blow on him (not a real one mind you. We weren't trying to kill each other…this time). Assuming from his swift movements and ability to predict my every move, I was clearly a novice…and it was embarrassing. Here was the girl who could dish out badass spells, but couldn't wield a weapon well enough to even tap an opponent with it. Talk about a stab to the ego.**_

_**Gripping on tight to the handle, I launch my arm out straight for his chest, thinking that I finally had him pinned. Without any effort, he shifted to the side and swing the bottom half of the golden staff at my legs. In a sudden sweep, my feet involuntarily lifted off the ground, falling me straight on my back.**_

_**"Dammit…"**_

* * *

><p>Growling a bit, I spoke through somewhat clenched teeth. No one wants to have their blunders be shown in front of their friends. I was so not into bloopers. <em>Okay you stupid machine…<em> "Show the clips that make me look at least _somewhat_ competent. Sheesh!" Sure, training was important and all, but I wanted results!

* * *

><p><strong>Clip-Set #10—"I am a Master Sorceress!"<strong>

_Through about a year of training, Aki had moved up the ranks as a magic user. She went from using a wand to going without. From walking on the ground to soaring in the sky. From beginning as a Witchling who was completely foreign to magic and its uses, to a Master Sorceress who, although a bit too confident in her magic, could cast badass spells—able to stand her own ground and protect those who were important to her. _

**"Saisu!**_**"**__**From the wand shot out a crescent shaped blast of wind emitting light energy. Hitting right on target, the demon was sliced in half horizontally with its two halves dropping to the ground like rocks. "Alright!"  
><strong>_

…

_**"Come out you stupid things." I taunted. "I am not in a good mood and I don't really feel like waiting this out." Hearing a faint crack, I looked up at the ice arch. Water suddenly broke free, sending a hydro pump of shadow creatures heading straight for me once again. Knowing that freezing it would probably delay the inevitable, I decided on a different route. "**_**Deep Submerge_!" _**_**A beam of bright blue light shot out of my wand and through the water—completely de-possessed it, causing the water to grab the creatures, slamming them straight to the ground.**_

…

_**"Hotohori, Nuriko! Leave the ones you are fighting and come over to me—quickly!" Immediately after hearing the order, the two jumped away from their assassins and to both of my sides. Not allowing my magic high to disperse, I called on the power of ice once more as the remaining four girls charged at us.**_ **"Holy Wind, Wind which flows gently across the land, let all things be filled with your pure breath!"**_**The temperature in the room dropped as the spell persisted.**__**"**_**Van Rehl!"**_**In the middle of the room, ice began to form into a giant spider web consisting of extremely thin strands of ice. The girls didn't have enough time to avoid it, so they all ran straight into the web—each getting stuck once their bodies froze from hitting it.**_

…

"_**Woman! As plain as you are, you will be ours!"**_

…**Plain…? Plain? PLAIN? **_**Lifting my hands over my head and directing the dark ring, I began to gather intense energy—red lighting forming in my palms. **_**My bad day ends here. "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows. Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows. I pledge myself to conquer, all the foes who stand—before the mighty gifts bestowed to my unworthy hands. Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by the power you and I possess!" **_**A large sphere of intense red and black energy collected in my hands—the trees all around rustled from the atmospheric disturbance. Aiming at the cliff hideout, I finished the spell,**_ **"Dragon Slave!"**

…

_**"Chichiri! Either duck or get out of the way!" With that, he nodded and instantly teleported to some place that I didn't have the time to focus on. Seeing that he was out of the way, the snakes now knew our positioning, so they came slithering our way. Knowing that I didn't have a whole bunch of time, I slid off of Genrou and concentrated my energy into a spell.**_ **"Source of all power, crimson fire burning bright. East winds that blow, have you as their source into my hands. Ignite all their force!"**_**Five arrows made up of a bright orange energy manifested in the air in front of me, giving off waves of heat. Pointing to the quickly approaching serpents, I completed the spell,**_ **"****Flare Arrow!"**_**They instantly shot off like heat-seeking missiles locked onto their target, showing no mercy when they struck. Just as the attack hit spot-on, the monsters were immediately disintegrated.**_

…

**_Chichiri then shouted out. "Aki, if you're going to do something, do it now!"_**

**_With a sudden burst of energy, I stretched my arms out wide, and then yelled at my enemies, "Back off!_ Gigano Saisu!" _Swiftly bringing my arms towards each other and crossing them like scissors, a larger, orange-tinted version of the Wind-blast crescent-shaped attack shot out and attacked the monsters head-on, knocking them all clear across the cave and into the wall of the other side. I didn't give them a chance to recover since another spell came to mind._ "Wind that blows across eternity, gather in my hands and become my strength!" Like I know it always will be…_Emulating a cross-bow, a powerful collection of Wind gathered around my arm and manifested as a single arrow, the tip followed the contour of my arm. Finishing the spell, I yelled, _"Bram Gush!"_ Releasing the arrow, it flew straight towards the already wounded creatures with incredible speed. The moment it reached them, it burst open on contact, shredding all of them to pieces._**

…

_**"They'll never get the chance." Feeling the power of Fire and Earth combine in my overall flow of energy, I casted a spell as my hands extended downward, palms straight to the ground. "**_**Infinite Earth, mother who nurtures all life, let thy power ****gather ****in ****my ****hand."**_**The temperature of the tent practically sky-rocketed up what seemed like one hundred degrees (probably more—I don't study the way atmospheric temperature works), making just standing around and being there extremely uncomfortable. With sweat running down the sides of my face, I hurried through the rest of the spell.**_ **"****Vlave ****Howl!"**_**The ground under us instantly transformed into a pool of searing magma. And with a bunch of magma came a bunch of creepy clowns being tormented and melting away almost reminding me of Alka-Seltzer tablets slowly dissolving in water. Yup, if you want to get rid of things all at once, this was the way to do it. I didn't quite get the satisfying screams of agony that I wanted, but at least we were being rid of those pests.**_

* * *

><p><em>Huh…I really have been through a lot. I've went to so many places, learned new spells and abilities, met so many people…I've done things that I could only dream of as a child. <em>

_It's been one crazy year._

"Hey, you know what that reminds me of?" Nuriko was referring to the final batch of clips that were just shown. He smirked while his pink eyes trailed over to me. "_Buffy the Vampire Slayer." _Naturally, I glared at him for bringing that back.

Somehow ending up back in the clutches of Miaka and Mitsukuni, Kyo managed to find about ten seconds of peace to acknowledge Nuriko's observation. "You're talking about Aki's love for _Buffy? _You guys just found out about that? I thought it was obvious." I was at a loss for words. _Really? _There was no way that it was that obvious. No one suspected before…

Dark grinned. "Well of course it's obvious. Buffy is tough and sexy, Aki is tough and sexy—makes total sense." That comment stimulated the blood vessels under the skin, sending a rush of heat to be spread all over my face. _Me…sexy? That's stretching it a bit…_

"Then it's decided! Aki will begin starring in a new show called 'Aki the Vampire Slayer'." Tamahome announced—dollar signs in his eyes. "We're sitting on a gold-mind here people! A show with our girl slaying vampires!" _Oh. My. Gosh. We are _so not_ talking about this. _

"I'm on it." Flipping out his cell-phone and dialing some number, Kyouya, for the first time of this gathering, agreed with Tamahome. Was this a new business partnership? _They _are_ seriously talking about this…ugh…_

Getting into the groove, Kaoru and Hikaru figured that they could have some fun with this. Both of them raised their hands with a rather amused attitude. "We'll be the vampires who have an affair with Aki!"

"Mori-senpai could be our evil vampire boss who turns good in the end!" _This is so stupid!_

Leaping into the picture, Tamaki joined in. "Any handsome boss/king role would be a perfect part for me to play."

"Ahem," Hotohori retorted him, "I believe that those roles rightfully belong to me. After all, _I am_ an emperor~" _Do I get a say in any of this?_

"This sounds like fun!" Miaka squealed excitedly. "I'll be Aki-nee-chan's sidekick! And…" She held up Kyo. "I'll add in an extra anime element by bringing in a talking cat partner for her!" _POOF! _In a big release of smoke, Miaka was forced to release Kyo as he transformed back into a human. _Oh crap! _Smoke clearing, I made sure that I learned from my first mistake when I first met the Sohma's.

I ran over to the two other girls and turned them around, shouting out, "Haruhi! Miaka! Shield your eyes!" _Protect your innocence!_

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: 5 minutes later~<p>

* * *

><p>Taking the five minutes out for Kyo to get dressed did not stop everyone from their idiotic delusion of making a new vampire slayer series.<p>

Next up was Mitsukuni and his contribution. "Tasu-chan and Inu-chan should be the werewolves! That would be awesome!" _I disagree. But what does my opinion matter?_

Blowing a kiss to the audience, Nuriko threw himself in. "I can be the smart, attractive woman who gives out helpful advice!"

"Yeah…" Tasuki bluntly responded to Nuriko's idea. "Yer not a woman…" Without even giving him a chance, Nuriko ran up and punched him so hard that we didn't even see him flying. It wasn't until a third impression of the bandit was left on that wall on the opposite side of the room that we realized just how fast and hard Nuriko impaled him. Once the guy peeled off of the wall, he fell to the ground, body twitching from the pain.

Ignoring the travesty that was just committed, Dark reached out for my chin and gently lifted it up. "This sounds like fun. Maybe I can be Aki's love interest." _It has to be unhealthy to blush this much! Damn his hotness and damn hormones. _"We'll have to practice our kissing scenes over and over—" _N-N-Nani?_

"PICK ANOTHER ROLE!" Tasuki and Hikaru demanded him.

This topic somehow blew way out of proportion. The entire room was honestly in a buzz about this whole thing. These people were insane…but they were all having fun. They are all so different people yet they were brought together and are now finding common ground…with a brainless idea I may add, but they don't seem to mind. So many smiles and happiness…so much going on, never a dull moment.

I laughed.

Ceasing their antics, everyone watched me as if I were a spectacle surrounded in neon lights. "You guys are too much!" _They're all so weird…but entertaining…and sweet. They're my friends. _"I got to meet you all in this past year, the first full-year of _Love Hurts 5 Ways…_hmm…" Yeah, I was a little freaked out with what the universe would bring in the future…but…I don't know, maybe it was the weirdo in me, but I was a little excited. "Let's not ever forget what happened this first year…but…let's all promise to make the next one even better. No matter what challenges we face, no matter who comes and goes, let's all keep going…and promise to meet again." Everyone exchanged smiles at this and nodded in agreement. _So it's a promise…_

* * *

><p>Shokyoku: Well, that's that. The party has entered its final stage. *breathes sigh of relief* Finally.<p>

Aki: Hold up Shokyoku. There's still one more thing we have to do…

Shokyoku: *hugs Aki* Oh Aki! I missed being with you! Having to be around those idiotic monkeys was beginning to be too much for me! I almost cracked! You are so admirable for being able to endure that type of torture.

Aki: O…kay…a bit over dramatic, but…okay.

Anyway…

Thanks for reading _Love Hurts 5 Ways_ and following my story. It's because of all of you that this 1st anniversary is possible. It's because of you that my story can keep on going—that I can keep going for my wish.

Shokyoku: Of course, there's still a long way to go.

Aki: *sighs* Unfortunately, but, that's the way things go I suppose.

**Here are the special fan questions: What was your favorite moment from the past year? And what are you looking forward to in the year to come? Feel free to write them down and amuse us with your hypotheses. **

Well…Here's to another year!

Until the next time!

The Entire Cast of _Love Hurts 5 Ways: _C YA!

* * *

><p><strong>This chapter featured songs: "You're the Reason" by Victoria Justice, "Magical" by Selena Gomez, and "Reflection" by Christina Aguilera.<strong>

**Thank you all for reading! **


	40. Hollow Soul of a Marionette, Part 1

**Hey everyone!**

**Srry the update took so long ^^"**

**Due to being away from my computer for a week, I wrote down the chapter in a notebook.**

**Big mistake.**

**I wrote 40 pages then had to transfer it all to the computer Q_Q and with my short attention span UGH! It was horrible. I almost cried it was taking so long. **

**But I managed to do it. YAY!**

**I just wanna thank all of you who have been reading as well as some new combers that have made their way over to my (incredibly long) story! And thank you for ur support and for helping me celebrate this story's 1 year anniversary as well as reaching 500 reviews X3 You guys are all incredibly awesome and I love you for that ^_^**

**I start my second year of college next week, so I apologize in advance for any delays in chapters or drawings **

**-.-' **

**Anyhoo…**

**On a happier note…**

**The anniversary has ended and it's time to get back to the legit story and pick it back up from the somewhat depressing state we left it in before (lol).**

**Let's kick it in gear! Here's chapter 40!**

**(damn chapter 40—what a long story ^^" Really, I appreciate the lot of you for keeping up haha)**

* * *

><p><strong>*On the last (legit) chapter of <em>Love Hurts 5 Ways, <em>Aki sank deeper into depression as the curse began to overwhelm her—bringing back to full light the hurtful moments of her past. Without her positive emotions, there's nothing to distract or block the flow of negative energy. **

**In a surprising twist, Shokyoku, the human-shunning entity living within Aki's Darkness, managed to manifest outside of the ring, much to Aki's inconvenience. Expressing her concern for Aki, Shokyoku tries to convince her that she wants to help Aki and get revenge on Stella and Nakago, but Aki is unable to remember that Shokyoku practically idolized her. Aki could only remember the bad memories of her experiences with people—so she's baffled as to why the small girl would want to help. **

**Chichiri comes in and offers Aki comfort, unaware of Shokyoku's sneering towards him, proving that no one could see Shokyoku except Aki. He offered a means that could help Aki move again, an enchanted silver ring that she could wear around her head that would allow mobility, but take away her emotions. Stella showed up unexpectedly and trying to prevent herself from seeming weak any longer, Aki, not caring about what happens to her, resolves to have Shokyoku put the ring on her head. **

**The story continues to unfold…***

* * *

><p>"Release her!" Hotohori shouted at the pig-tailed Shadow Maiden that stood before him—his hand at his side as it held onto the hilt of his sheathed sword. Her almond-shaped, yellow-glowing eyes curved a bit as her unnatural Cheshire-cat smile widened—she completely content with the hostage she had in her arms. Miaka, who was wearing somewhat skimpy yellow with red polka-dot pajamas, had her olive eyes widened with fear with the blackened, cold arm hooked around her neck, the other morphed into a blade that was held near her head. The girl couldn't help but shake feverishly, seeing as how any slight movement could result in the ending of her life.<p>

The Warriors of Suzaku had each come charging in the moment they knew something was wrong. However now, there were forced to watch helplessly (at least until they thought of something) as their priestess remained in the possession of the enemy—the same enemy that had caused so much problems for Aki.

The Shadow Maiden known as Stella…

She was a peculiar being whose humanoid body was made of a blackened substance—her only distinguishing features being her long, cheery pigtails, the creepy, sharp-toothed smile, and glowing yellow eyes. There was no doubting the fact that she was unlike the other Shadow beings that they had encountered—and the fact that she couldn't be underestimated was nothing less than an understatement. No one had even sensed her presence until she mysteriously popped out of nowhere. Had they had some prior warning, they would have raced to Miaka's room in a heartbeat. But the question still remained:

Why was she there?

Speaking a little over a whisper, Miaka said, "Please…help me…Tamahome…"

Tightening her grip around her, Stella sneered while responding to Hotohori. "No, I don't think I will hun. But thank you _ever_ so much for the suggestion!" For some reason, her seemingly, and somewhat ironic pleasant Southern Belle accent added insult to injury. "Ya see, if I let her go, then ya'll wouldn't listen to what I have to say. This way, I have your attention!" Never once did her mouth even open as she talked. "Don't worry though, I won't kill her…unless someone does somethin' unnecessary that'll make my hand _accidentally_ slip and slice her cute little head off. And I'm pretty sure ya'll want a non-decapitated priestess, right?"

Nuriko took a careful step forward in high hopes of trying to strike fear into the Shadow Maiden. "You let her go right now!" He wasn't completely sure of what she was capable of, but if she was able to take Aki out, then Miaka didn't stand a chance—and he was already pissed off at Stella from screwing up his friendship with Aki. Thanks to her, all Aki was capable of remembering was the hatred they used to display towards each other. And now she was threatening Miaka? Hell no. "Don't you dare think that you're going to get away with whatever it is you're trying to do! You'd be insane to think that we'd just sit around and do nothing."

"Yeah, what he said!" Chichiri tightened his grip around his golden staff, mentally going through every possible option of getting his priestess out of this situation. He was still mildly shocked at the fact that not even he could sense Stella until she was too close for comfort. Her agenda completely baffled him, knowing who she was and what she was capable of, one would think that she'd try and get Aki while she was wounded—but instead, she completely threw a curveball at them. What was her game?

"W-Why are you doing this?" Miaka tried to reason with her, despite the terror that was shooting through each and every fiber of her being. "Did we do anything to upset you? Is there something you want?"

"Oh no, nothin' like that cuz," Stella said, "I just decided to mozy on over here and relay a message to ya folks—however, if I had my way," Her eyes narrowed slightly as they scanned her unwilling audience. "I'd be wringing all of your human throats right about now—soakin' in _every_ _second_ of your agony." Moaning as if feeling some sadistic pleasure, she rubbed her face along Miaka's. "It would be fantastic seein' all you squirm like the pathetic worms you are." Seeing everyone in the room glaring something fierce, especially Tamahome who wanted nothing more than to destroy Stella, shown by the bearing of his clenched teeth like some sort of wild animal, Stella cocked her head to the side and snickered. "Oh, and I do wonder, how does the beau feel about all of this? Must be tough seein' your lover so close to death, _right_? Talk about strippin' away some of your masculinity~" His purple eyes flashed in an intense rage, the Chinese character on his forehead shining a bright crimson as he stood in a fighting pose—the only thing keeping him from launching himself at her was the lone fact that Miaka could be stabbed. Stella laughed. "You humans are so funny thinkin' that ya'll could be scary! Look at you tryin' to be all fierce lookin'. Tell me, what are ya gonna do about it?"

Clenching his fists almost to a point that drew blood, Tamahome growled, "Damn you f%$king bitch. You let Miaka go or I'll—"

"You'll _what_?" Stella interrupted. Using her hand that had been shaped into a sharp blade, applying some pressure, she ran it down Miaka's cheek, drawing a thin line of warm blood against her pale skin. Miaka squirmed in her custody as everyone else's body tensed at the inescapable.

"Miaka!" Hotohori and Tamahome shouted.

Abruptly bringing the blade down, it transformed back into a hand as she rested it on her popped out hip. "Ya'll should just stop foolin' yourselves already—it's just getting' embarrassin'. We all know that the only chance you stand against me is with your tool Aki. But…oops…I forgot" She let out a small, mocking chuckle, "…I sort of _broke_ her didn't I?"

That particular comment seemed to have struck a nerve in everyone, seeing as they all boldly advanced towards the Shadow Maiden—Hotohori drawing his sword and grasping onto it tightly with both hands, while Tamahome and Nuriko held up their fists in fury as Chichiri lifted his hand to prep for a spell—temporarily forgetting what was at stake. It didn't take long before Stella reminded them by changing her hand back into a weapon held directly under Miaka's throat. That, of course, froze them in their places, making them look at Stella with intense feelings of vendetta.

"How quickly you boys forget—luckily you train easily…like the little pets you were meant to be." Her amusement in their reaction to what she let slip from her lips showed quite evidently from the particular glimmer in her shiny yellow eyes. "Besides, don't blame little ol' me for what happened." She extended her bladed arm out towards Chichiri. "Blame Fox-Face McBlue Hair over there for interruptin' the Turnin' process." It was Chichiri who had barged into Seiryuu's shrine to save Aki from the menacing Stella's advances. Her hand had been buried deep into Aki's chest as it tried to contaminate her soul. Chichiri had no choice but to do something about it before Stella became the _least_ of their worries.

"You expected me to just stand around and watch you turn my friend into one of you?!" Chichiri exclaimed, close to throwing caution to the wind and casting a daring spell. A part of him, a guilty part that lied deep inside, couldn't shake the haunting thought that it really was his fault that Aki was in the condition she was in. However, which was better: Her turning into a Shadow Maiden? Or her losing her positive emotions—delaying the inevitable? Definitely the latter…at least in that scenario, she could be saved…even if they weren't sure how.

Stella shot him a look. "No, I expected you to act like a good little monk and keep your nose in your own business." She shrugged and regained her twisted cheerfulness. "But you know, teach his own, I guess~! Anyhoo~" Tightening her arm around Miaka's throat, Stella acted nonchalantly, as if everything that was going on was routine. "Since my red-eyed cousin won't be joinin' us today…which is a shame, I might add, I'll move this party along so that I can leave ya'll to your petty efforts at defeatin' us. 'kay?" She cleared her throat as if she were about to make a big announcement. "This is a message from Kutou: the Suzaku Warrior Tamahome must appear at the palace, _by himself, _or else Kutou's army, which is, I might add, outrageously bigger that _yours_," the emphasis was directed at Hotohori, who's glare seemed to be as sharp as his sword. Stella continued, "will march on over here and beat the stuffin' out of Konan and conquer it. End message."

Miaka's eyes widened as her body momentarily stopped struggling. "What? Tamahome? W-Why? Is it…" She paused in mild disbelief and astonishment. "Is it because of Yui?" Before they were able to escape, Miaka discovered that Yui had feelings for Tamahome as well as extreme hatred towards her former best friend. One of the things Yui had said was that she'd take him away from Miaka because she didn't "deserve" him. Maybe she was making her move earlier than they thought.

"I'm not at liberty to say cuz," Stella told her, "But the answer should be obvious—" In the middle of her sentence, she froze as her head turned slightly to face a figure at the door. Everyone else carefully followed her gaze, making sure that she wasn't just trying to psych them out and strike while they were distracted, and gasped.

Stella was the first to speak up with an amused tone. "Welcome to the party, dear."

Nuriko and Chichiri took a step back and to their respective sides to allow the person some room, and to allow everyone the full view of her. Nuriko stuttered through his words. "It-It's you! But…But how?"

Miaka jumped a little from a short burst of excitement. "Onee-chan!"

"Aki!"

* * *

><p>Shokyoku had told me to blast through the wall and make an entrance. But that wouldn't have been an efficient use of energy, so I simply walked towards the open door occupied with six beings—five supposed allies, or neutrals, and an enemy—the threat. Our element of surprise would have been broken if I had listened to Shokyoku, my way seemed to have caught everyone off guard. They had stopped whatever they had been doing before to stare at me with peculiar expressions. Regardless of that, the Shadow Maiden Stella didn't appear frightened, she looked quite calm actually, and she had a hostage. I didn't expect that. But it didn't matter—as long as the outcome of her defeat came out the same.<p>

The emperor gradually lowered his sword. "Akimoto…you're standing on your own!" Chichiri obviously hadn't informed him or anyone else about the ring around my head, so his surprise was justified.

Having not actually stepped into the room yet myself, Shokyoku took the opportunity to walk in front of me and actually into the crowded room—her arms crossed as she looked up and around at the taller people as well as the situation. "Wow, a room full of people I absolutely cannot stand…how _quaint_." No one even acknowledged that she was there, confirming the theory of no one being able to see or even hear her except for me. That made things a bit easier and Shokyoku didn't really seem to mind it since she could talk freely.

Tamahome's eyes consistently switched back and forth from me to Miaka and Stella. "Aki, you shouldn't be here—it's too dangerous. We don't want that _thing_ getting to you too…or…again…" It was impossible to think that he had forgotten that I was a sorceress. Not that this situation should have been handled lightly, but the notion that this whole thing was dangerous in any way was absurd seeing as how I wasn't defenseless.

Stella's bladed arm that threatened Miaka changed into a normal-enough human hand. She waved to me while making sure that her other arm kept Miaka in place. "Hey cousin! Glad you could make it. Nice ring on your head, though I personally wouldn't wear it." She didn't need to wear it—_I_ did in order to function well enough to perform my duties. "But I have to ask…" Her index finger pointed and a negative slope, directly at the long-haired little girl. "How the heck is the Insurance out here? Shouldn't the brat be in her cage where she belongs?" So I was wrong. Apparently Stella could see her. There were a few reasons as why that could be, but pointing them out at that particular moment wouldn't have been an efficient usage of time.

Shokyoku scoffed. "You'd like that wouldn't you? Of course, as much as I hate you, it was your hillbilly ways that slipped up and unlocked the door to my 'cage'." She flipped her hair. "So maybe I should thank you before ending your existence. What do you think?"

The Shadow Maiden gave a short, mocking laugh. "I think that a little girl shouldn't be speakin' words bigger than she is. But that's just me~"

While this conversation persisted, I noticed the similar reactions of the spectators watching the entire thing. All of them were whispering amongst each other and giving bewildered looks.

Tamahome blinked a few times. "What's going on?"

"Who's she talking to? I'm lost here…" Nuriko had a grimace on his face as he tried to figure out the exchange that was happening. So…Stella really was the only other one who could see Shokyoku. The rest of them must have been incapable as humans supposedly tended to be—which wasn't their fault. That was just the way things worked.

Even Miaka tried to take advantage of the fact that Stella's attention was on Shokyoku and I. But naturally, Stella was a step ahead, still having a firm grip on her. Still the girl tried, while giggling uneasily, "Since you're talking to your imaginary friend, can you please let me go? I'd really appreciate it."

For a few seconds, Stella put her focus back onto her desperate hostage. That mistake was going to cost her. "'Imaginary friend'? Hardly. But of course I wouldn't expect lowly humans to—"

Shokyoku snapped her head to the side and shot a knowing look towards me out of the corner of her turquoise eye. "Aki, now!"

_Small room, the enemy is straight ahead. An attack that goes down the middle should prove beneficial. "Hell Blast." _Shokyoku's body developed a crackling black halo as she brought her arm back, hand curved into an "O" shape. In an instant, the dark energy crawled its way into her palm, depriving the rest of her being from the awesome power. A long spear constructed of pure Darkness, blacker than the blackest night, then appeared, even longer than her small body. Miaka's eyes grew wide as she squealed and trembled from the attack destined to go right towards her and her captor—her body seemed to freeze on impulse, even if she were free, I knew that she wouldn't have been able to dodge. Without hesitancy, Shokyoku threw her conjured weapon with ease down the middle towards Stella.

Taken aback from the spontaneous spell, Stella's reaction time proved to not fail her as she jumped to the side and phased through the wall, leaving her victim there to take the attack.

In the blink of an eye, there was a flash, and then a booming explosion as the room shook from the impact. Wreckage from the ceiling and other bits of furniture rained down on the spot of the attack, creating an unstable reaction that threatened to take the whole room out with it if abused any more.

I remained in my place while knowing I was safe, watching as the bushels of smoke and debris cleared out. Shokyoku was fine as well since her unstable form didn't really allow her to make much contact with physical objects. She actually had to try in order to even pick up anything, as with the example of the vase back in my room. And past experiences taught that most of the humans in the room had the abilities to somehow avoid getting killed. However, Miaka lacked any such ability, so there was a chance that she was dead.

From the depths of the wreckage, I could hear coughing and fidgeting, signaling signs of survival. Some of the slabs of roof moved a little, then a lot as some of them abruptly launched from the ground and into the night sky, almost as if they had been loaded into a canon and shot out. Back at the place where they once were stood a panting and roughed-up Nuriko, who's scrunched up face and blazing eyes made me speculate that he was feeling what I suspected was anger towards me. That was my guess anyway.

"What the hell Aki?! You could have killed us! Are you out of your _mind_?!" He shouted out with a clenched fist held out towards me. Behind him, Hotohori reached up to put a hand on Nuriko's shoulder, allowing him the aid to stand and balance himself. Tamahome was there too, struggling to get up on shaky knees, as he stared at the blast site in disbelief. Nuriko looked back at them. "Y-Your Highness…Tamahome…" Hotohori gave me a brief glance before Tamahome turned his head to the damaged epicenter.

"Miaka!" His voice projected as he jumped up, full of adrenaline as the weight of what happened seemed to splash onto his face like bucket of ice-water. He ran towards a tall mound of rubble with Hotohori and Nuriko not far behind.

"Please Miaka…please…you have to be safe…" Hotohori prayed as he and Tamahome began clawing at the debris and moving what they could out of the way in desperation. Nuriko's hand reached out, ready to pull what he had to, but with a particular hesitancy that baffled me. His expression looked pained as he closed his eyes and bit his lip, as if trying to hold something back.

Putting her hands on her hips, Shokyoku turned to her side, lifted her chin up and said, "Hmph—it's not our fault she wasn't strong enough to save herself. If she knew how to do anything, this wouldn't have been a problem." She chuckled under her breath. "I guess it's time to start putting up the signs asking around for a new Priestess~ Requirements: must be naïve, hopeless, homely, and just plain stupid." Putting her finger under her lip, she added, "That'll be a tough search since I just described the majority of human women. Ha!"

I stood there and watched at their futile efforts. There was only a small percent chance that she survived…

"How come you guys are going through all that trouble? I'm sure Miaka could just stay in another room." Chichiri appeared beside me, his mask displaying that usual carefree smile. His arm was wrapped around a shaky, yet unarmed Miaka.

_He was the small percentage. _Somehow he must have gotten to her and protected her before mortality occurred.

Hearing his voice made Nuriko turn to face him and begin to lecture, "Chichiri! Stop making unnecessary observations and help—" His pink eyes finally caught site of Miaka and he instantly brightened up as tears began welling in his eyes. "Miaka! You're okay!" Not needing any more permission or reason to do so, he leaped up and out of his spot over to his priestess, embracing her the moment he made his way there. "Oh, I am soooo happy to see you! Don't you ever scare me like that again you little knucklehead you!" He repeatedly rubbed his face against hers—a peculiar notion that I didn't quite understand, and figured was too insignificant to try to.

Miaka hugged him back. "Nuriko, I'm fine!"

Her voice served as an automatic switch that seemed to have completely turned around Hotohori and Tamahome's frantic motioning's. "Miaka?"

"Miaka!" Tamahome ran to her as she released herself from Nuriko and into the arms of the next man. "Miaka…thank Suzaku you're alright." As he said that, he was stroking the back of her reddish-brown hair. My head tilted a bit from the scene, though my focus didn't falter.

"Tamahome, I was so scared…"

Didn't take long for him to change tones as he switched his attention to me. "What the hell Aki?! How could you put us—especially Miaka—in danger like that?!"

Shokyoku rolled her eyes. "Why're these monkeys always so damn sensitive? She's alive isn't she?" She swirled her finger in the air and said sarcastically, "Whoopie."

Of course, no one except me heard her. "I have every reason to blow you into next century—I don't even care that you're a woman. Having the heart of one gives me that advantage." Nuriko threatened. His anger was without reason—my actions were justified and called for. The liabilities were unavoidable. Well…seemingly unavoidable since Chichiri intercepted the possibility of the loss of their priestess. They were fortunate for the presence of another magic user. But if Nuriko insisted on fighting me, then I would have no choice but to do what it took to defend myself.

In any case, that would have to wait.

My eyes never left the spot of my/Shokyoku's attack. My vision began to flash purplish strikes of lightning as my head mildly spun. After closing my eyes to settle the warning sense, I opened them and narrowed my eyes, scanning the ruins of the room. "We aren't done here…" I said.

"Weasel-like little hillbilly of a Shadow Maiden used the cowards way out and she's still alive," Shokyoku faced the direction of my glare and sighed. "I didn't think it would be that easy to defeat her. But it would have at least been satisfying to know that it had _hit_ her."

Materializing out of the bowels of the ruins, Stella stepped through and revealed herself, cackling sadistically as she did so. In front of all that wreckage and under the light rays of the full moon, she looked like just like the shadow of some pig-tailed woman whose shadow was being casted behind her. Only…she was darker than that. Much, much darker…the depth of the black that made up her form could have been compared to that of a black hole—the one thing that no light source could shine through. And for all we knew, she was just as dangerous. She and the rest of her kind…

"I hope that ya'll didn't think that that was gonna do me in." The sharp white teeth of her smile seemed to almost glow like her eyes in that moonlight. ""Cause if ya did, Sugah, believe me when I say that you're in huge doodoo right about now."

Shokyoku stomped her foot and huffed. "Puh-leez—you know damn well that we're stronger than that. And don't expect to be so lucky next time." She lowered her head and glared at the Shadow Maiden. "I want your head on a platter and I won't stop until I get what I want."

"Oooo I'm soooo scared~" Before we knew it, Stella appeared before Shokyoku, bent over to almost reach the little girls' height while a trail of wispy Darkness followed. "Look at the spoiled brat tryin' to be all scary lookin' with those freaky eyes of yours. Grow up and smell the stew, hun. You wouldn't be nothin' if it weren't for Aki and you know it." Her head leaned forward enough to make it seem as if hers and Shokyoku's were touching—which may or may not have been happening. "So, little Miss Life Support, stop actin' like you're all high and mighty and _hush up _like the good little Insurance you were created to be. And let the _real_ Fragments talk."

Shokyoku shook her head slowly, speaking words as cool as ice. "I'm going to enjoy seeing you die."

Lifting up, the Shadow Maiden gave an high-pitched laughter. "Oh dear, I do believe that I hear an annoyin' buzzin' at my ear but I just cannot place what it is. Must be some insignificant bug whose _mama_ gave her a life to begin with so she better _behave herself." _At that, Shokyoku didn't retort, but hung her head as she clenched her fists. I was pretty sure that she was giving a low growl at that moment.

Behind me, I heard multiple footsteps, perhaps grouped together, coming our way as well as the clanging of metallic objects. Before long, our audience seemed to have grown, probably attracted by the explosion within the palace. Having my back to the outside, I wasn't sure about who was there, but it could have been any of the tenants of the palace—the maids, the harem, the guards, the advisors. Chances were they'd all flock there at some point or another.

"Sire! What happened here?" Demanded a deep male voice—most likely one of the guards.

Hotohori addressed them. "A spy from Kutou has infiltrated the palace."

I could hear them unsheathe swords as well as assembling other weapons at the ready. All of this above the sounds of the talking amongst other spectators who's curiosities had brought them here. "Should we proceed with an attack? An arrest? What are your orders, sire?" They inched closer as the same man spoke up. "Who is this intruder?"

"Stay back!" Hotohori commanded and they all froze in their places. "This enemy is unlike any you've ever faced before—do not make a move unless I give the order." More and more people were gathering, increasing the chances of a mass burial should a battle break out. Their curiosities wouldn't do them any favors here.

They weren't what I was supposed to be focusing on. Stella was the enemy—she was my target. That was what Shokyoku said the moment I stood up again. The reason for the ring on my head, the immediate reason as to why I apparently chose this path was to kill her. Honestly, I didn't know what I would gain from doing that—there was nothing that would benefit me in doing so. But Shokyoku told me to, she gave me a direction to go in. Where else would I go? What else would I do? There was nothing…

"Hey Aki," Stella put everyone else's attention back onto her as she smugly said, "I heard ya don't like crowds. This must be makin' you feel really uncomfortable right now."

I responded to her. "Perhaps that was the case before, but no longer."

"Huh…" She slowly sank into the ground, phasing past the floor as if it were nothing, only to emerge up from it further away from where Shokyoku and I were standing. Without even looking behind her, she sat down, either on a pile of rubble or in mid-air, and crossed her legs while her yellow eyes observed me. "I'm impressed—you've actually managed to surprise me more than once today. I mean, I didn't expect you of all people to attack me while I was in possession of your friend. It definitely threw me for a loop."

_This talking is pointless. I have to attack. This is the opportunity to attack. Why isn't Shokyoku telling me to do anything? _Her eyes were on me, expecting an answer. Having no other direction at the moment, I complied. "What I had done was not wrong. My purpose is to defeat you and at that moment, Miaka was in the way. In order to perform my duties, I was forced to initiate an attack knowing that she would provide enough of a distraction to you—having you think that you were safe just because you had a hostage gave me the advantage simply because you weren't expecting me to do something. And that was your mistake." But of course, I didn't take into account that she, like other Shadow Maidens, possesses the ability to phase through solid objects at will. That error caused unnecessary damage with no satisfactory results. Next time… "I am at liberty to use any means possible to defeat you and use every opportunity given to me—even if that means risking the lives of innocent bystanders."

Off to the side, I heard Miaka gasp lightly. "A…Aki-nee-chan…"

Stella purred as her mouth opened for the first time, her long tongue swirling along the edges of her "lips". As it retreated back into her mouth, her wide, sharp-toothed-Cheshire smile returned. "How incredibly _dark_ of you Aki—I like it." She threw an arm across her chest as she pulled on it with the other in a stretch. "Well since things are progessin' nicely here, I think I'll be on my way." She literally backed up into the wall, leaving her head to be the last visible part of her. _She's trying to escape!_ "Besides the fact that the stench of humans is gettin' on my nerves, I've been fightin' the urge to kill ya'll the whole time I was here and seein' as how I've been ordered not to attack you, it's like I've been sufferin' withdrawals. So…toodaloo!—"

"_Blast Ash." _Shokyoku extended her hand, palm open, as I casted. And just as Stella ducked her head out, a deep, circular black void appeared in the same area. She closed her hand into a fist, causing the black circle to close in on itself as it disappeared completely.

Shokyoku cursed under her breath as she lowered her arm. "Damn…she got away…that hillbilly bitch." If that spell had managed to catch Stella in it, then she would have been reduced to a pile of ash. The spell didn't work on inanimate objects, that was why it looked as if nothing happened. Shokyoku jumped and stomped on the ground several times in a huff. "I can't believe she'd just run away like that—it's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair! Argh!"

During that time, Hotohori swiftly faced his subordinates once more. "Search every inch of the palace for that creature. Should she still be lurking about, I will not allow her the chance to harm anyone else. If confronted by her, surround her but do not engage unless it is for defensive purposes. You are to inform me immediately should this occur." None of them said anything. Shokyoku was still pouting so I was unsure if she even heard what was going on. Realizing that no one was mobilizing, the emperor raised his voice, "What're you all waiting for, go now!"

They clanked their armored legs together in attention. "Yes sir!" And then they were off, marching in every direction and down each hall to fail at finding a being that had absolutely no remorse in killing them should she get the opportunity.

Hotohori suddenly addressed me in a stern tone. "Akimoto…" I waited for the rest of his statement, but nothing came from him. There was a silence as even the others stood idly by to hear what he had to say—stifling any comments they had for when he was finished. What was it that he was waiting for? He tried again. "Akimoto, look at me." Sliding my foot back only slightly, I shifted my body's direction to face him. His sharp hazel orbs stared me down almost as if they were attempting intimidation. "How is it that you could do all of this?"

"Be more specific," I told him.

Swinging his arm out, he gestured to the destruction of the room. "_This_! And your walking—and the recklessness of putting Miaka in danger! If she had died…" Holding back a bit, his voice kept the seriousness but the volume diminished. "It's just not like you…"

That last thing he said didn't make much sense to me. Either way, I responded to him on regards of his accusations. "We did not take into account that there was a hostage." Which was true. Past experience had taught that Stella was more interested in me. I blinked. "Nevertheless, the attack had to be made." Mini gasps could be heard from the rest of the group as they watched and listened to my explanation. Still addressing Hotohori's unreasonable arousal, I said, "Your anger is misguided. It wasn't I who released the attack that put your priestess in danger."

"What?" Nuriko spoke up—still irked at my strategy. "We not only heard you saw a spell—sorry, _two_ spells," he corrected, "but we also _saw_ the attacks coming from you! Honestly…" he sighed then hung his head low. "I can't believe that you'd just lie to us like that. Is this…" He hesitated with the next words that came out. "Is this because…of what she did to you?"

_Because of what she did to me? _Was he talking about Stella? I knew perfectly well what she had done to me, but I wondered what it was he was referring to. "Yes, I said the spell. No, I did not release it."

"Listen to me missy," Striding over to where I was, Nuriko extended his arms and yanked at my collar as he forcefully brought me close. "We're a little confused as to how you're even walking again. But ignoring that for the moment, if you're going to put Miaka's life in danger so stupidly, the _least_ you can do is have the common decency to tell us the truth." During this time, I noticed that Chichiri hadn't said much of anything. While everyone else seemed to have been reacting loudly and negatively to my actions, he had stuck around in the background probably because he already knew the secret to my mobility. The others, except Miaka, who looked on as she stood in Tamahome's arms, showed signs of fear and shock, and Shokyoku who seemed somewhat passive on the affairs of the humans, displayed signs of anger, while Chichiri's calmness and facial expression led me to believe that he was distraught about something.

Tamahome kept his hold on Miaka as he said, "Just talk to us Aki. We don't want to start thinking that we can't trust you…" Their trust wasn't necessary—I didn't need it to survive. Besides, they insisted on believing that I was deceiving them and yet there was no reason to. The result of their paranoia was their own doing, I wasn't to blame.

Before I could say anything else, a gold staff cut its way between Nuriko and I, its wielder then firmly pressed it up against Nuriko's chest to push him a few steps away to widen the space. Chichiri's gesture shifted the spotlight onto him, finally giving him the opportunity to speak. "Okay everyone, we should just calm down, ya know? I can explain what's going on." This obviously peaked everyone's curiosity, as none of them said anything in response. Scratching the back of his head, the monk asked, "Haven't any of you even wondered about the ring around her head? I know that Shadow Maiden got all of you worked up, but details like that are kind of important, ya know?"

Hotohori closed his eyes and frowned. "Chichiri, could you please get to the point?"

Chichiri chuckled uneasily. "Yes…well…" He cleared his throat as the atmosphere around him became more serious. "Lady Taiitsukun knew that Aki wouldn't accept being confined to a bed, especially in the state she was involuntarily put into." Turning his head to face me, he continued, "I know we initially agreed that time and rest was what she needed to return back to normal, but as we all know, life can be unpredictable, especially in times like this. So my teacher formed a way to more or less help Aki back into the game, so to speak." Motioning up to the ring that rested around my cranium, he told them, "Without boring you with the details of how, this object has, as you've noticed, given Aki the ability to move around again. And that's…the good news part of it, ya know?"

"'The good news part of it?'" Miaka asked, finally working past her dilemma before and contributing to the conversation. "Does that mean that there's a bad part too?"

Chichiri nodded to her, and said yes, then tilted his head to the side a bit as he ran through his thoughts. "Well…perhaps just plain 'bad' isn't the right way to put it…I'd say that it's more of an unfortunate side-effect ya know? Or it might depend on how you look at it…"

"Again Chichiri, get to the point," Tamahome impatiently demanded. "What did that ring do to her?"

Chichiri looked down and away as if trying to avoid everyone's gazes. "Aki knew what would happen to her if she put it on…it was her decision." _Why does he stall in telling them? _It was better for them to know than to have them going around the rest of their lives ignorant to what was in front of them. We could have been pass this whole process if he hadn't kept dragging it on like he was. Feeling their eyes on him as if he were the prey of a circling group of hungry wolves, he hurried through the inevitable, "She doesn't have her emotions anymore."

The other Warriors of Suzaku and their priestess all widened their eyes from the reveal—their silence speaking of their surprise as we all just stood there without a word, allowing them to process the new information. The weight of it must have affected Shokyoku as well, seeing as how her body suddenly tensed. Her lips moved as she mumbles something under her breath, but it was at such a low volume that I couldn't understand.

Trying to grasp fully onto the new concept of my present condition, Nuriko stumbled a bit with his words. "Wait…so when you say no emotions, you mean that she has absolutely none? Like…at all?" I personally couldn't understand how this was such a difficult thing to accept. It was what it was. Standing there asking questions wouldn't have changed anything.

"That can't be true! Onee-chan without her emotions?" Miaka looked from me to Chichiri and back while her eyes began to glaze over with tears. "It's impossible…" No, it wasn't actually. I was living proof that such a thing could be done.

Tamahome's mindset focused more on the hostage incident. "So the reason why she did what she did earlier—when she attacked that Shadow Maiden who had Miaka…was because…"

Hotohori finished his train of thought. "She didn't feel any guilt about it at all—she couldn't have. There was no anger, no fear or remorse, no second thoughts…just aim and shoot, because that's where the threat was." Without ones emotions, it was impossible to be distracted by such things that clouded your sense of judgment and prevented you from doing what needed to be done. In a sense, I was elated from the shackles known as emotions that were holding me down and would have made me stop before initiating my spells simply because Miaka was there. The fact that Stella could have been obliterated by me in that moment wouldn't even have mattered since I would have been worrying about Miaka. It was different now…worrying was a thing of my past. My memory was not affected by the ring on my head. Therefore I could recall the decisions I made, or didn't make, throughout my life and how a lot of them were induced by my feelings. And now, there was nothing. No matter how far they seemed to me now, the fact was they still happened and I couldn't help but wonder how drastic a difference my life would have been had I been released from my emotions beforehand. Hotohori's remained distressed as he pleaded, "Chichiri, tell me that there's a way to undo this—it isn't right. This can't possibly be permanent, can it?" He glanced at me, looking as if he were actually holding back on what he wanted to say and do. "To trade her emotions, her _personality_ for the sake of being able to move again…I would _never_ trade my ideals or my precious feelings for my loved ones for that. You no longer even have an identity…"

"She should have discussed this with us," Tamahome shook his head and shot me a softer look while still keeping an arm around Miaka's waist. "I know that we couldn't go near her, but we still could have at least talked about this option instead of you going around our backs Chichiri."

Chichiri automatically took a step back and help up a hand in diplomacy. "Look you guys, you're blowing all of this out of proportion, ya know? First, you need to realize that she wasn't quite herself when she decided to use Lady Taiitsukun's gift. She had _something_ taken away from her, remember?" For some reason, he emphasized the "something", though I was never able to catch onto why. The next part he addressed to Hotohori. "So she didn't have those precious feelings in her heart like you or I would Your Majesty." Now he was talking to the group in general. "And second, no this isn't something that will last forever. In fact, all you have to do is take the ring off of her head and she'll return to her present state, ya know?"

Putting his hands on his hips, Nuriko said, "I don't like this version of Aki—I say we just take the ring off and help her cope through this difficult time in her life. We're her friends after all." As memory served, I didn't see why he'd be so concerned of my well-being. I was certain that I wasn't exactly his favorite person—him going so far as to almost physically threatening me. However, his actions and standing here would prove to be the opposite of what I initially thought. Unless, of course, he was being insincere. "Isn't that kind of our job?"

Chichiri just shook his head and crossed his arms. "We can't just do that Nuriko. Not only will she still only have half of her emotions as a result from what happened in Kutou, but she once again won't be able to walk, evade, or defend herself, ya know? At least this way, she's less vulnerable. In fact…" He tilted his head a bit more before shooting it back into its upright position as an epiphany struck him. "I'm actually a little surprised that she was able to pull-off the spells she was able to perform just a little while ago. Not only is she not supposed to be using any magic, but it shouldn't have been that controlled since her system was kind of screwed with, ya know?"

Tamahome had a similar realization. "And I also noticed how you made a big deal about her Darkness affecting us…but I'm not really getting anything here…"

"He's right! I don't either," Miaka agreed.

"That's because," The moment I spoke up, everyone's heads swiftly snapped in my direction. "Without my negative emotions fueling it, the dark ring's energy diminishes almost to nonexistence."

"Which is why I did the smart thing and sucked up enough of her Darkness that I could before that cursed ring came into the picture and closed me off from my space." Punching the air a bit more enthusiastically than I expected, Shokyoku exclaimed, "But I'm still here! There was no way I'd fall asleep and leave Aki to do this alone." Then she narrowed her eyes at the others. "Nor would I leave her alone to you monkeys."

Nuriko, who had never really walked that far from me, approached me once again, but this time bent down more to my height as his eyes went up to the ring resting around my head. He cupped his chin with his hand while trying to ponder something. "Okay, I guess that part makes sense, but we still don't know how you were able to use your magic the way you did—I don't remember Chichiri saying that that ring gave her back the ability to cast."

"Like I said before," He blinked his pink eyes at me as I talked again, "I wasn't the one who released those spells. It was Shokyoku."

"…"

"…"

After saying that, everyone sort of just stared at me blankly, almost as if they were waiting for something else. Only, that was really all I had to say about it.

"Umm…Shokyo-who?"

Didn't take them long to realize that they weren't going to find what they wanted in that moment from me. So they turned to Chichiri with puzzled looks on their faces—almost as if he were the go-to guy for answers. In some way, it made sense since he did seem to be the only other one in there with a clue—other than Shokyoku anyway.

Jumping a bit from the surprise of everyone except me staring at him, he meekly scratched his cheek and said, "Don't look at me! I don't know _everything_, ya know." He faced me. "Aki, could you help me out here?" From what the monk displayed back in my room, it was clear that Chichiri was supernaturally aware enough to know that Shokyoku was present, but it was probably safe to say that he still had no idea who or what she was. In fact, the original four people I had been with prior to meeting Chichiri and Tasuki did, even if they weren't aware of it.

"As much as I hate the idea of talking to them, it's annoying being referred to in the third person. And," Shokyoku passed up the majority of the others and approached Miaka and Tamahome. The two of them, of course, didn't even see her there. Glancing up at them, she smirked menacingly, her conflicting eye colors shining over the rest of her grey-scaled appearance. "It would be better for me to properly introduce myself to these inferior prime apes. After all, it's best they know who they're dealing with. And what's a better time than the present?" _What is she going to..?_

"Aki?" Chichiri tried again. His head tilted to the side as he, as well as the others, did the best to fathom what I could see but they could not.

Shokyoku moved a little more, ending up at Miaka's side as she turned around to face the rest of us. It still baffled me as to what she was trying to do, but figured it wouldn't be long for my curiosities to be put at ease, as well as the others'.

Miaka noticed my gaze at her general direction. She began to ask, "Onee-chan? What's wro—" That was when Shokyoku extended her hand out to Miaka's arm which, in turn, sent a surge of dark energy to overwhelm the young priestess, forcing her to cut her sentence short and gasp as her eyes went wide from the sudden intrusion. Her head numbly hung down after the wave fizzled away.

"What the?!" Chichiri instantaneously gripped onto his staff with all his might while taking a cautious step forward towards the possessed girl. He seemed to have been the first to take notice of Shokyoku's unforeseen ability. And he obviously took it as a threat.

Not catching on quite as fast as his comrade, Tamahome nonetheless felt that the atmosphere around his significant other had shifted. "M-Miaka?—"

"Everyone get away from Miaka!" Chichiri shouted and demanded. "Her body's been taken over by a malevolent force—it's not safe!"

Almost immediately, following Chichiri's warning, the reality of what was happening dawned on the other Suzaku Warriors. Nuriko and Hotohori's battle instincts kicked in as they stood their ground and looked warily at their priestess with the aura shrouded in Darkness due to the unseen, smirking child at her side. Nuriko didn't quite know how to respond to the phenomenon. Of course he was concerned for Miaka's well-being, a requirement of his sacred duties, but the expression on his face read more troubled and perplexed than angry and determined.

"Miaka?!" Hotohori shouted, hoping to get past her trance. Her head still tilted forward with her eyes hidden and no response.

"I've felt this presence before…but why is it around Miaka?" Nuriko tore his attention away from Miaka long enough to face me. "Aki, what's going on? Are you doing this?" _So his instinct is to blame me…The others probably think that as well, given the circumstances. _ I didn't see the need to repeat myself again when it came to Shokyoku's actions.

Tamahome still held onto Miaka, almost like a part of him hadn't quite caught onto the message. "Mi-Miaka?" He tried. Shokyoku faced him, her orange and turquoise cat-like eyes blazed as she shot daggers at him. And has her gesture was made, Miaka finally stirred, her head snapping in a mirrored fashion to her controller. Her eyes narrowed and changed from their original olive green color to match the discolored ones of Shokyoku's.

The sudden mutation made Tamahome gasp and attempt to maneuver away. But before he even had a chance, Shokyoku, who kept her hand practically glued to Miaka's arm, manipulated her into side-stepping away and out of his hold.

Miaka sneered and said, "Get your hand off of me!" Shokyoku spoke the exact same words simultaneously with her. Disregarding the pained look on his face, she/they completely shoved him aside without even any remorse. Then, almost as swift as one could comprehend, Shokyoku and Miaka dashed forward and past the Suzaku Warriors. It wasn't until they ceased in their actions that the sound of harsh, multiple slaps came rushing like a delayed reaction. The men, once reality caught up with them, each winced and held their now reddened cheeks as they looked to their priestess in dismay.

Miaka/Shokyoku clenched their fists and bared their teeth in an effort to look intimidating. The two of them spoke in sync once more, though the only voice they heard was Miaka's. "You miscreants are lucky that I didn't do much, _much_ worse to you—and insignificant slap would be the _least_ of your worries!" _So Shokyoku has the ability to possess people, or simply use them as her puppets. _In this case, she was really only doing it for the sake of communication. Based on her technique and her constantly following Miaka, it seemed as if Shokyoku had to be in physical contact with her victim in order for it to even work—or at the very least have part of her essence inside of them. If she were visible to others than myself, this method would have probably been rather simple to avoid. Her invisibility to most eyes gave her the advantage. The only questions remaining was what were the complete characteristics of this ability? And why only use this power on Miaka instead of me? At least the latter would have gotten less of a negative reaction from the Suzaku warriors.

"Whatever you are, release Miaka at once!" Hotohori yelled out, gripping onto the handle of his sword while the sharp end pointed at the one he was supposed to protect. Shokyoku wasn't dumb, she knew that he—actually, none of them, would attack her…not while Miaka played dummy. "I demand that you expel yourself before you force us to—"

"Force you to _what_?" Miaka/Shokyoku baited. "You and I both know that you're not going to do anything. All talk, no effective action. As expected from a human." She/they flipped her/their hair. "And did I hear you try to order _me_ around? You monkeys better recognize when a superior being is in the room and hush up if you know what's good for you."

"What do you want with Miaka?" Nuriko asked.

Miaka/Shokyoku shot him a look. "Excuse me, but you apparently didn't hear me before. When I'm talking, I expect you to _hush up_." She scoffed. "And as amazing it must be to talk to someone with more class than you'll ever see, this isn't a 'leisurely chat' between buddies. Because in case you haven't noticed, I don't like any of you." She/they quickly changed her/their stance. "Well…" They closed their eyes and stood on their tip-toes as they faced me, shot an arm towards the sky and waved to me erratically. A big smile uncharacteristically shone on their face complimented with a faint blush. "Except Aki! I can never not like her!" Little pink hearts curiously floated and buzzed like flies around her head as she addressed me. I couldn't quite understand that little add-on of hers at the end. Her small display of elation was a bit misplaced. And the hearts? Those just didn't make any sense at all.

The warriors' attention switched over to me for only a few seconds before returning to the situation at hand.

"Tell us why you're here then and who you are!" Chichiri demanded. "You're that same entity that was in Aki's room earlier aren't you? In fact…" His sentence trailed off as he searched his memory for something particular. "That wasn't the first time was it? You were around before, maybe even more often than that!"

Miaka/Shokyoku smiled and then smirked. "Very good monk, looks like you're the smartest moron here. Congratulations." Judging by the lack of input from the others, I inferred that they had similar inquiries. "Though my name had already been mentioned, I don't see why I shouldn't mention it again. My name is Shokyoku." She/they squealed as a giddy grin ran across their feminine faces. "Isn't it the most brilliant and wonderful name you ever heard? Aki gave it to me not too long ago." The puppet and its master winked at me. "Love you Aki~!" _I don't know why, but I have the incredibly urge to roll my eyes. _

"Wait…" Tamahome looked from me to Miaka/Shokyoku, which had been the first time he finally took his eyes away from his possessed priestess, while trying to put one and one together. "If Aki named you, then wouldn't that have to mean that she knows about you—?" Stopping is sentence midway, an aggrieved expression struck him before correcting himself. "Or…_knew_ about you?"

"She knew and still knows. You monkeys aren't exactly foreign with yours truly either." Miaka/Shokyoku pointed at Nuriko and Tamahome. "You two should be the most familiar of my work." The two Suzaku Warriors dropped their guards at the peculiar statement, tossing each other bewildered glances. "Let me rattle your puny brains a little more. Remember that dark ring Aki told you about a few months ago?" She/they smiled—a maniacal twinkle in their eyes. "Simply put, that was me." Gasps and eye widening spread across the room following the big reveal. "I'm basically in charge of Akimoto Tsubaki's Darkness—that's one of my primary duties anyway." The smile on their faces progressively faltered as the more serious façade crept back.

Tamahome's body began to tremble. "In charge…"

"Of Aki's Darkness?" Nuriko's body was reacting to a similar chill that his comrade was experiencing. "Th-Then that time…back when I told Aki off…"

I remembered that day clearly…

_**"You have no special abilities and would only end up getting in the way with whatever you do. So why don't you do us all a favor and beat it!"**_

_**Throwing me back onto the ground, I just sat there, boiling in my own fury. My face was completely flushed as my body shook in anger.**_

_**All of a sudden, a mysterious female voice entered into my head.**_

**She doesn't know all the things that you have been through. She doesn't know the hurt you have endured. Who is she to tell you what you are worth?**

_**I blinked.**_ **Huh?**

_**The voice spoke again.**_ **She tells you that you're useless when you've done so much. She says that you're pointless when you are an obvious favorite of the universe. She says that you're powerless when you've gone through emotional and physical Hell to become a Master Sorceress. She says that you're selfish when you're just trying to do the right thing.**

_**Processing her words, everything she was saying had made a bunch of sense.**_

**You don't have a choice in which world you are sent to, yet you are willing to go through so much just to find your place. Who is she to tell you that you don't matter?**

_**My mind came to the realization that she was absolutely right.**_

**This woman just met you and is already making false assumptions—just like those awful kids from back in your world. What will you do if her way of thinking affects the others? Then you will be all alone in this world—in a dangerous, foreign world full of mystery. They will all shun you and think that you do not matter. Will you allow her to speak to you like this? Will you allow her to influence the people around you? Or will you give into your guiltless desires and make her suffer?**

_**I was convinced.**_ _**"You're right…"**_

_**Nuriko cocked an eyebrow as Tamahome looked at me in confusion. "What did you say?"**_

_**Feeling a sudden wave of despair and rage, an odd sensation consumed my body—it was both chilling and frightening, but it felt so**_**right**. _**Standing up slowly, the ring of darkness around me came into view, and I was the only one who could see it. Its power had been enhanced—as opposed to how it had been for a while: dim and barely noticeable. But now, after what had just happened, the ring's power multiplied, bringing it back to its negative influence it had when I was younger.**_

_**Tamahome and Nuriko seemed to have noticed a sudden change in atmosphere as their bodies shivered unpleasantly. "What's happening?"**_

_**"What's this horrible feeling that I'm getting?" Nuriko wrapped her arms around her body.**_

_**As my anger persisted, the dark ring pulsated, shooting an invisible wave of negative energy out throughout the area. Both of the people standing in front of me fell to the ground, shaking vigorously now.**_

_**Nuriko seemed to be the most affected—she was completely on the ground with tears in her eyes mumbling things like "Please don't leave me" and "I didn't do anything wrong." Insisting that she suffered more, I walked up to her, feeling some invisible hand grab my hand and reach out for her.**_

**She needs to suffer.**

Miaka and I had only been in the Universe of the Four Gods for a few days and Nuriko was already on my case. Back then, we didn't know he was a guy and I didn't know who the woman's voice in my head was. It was Shokyoku disgusting her voice to make herself sound more mature…and alluring. Once Nuriko had my anger going, Shokyoku only had to convince me a little bit to convince me that lashing out was justified. Tamahome got caught in the crossfire, making him suffer through the terrible sensation as well. I sort of just…lost my temper then. There was something curious about that whole situation though…the torture stopped. And I just couldn't remember why I pulled back.

The purple-haired Suzaku Warrior clenched his teeth as he closed his eyes shut, only to shoot them open and hold up a tight fist that shook with anticipation towards Miaka/Shokyoku. "How could you do such a thing like that? Aki's life must have been miserable because of you!"

_**"It's literally a ring of dark energy that is constantly surrounding me. You guys can't see it, but it's there—it's always been there…as long as I can remember anyway." I faced the two people that it happened to affect. "Both Nuriko and Tamahome have suffered from the power of the ring. Remember earlier when you guys suddenly felt cold and miserable? Well, that's what it does to people—it brings out the dark, horrible emotions that everyone has buried deep inside of them…and amplifies them."**_

…

_**"It doesn't matter how it happened. The point is that right now, being around me may be a bit unbearable—you may have random bits of rage or depression and I won't be able to control it. So…if you don't want me to be around for a while, I completely understand. The last thing you guys need is someone who has the ability to really mess your emotions up." **_Miserable…huh? I had forgotten what it was even like to experience that emotion. I knew of Shokyoku's contribution in my life. In the long run, she kept potential threats away from me—like an internal security system. My reactions then were less than thankful. In fact, I've shed unnecessary tears and displayed fits of unneeded rage, letting myself become vulnerable.

So what if people were turned away from me? They weren't necessary for my survival. Besides, what's done is done. People with emotions had the flaw of hanging onto the past for too long, which was an avoidable hindrance that I personally chose to not involve myself with. Or rather, I no longer felt the need to.

I felt nothing at all.

"You say that you love her, but that's complete bull!" Tamahome accused her. Finally he was beginning to see past his affections for Miaka, allowing him to talk at Shokyoku. About time.

Hotohori shared in their mutual disgust. "You're nothing less than heartless if this is the way you choose to go throughout life—ruining others' for your sick amusement—" Shokyoku growled and dug her fingernails into Miaka's skin, only to have her hand unexpectedly phase past Miaka's arm, causing her to lose her balance and almost topple over. Placing a quick foot ahead of herself, the little girl was able to avoid falling completely to the ground. But she lost her hold on Miaka.

The priestess blinked a few times as her green eyes came flickering in and out, dissolving Shokyoku's colors. "Huh?" She shook her head. "Ta…Tamahome?"

Anger replacing itself with what looked like relief, Tamahome's shoulders relaxed. "Miaka? Is that you?"

Shokyoku shot her head back and growled again, "Crap."

Producing a weak smile, Miaka began to say, "Tamaho—" Shokyoku spun around and grabbed Miaka's arm again, this time with more force. Like before, Miaka was overcome by a flash of Darkness, except this time around, she actually seemed more aware of what was happening to her while she struggled to free her arm from the one attempting to play puppet with her. "P-P-Please l-let go of me…Sho-Shokyoku…" Shokyoku kept her grip, but she was straining. As memory served right, she mentioned to me that it's difficult for her to maintain a physical form. It must have been taking a considerable amount of energy to hold onto Miaka as long as she was. Even so, her determination kept her going. What was the motive fueling her actions? It didn't make any sense to exhaust herself like that. Not only was she panting like a dog, but bullets of sweat were forming and racing down her premature face.

I just didn't understand it.

Miaka struggled to look to me as Shokyoku's eye colors began to dominate over her own once again, confirming the complete control she had over the priestess. She pleaded, "Onee-chan—" Blinking hard, her eyes then calmly opened, releasing an invisible shockwave that forced everyone to brace themselves to avoid being knocked back.

Sighing, Miaka/Shokyoku held up their palms and looked down at it. "Stupid girl…" She clenched their fists and exclaimed, "No! I won't let you go. Not now…I haven't said all I needed to say." Quickly bringing their hands back down to their sides, Miaka/Shokyoku threw a deadly glare towards those who were accusing her before. "And how dare you lower life forms lecture _me_ about my methods of protecting Aki. Regardless of what you do and do not approve, _I_ actually keep her safe—which is much more than what I can say about the rest of you."

"That's absurd," Hotohori said, "We _do_ take care of Akimoto."

Miaka/Shokyoku scoffed in response. "_Yeah_…" Then they sighed, calming down a bit as they put a hand on their waist. "Tell me, how is it possible that, as a whole, you monkeys are more powerful than that of the others Aki had befriended in the worlds prior to this one, yet you all are _completely_ incompetent?" The members of the Suzaku Seven couldn't come up with an answer fast enough to stop the simultaneous speech from going on. "I warned her against it, but she trusted you people. You might not think she did—she might not have _believed_ she did—but she did." _I trusted them? _That part I didn't remember, therefore, it couldn't have happened. My memory was still intact and I couldn't recall a day when I trusted my life to those who seemed unfit. I was the only one worth of taking care of me—why would I trust others with something as important as my life? Given my personal circumstances, no one would have remained with me anyway. That was a simple fact. Shokyoku was only around because she had to be. If her mother hadn't assigned her and attached us, the whole situation would have been completely different. Having been born of my Darkness, if her mother hadn't intervened at all, Shokyoku might have not even have existed. "And for what?" She/they continued, "To have her so screwed up that we—I mean _you_—had to resort to taking away all of her emotions?"

Chichiri tried to intervene. "That's not—" But Miaka/Shokyoku held up a finger at him to hush him up.

"Superior being speaking—don't interrupt me." They returned to their point once she found that he had allowed her the floor. "You know, if I didn't hate you people so much, I'd give you a nice, big, shiny trophy made out to the 'Biggest Failures in Existence'." Saying this made Miaka/Shokyoku snicker, making them the only ones who found it clever. "Now, care to hear the reality of things?" No response. Miaka's caretakers were each trying to make sense of what the in sync girls were saying. "Okay, if Aki hadn't met you all, _none_ of this would have happened. Her and I would have just gone about our own business and flew straight over this god-forsaken country without a care in the world, completely avoiding this _pleasant_ interaction between us." This revelation prompted the others to straighten up and lower their fists and respected weapons, each of them looking down and away as they stewed in their separate thoughts. "Yes, I will not deny that the vast majority of this is Stella's doing, but as far as I'm concerned, you all are the ones who led the sheep to the slaughter. All of this Suzaku business…Aki never should have gotten involved." That last part was said a bit quitter than the rest, as if Shokyoku was saying t more to herself than the others. But was what she was saying true? Was my involvement with them was what got me into trouble? In a way, it made sense, I just hadn't thought about it that thoroughly.

"Now hold on second!" Nuriko spoke out. "We didn't force Aki to be with us, she chose to!"

Miaka/Shokyoku faced him. "Yes and in response to that, you all abused her kindness and became careless. Exactly how hard did you all try to save her?"

"We wanted to but…" Tamahome's sentence did decrescendo when it seemed as if his train of thought wouldn't have been an acceptable answer. The others seemed to have been having similar issues as they hesitated to speak as well.

"We didn't think that…anything like that would happen, ya know?" Chichiri said meekly.

"Typical, weak humans. Using any means you can to make your lives easier." Miaka/Shokyoku shook their heads and turned them away out of spite. "Expecting Aki to fix your problems and fight for you as if she was a bodyguard or a genie. People take advantage of her elusive good nature and willingness to make living in a world of suffering not so horrible. But when it comes to returning the favor, they leave her behind." Even with their heads turned away, the girls peeked at the Suzaku Warriors out of the corner of their eyes, indicating that her last comment was directed at them.

Back in Kutou, or even since then, I didn't think that I actually blamed them for what had happened—at least, not in the way that Shokyoku meant. I was the only one capable of fighting Stella, so it was my strength that was being tested. Something had been off with me that day, and I lost. If I were to blame them, or Miaka for anything, it would have been for getting in the way and distracting me.

I wouldn't make that mistake again. My current condition made sure of that.

"And where were you guys? Oh yeah! You were with your good-for-nothing Priestess!" Before the others even had a chance to rebut, Miaka/Shokyoku went on, pretending to have an epiphany. "Now I'm remembering, Miaka Yuki met you people, who brought her into this screwy prophecy. Aki knows Yuki who knows Yui Hongo, who knows Nakago, who knows Stella." Her last words held a bitter essence to them. "Funny how things add up, isn't it?"

"You can't base what happened on those points!" Hotohori told her. "There's no possible way we could have known something would happen to Akimoto. If you were as superior and all-knowing as you claim, then you should be well aware that we would have done everything we could to save her had we been more aware of the circumstances." He gave me a look then, but his expression was unreadable to me. It wasn't anger or joy, it sort of seemed like sadness, but it was different somehow… "If I knew that she was in trouble…I would have done anything in my power to assist her—perhaps even switch places with her." How foolish, to sacrifice your own life for someone else's? What a ridiculous notion. What was the benefit? Besides, as if anything he or any of them could have done would have made a difference. Had it been any of them against Stella, they would have been dead. Shadow Maidens were my territory, they shouldn't interfere—not if they knew what was good for them.

"Aki may not be part of the Suzaku Seven," Nuriko smiled as he tilted his head towards me—his pink eyes meeting mine, "but she is one of us ." My eyes reflexively widened as my ears caught onto his words. Oddly enough, my whole body—no, my chest—seemed to have pulsated and I…felt it? That shouldn't have been possible. The sensation lasted for only a split second, and then I was hollow once again. However, the surprise of what he said lingered on. _**She is one of us. **_He'd actually say that? …one of them?

No.

That wasn't true. It'd never be that way. Nuriko had told me that before and despite my protests then, those were the facts. For me to have gotten angry over what he said was nothing less than weak.

As I settled through my thoughts, Nuriko finished his point. "We already feel horrible enough about standing around and doing nothing while Stella got to Aki. But could you possibly kill the guilt trip and stop rubbing it in our faces already?"

"Tch. You all deserve to feel guilty." Miaka/Shokyoku's frown never lifted up. In fact, I didn't think it was possible for that frown to get any grimmer. "What you don't deserve is Aki. When I get the chance, I'm taking her away from you monkeys since you're obviously not responsible enough to have her."

"Who exactly do you think you are to decide that for her?" Nuriko asked in a somewhat calm tone with his arms crossed. "I know Aki, and she wouldn't take too kindly to a spoiled brat like you telling her what to do." His head hung down for a mere second, eyes averting the puppet. But then he came back in and added, "Well…on any other day she would have at least…" He chuckled. "I actually have no doubt that that cheeky sarcasm of hers would have told you off by now."

"Of course, that would have been after she tried to hide her temper and ended up having Wind blow us all away, ya know!" Chichiri's perked up reminiscent comment arouse a small fit laughter from the Suzaku Warriors, mostly muffled since it was supposed to be a serious moment. Why were they laughing anyway? The placement of that reaction seemed highly inappropriate.

Miaka/Shokyoku stared wide-eyed at them in disbelief as they joked around. Her/ their face reddened gradually as she/they started gritting down on their teeth so hard that I thought that would shatter.

Finally, they exploded. "DON'T YOU DARE IGNORE ME!" Miaka's voice projected and spread to where it rung in everyone's ears, almost instantly making them duck down and wipe away their grins. "How on earth are you monkeys so indecent that you'd laugh at a time like this?! Is this a joke to you?!" Shokyoku clung to Miaka's arm with all her might, being careful that her sudden outrage wouldn't make her lose her concentration.

Nuriko was the first to recover and deliver an answer. "You're not exactly making things easy for us. We already had enough stresses in our lives without you making things worse for us Shokyoku."

"We kind of just wanted to laugh, ya know? It's healthy."

Miaka/Shokyoku violently stomped their feet. "_Unbelievable_! If it weren't for the fact that Aki would be furious with me, I sooo would have destroyed you all by now." She/they spoke under their breath in a sneaky manner, turning their heads down and away. "Of course, I don't actually think she'd care much about it now…In fact, she wouldn't until she's come back to her senses…and you all could be gone by then…hmm…"

"Actually, most of my senses are functional," I corrected, even if it wasn't necessarily meant in that way. But I also figured that at some point, they'd ask about the characteristics of my condition. "Except touch—which would also mean that I can't perceive temperature either." Basically, I was just a consciousness floating around in a body that served no greater purpose than that of a container. "The ring that Taiitsukun gave to me to put around my head allows my mind to send messages to my arms, my legs, my head, and everything else that would usually move by normal standards, allowing me access to mobility unlike my previous state where I was confined to a bed." Miaka, in a sense, wasn't the only puppet in the room. In a way, I was both the marionette, as well as the puppet master. I was hollow on the inside, the ring served at the piece that connected the strings to the doll, and it was I controlling the different motions. Life had no meaning for me, I simply participated in the act, fulfilling the role I was given to perform.

"Chichiri told us that this was your decision," Tamahome said as more of a statement than a question.

"It was."

"Are you okay with all of this? With this new way to live?"

My eyes traced to his without turning my head. "I am neither okay with it, nor not okay with it. It's simply what is. Having an input based on anger, sadness, or happiness would be a waste of energy and completely in vain."

"See how messed up she is?!" Miaka/Shokyoku landed back into the conversation. "You all broke her! Even if you guys were to take that ring from her head, she still wouldn't be the same Aki that we came to know." She/they shook their head. "I would take her away from all this, but…too much of this is riding on the monk and the mystic old hag…because of that damn ring." Their voice became soft and mellow, as if she wasn't even trying to be confrontational any more. "I didn't want her to wear it—I hate it on her…but I had to put it on her. Aki…Aki begged me to. She couldn't just lie there in that bed the whole time. She was too vulnerable. They would have gotten her eventually if she just stayed there." "They" meaning the Shadow Maidens. I was a sitting duck just laying down to where they could get me in that pitiful state. Stella left us with no choice but to use Taiitsukun's ring.

A silence befell the demolished room after Shokyoku explained the stuck between a rock and a hard place situation that confined me to where I was currently at. Ever since Shokyoku possessed Miaka, all everyone was doing was confronting her and trying to make sense of everything. So now it was quiet, as if there was an unspoken stalemate going on.

After a few seconds of uneasy gazes, Hotohori spoke up in a calm, yet stern tone. "It's about time that you've left Miaka's body Shokyoku." She/they have him her/their attention. "You've got your point across to us. Now we'd like our priestess back, if you may." Shokyoku didn't answer him. It was looking like she no longer wanted to acknowledge any of them anymore. Taking a step forward and extending the arm holding his sword, Hotohori pointed the weapon directly at Miaka's face. "I will not ask again."

Miaka/Shokyoku smirked smugly. "Oh, you humans just don't know when you're outmatched. If it's anything other than moronic, it's slightly laughable." I was beginning to wish that people didn't beat around the bush so much—wonder where that came from… "You all couldn't defeat me if you tried. Besides, even if you were able to pull of that miracle, there's no way that you'd harm your priestess. Not only that, but knowing full well that I am a part of Aki would also give you a reason to think more intelligently about your next move." The emperor wavered, his arm trembling as he tried to figure out what to do. "You should also know that, without me, she has no other way to defend herself." She/they shot a knowing eye over to Chichiri.

At first, he didn't get the picture. But the light eventually clicked on. "Oh! Yeah…if I've gathered all the info here correctly, then Shokyoku is more of a benefit to Aki while she's in this state, ya know?" The monk's speech sounded strained—it was more than obvious that he didn't enjoy admitting that Shokyoku was correct. "Lady Taiitsukun still says that it's too dangerous for Aki to use her powers—"

"That's right monkeys, so you're stuck with me!" There really wasn't any more reason for Shokyoku to keep hold on Miaka. At this, I was sure that she was just playing with them, trying to bait their reactions. "Of course I won't make it a habit of talking to you all since Aki is really the only one I care about. But I _will_ be around." She/they closed her eyes and smiled in victory.

Realizing that his intimidation method wouldn't be effective at this point, Hotohori returned his sword to its sheath. Shokyoku really was holding all the cards here. She possessed the one person they were responsible for. If Shokyoku were an enemy, they would have been backed into a corner—absolutely nothing they could have done. Well…except maybe kill Miaka. But their feelings would most likely stop them from even conceiving such an idea. Even if Shokyoku's persistence was unnecessary, it was effective. However, Hotohori did quickly come up with a plan that might chase her off.

"Very well then, if you insist on this travesty, then we have no choice but to continue forward." One of Miaka/Shokyoku's eyes popped open and their faces fell with discontent. Forcing the subject to change, he said, "We cannot be distracted any longer, I have a country to run, and as Suzaku Warriors, our priority is to turn our attention to the war—starting with the Shadow Maiden Stella set before us." _He threw a curveball. _

When my eyes were curious to see Shokyoku's reaction, I saw that both of her/Miaka's eyes were now open and their mouths dropped. "How dare you talk about your stupid Suzaku affairs when Aki is in distress!" _I'm not in distress. _"You don't care about her at all!" The little girl seemed so smart before, yet she was falling for such an obvious trap.

If my eyes were deceiving me, which I'm sure they weren't, there was a hint of a triumphant smile on Hotohori's lips before he wiped it off, returning to his authoritarian role. "That isn't true—I'm sure we've made it clear regarding our affections towards her. But time is of the essence."

Miaka/Shokyoku puffed their cheeks, steam practically shooting from their ears while muttering, "Honestly…why do I deal with you people?! I am done here!" The moment Shokyoku took her hand away, her knees bent inwards and her shoulders slumped from the exhaustion of maintaining the kind of concentration needed to keep her hand solid. Judging by her weakened state, it was looking like any minute longer on her feet and she would have slid to the floor. But apparently, she had more endurance than I was giving her credit for. She continued to stand on weak legs, glancing up with exhaustion towards the others. "So not worth it…" Now that Miaka was released, I returned to being the only one who could see or hear her.

Miaka's eyes blinked repeatedly, similarly to how one would do when dealing with a screwy contact lens. Her iris' colors were gradually matching again, returning to their olive green origin. She grabbed her head as her body bobbed sickly from side to side until she finally gave in a fell to her knees, not even trying to keep herself up anymore.

"Miaka!" Tamahome and the others came to her aid without even a second thought. Dropping down to her level, Tamahome gently grabbed the arm of hers that was holding her head so that he could better inspect her condition. "Miaka…Miaka, are you okay?"

"Are you…_you_ again?" Nuriko asked.

"Yeah…yes…" She continuously tried to refocus back into the world she returned to. "I think so…"

Taking a deep breath, Shokyoku stood up straight, crossed her arms, and snapped her head away in a huff. "Good riddance!" She walked toward the gigantic opening that used to be a wall, stepping away from the reuniting bunch. "Let's go Aki—we're leaving." Taking in the scene in the room for only a few more moment, I complied with her whim. I took the same route around the warriors and their priestess as she did. Only unlike Shokyoku, I was visible to every eye in there.

Miaka poked her head past her protectors and spoke out. "Wait! Onee-chan!" My legs froze at her request, although I didn't turn to face her. Shokyoku stopped as well, peering back to see what the hold-up was. Her eyes instantly narrowed at the owner of the pleading voice. "Please stay…I need you, we all do." Her voice trembled lightly. "I know that Shokyoku's heart is in the right place. She cares about you—I could feel those intense feelings from her when she used me to talk to everyone. But…you shouldn't let her take you away. She might not agree, but you belong with us." I heard something similar to that before…when Nuriko said it. No matter how many times people said it, there was no possible way for that to happen. In all the other worlds, Taiitsukun told me that my role was only temporary. The particular piece of information that stuck was how I was invading in on people's lives. Whether they did or did not meet me mad absolutely no difference once I left. They all still went on with their lives and did fine on their own. The same thing was proving true for the Universe of the Four Gods. I wasn't a Suzaku Warrior, or any celestial warrior for that matter, I wasn't a priestess…it wasn't my world. My only mission was to look for the Shadow Maidens and deal with them…

And…

And…

Was there something else? How did I even begin this journey? A wish? A wish to find my true love and where I really belonged. That wasn't even a logical request—okay, maybe it was _logical_, just not probable. Wishes were unrealistic hopes. And was there any such thing as "true love"? How would I possibly identify something that seemed as fictional as any fairy tale? And to find a place where I really belonged? I really thought that it was impossible for there to be one specific location for a person to be destined to dwell for all eternity. It was just too unlikely. I didn't understand the appeal of working towards such an unrealistic goal.

So to answer the previous question of me belonging with the Priestess of Suzaku and her warriors: No, I do not.

However…

"Aki," Shokyoku tugged on my sleeve, "Their issues don't concern us."

I thought about that for a second and about what was mulling itself over in my mind from only moments before. "Actually, it does concern me."

She blinked at me in shock. "_What_?"

"You've pointed it out earlier. Miaka knows Yui, who knows Nakago, who knows Stella. Stella is our target, is she not?"

Cheeks becoming flushed, she looked away sheepishly. "I only said that before to make a point…"

"Maybe so, but they will ultimately end up encountering her again. And when they do, I need to be there." _Which means that you have to be there. _Perhaps my role in that world didn't belong with any of the Four Gods, but as long as Shadow Maidens were around, so would I be. Where ever Stella was, I needed to be there. This was the meaning of my existence. Besides, she was a threat to my survival, so she needed to be dealt with before the problem had a chance to elevate any higher.

When it appeared clear to the others that I was sticking around, I turned my body partly so that it would look more like I was contributing.

Lowering her arm and puffing her cheeks again, Shokyoku turned her back completely to the others and let out a loud, "Hmph!"

Miaka smiled at my decision. "Thanks Onee-chan." _I don't know why she's thanking me—I'm not doing this for her._

"Well, now that it's more or less certain that Aki is still on our side, what do we do about what Stella said regarding Tamahome?" Nuriko asked. "They don't actually think that we'll hand him over, do they?" From what I gathered before making my official appearance, Shokyoku and I hear the gist of Kutou's ultimatum. It was either we handed over Tamahome without any resistance, or their army would crush Konan. I knew not why out of everyone, it was Tamahome they wanted, but nonetheless, this was quite the dilemma they put Konan's emperor and his Suzaku consorts into.

"Tamahome, you can't go—we have to stay together!" Miaka nestled her head under Tamahome's neck. "I don't want to lose Onee-chan and I definitely don't want you to leave either!" He wrapped his arms around her, bringing her closer for comfort. "What is with all these threats trying so hard to separate all of us?" I would have said that this was a case of "divide and conquer", but Stella did make it sound like if Tamahome went over to them, then they'd leave Konan alone. Tactically speaking though, nothing would get done in that case. They wouldn't be conquering their enemies and we'd lose a celestial warrior (making it impossible to summon Suzaku) while they'd recruit Seiryuu's other warriors (which in a sense would be a waste of time since they didn't plan on attacking).

Hmm…

While Tamahome didn't respond to Miaka's distress, as he was working through his thoughts, Nuriko added his input. "I understand your feelings in this Miaka, we all do, but I'm more concerned with how long do we have to be discussing things like this? I mean…after all…" He faced Hotohori who nodded in agreement at him.

"Yes, the Shadow Maiden's warning…" He held his chin in his hand while thinking. "Either Tamahome, or my country. We'd be submitting to them whichever path we chose, and they must know that they have caught us off guard. While he paced back and forth, I figured he was trying to think of something that wasn't in clear sight. And judging from the silence from the others, they were stumped as well.

Clenching a fist, Tamahome gently nudged Miaka out of the way and shot up from his spot. "Look, I don't want to be the reason why so many people will suffer or even die. If my going over there will lighten the load off of Konan, and keep Miaka safe, then I'll do it."

"We can't just rush into a decision like this Tamahome," Hotohori said, "it requires thought—some kind of an elaborate plan. I don't want to place Konan in danger and at the same time, I don't want Kutou to think they've won." Tamahome shot him an intense look, and, for a brief moment, it was as if they were telepathically debating as the rest of the world watched in wonder. Hotohori sighed. "I know where you're coming from and I share in your concern—perhaps even more so, but we have to be smart about this." As the emperor of Konan, Hotohori had no choice but stress about something like this. He had the burden of the entire country on his shoulders, and whichever way he decided to go about this, the consequences would have been his and his alone. So for his sake, and for the lives of thousands, maybe even millions of people, he better go through every scenario possible in his head and choose wisely. _What will you do emperor?_

Miaka's tearing eyes went from Tamahome and then to Hotohori, almost ready to display unnecessary waterworks. "There must be something we can do but…we can't give them Tamahome! I want him to stay her with _me_—with everyone! Having him go is not even an option."

Hotohori's expression softened at her. "Miaka…" He cleared his throat. "Nothing is finalized at the moment. Until we've all come up with a solution that we can agree to, actions will be taken." He spoke over to Tamahome. "Don't worry about things too much, we'll find a way past this."

"You're not doing anyone any favors by sugarcoating things," I told him.

Chichiri cocked an eyebrow. "What'dya mean?"

"Well this isn't the time to be saying not to worry when in fact, there is a reason for alarm when it comes to the state of this country. I've been in Kutou, seen their soldiers, and met their general. Though I can't say this in certainty, it may be safe to think that they have a ruthless and experienced army—perhaps even bigger than Konan's. I wouldn't think that it would be smaller. No, they wouldn't make that kind of threat unless they knew you knew the severity of the situation." Apparently, I managed to tug on a point that either no one thought of, or one that they were too intimidated to say out loud, thus admitting that Konan really was in trouble. In that case, they were trying to block out the bad news and were stuck in the habit as seeing the glass half-full. Sometimes people had the habit of ignoring the negative parts of their lives just to make themselves feel better. But being ignorant was the cowards way out, not to mention a waste of time. If there was a problem that needed to be done away with, then the most awful details could be the most helpful when trying to alleviate it. If these guys wanted to get out of this mess with the least casualties as possible, them they needed to hear what they didn't want to hear. Good plans have the facts.

Face displaying what seemed like intense pressure, Hotohori confirmed my argument. "I didn't wish to alarm you all, but Akimoto has brought up a valid point." He sighed. "Yes, Kutou's army is roughly three times bigger than ours, which would be putting us in a difficult position."

Nuriko gasped. "You're not serious…they're _that_ huge?!"

"Umm…" Chichiri raised his hand as if this was a classroom and he was asking permission to speak. The only difference being that he didn't wait to be called on. "Not to be the bearer of worse news, but there's another issue, ya know? If Kutou's army does end up invading us, there's a particular area they're most likely to come through…" It didn't take too long for Tamahome to figure out what the monk was getting at. Stricken with complete, terrible shock, all of the blood in his face drained almost to a point where it looked like he would vomit at any moment. Chichiri noticed his friend's distress and hesitated a bit to drive further into his point. "Judging by your reaction, I guess you already know…"

Tamahome held up a fist and scanned around him for something—something to punch it seemed. But when he found that there was nothing in close range of his arms-length, he violently threw the fist down to his side and tossed his head over as if he were in pain.

Standing completely out of the loop, Miaka asked, "What? What's going on? Who would they attack first?"

Nuriko answered her. "Tamahome's home village." _His…home?_

The priestess's eyes widened as she gasped and brought her palm over her mouth and whispered, "No!"

"That village is right near the border," Chichiri told Miaka, "otherwise, it wouldn't have been so easy for you to run off to Kutou when you did." Tamahome's family would have been the first innocent victims in the attack should they decide not to let him go over there. I didn't even know about his family. How did Nuriko, Chichiri, and Miaka? The only time I let them out of my site was when…

_**Still maintaining a couple feet off of the ground, I crossed my arms in expectance as Chichiri spoke. "So you really are planning on going off?"**_

**_Nodding my head, I told him, "Yup—what's got to be done has got to be done. If I don't get Miaka's best friend back, it could mean real trouble that I don't exactly have the patience to deal with at the moment."_Or like ever._"Tomorrow, you four will have to head back to Konan's capital. I'll need you to do me a favor and tell the emperor that I'm off on business and will return as soon as I am able to."_**

When I went to Kutou to try and get Yui back. Well, that would explain it. They must have visited his family or something in my absence. That village must not have been far away from the area I left them at since it didn't exactly take me that long to get to Kutou—flying or not. That theory alone was proven when Miaka managed to get there in practically no time at all the next day.

Continuing on with a shaking body filling to the rim with distress and what was probably a form of anger, Tamahome didn't know what to do with himself. If he continued to clench his fists any harder, there was no doubt that he'd draw blood soon. Now that the rules of the game had shifted a bit, it was becoming clearer that this decision couldn't be made with everyone else. It was personal thing and he had to work through it on his own. While Hotohori would be responsible on a general and reflective sense, the fate of Tamahome's family and potentially the country partially rested on him as well. What would he choose? Of course, I had my take on the whole thing, but this wasn't enough of my issue for me to give a more educated opinion. If they asked, then I'd throw my two cents in. Until then, I'd just reveal the facts and nothing more. The factor that grabbed my attention the best was which decision led me to Stella faster. _That_ was my issue.

Everyone's concerns were clear. Having that said, all eyes looked to the emperor as I asked him, "You still want to take your time with this?"

Trying to rise above the atmosphere lathered in negativity, Hotohori switched the spotlight back onto him in order to keep everyone calm. "Nothing good will come from rushing into the storm. Our emotions are high and many of us may be potentially undergoing irrational ideas. But I assure you that if we at least sleep on it, our minds will be fresh from tonight's events and we can _all_ come up with a concrete plan." He tossed a look in Tamahome's direction. "We will do something about this, I promise you. I'd never willingly let my subjects suffer, nor would I give our enemies that satisfaction."

Shokyoku scoffed at that. "Stella's going to get her satisfaction one way or another despite what these humans try. Whatever her agenda is, it's nothing they can handle without Aki's help." Kutou had Stella and potentially other Shadow Maidens on their side. If at any point they're going to fight in the war, then the humans were in trouble. And I'd be no use to them or myself if I couldn't figure out how to use Light. Taiitsukun informed me that Light was really the only thing capable of taking them down…and I hadn't discovered it yet, nor did I know how to even get there. And yet, I'd defeated them before…or at least, driven them off with _something_, but my mind wouldn't allow me to recall what. There was some type of barrier keeping the secret from me. If I could only rediscover whatever it was, then I'd be continuously victorious.

In the end, though, I'd still be able to at least defend myself or hold my own against them. Humans didn't have a clue. Celestial Warriors may have been better off than the average human, but everyone's luck runs out eventually. And the simple fact was that humans probably weren't created to knock back our kind.

"I still can't figure out why Stella's even helping out the humans over there," Shokyoku said. "Any humans really. Shadow Maidens aren't exactly the biggest fan of that species."

"Who's to say?" I didn't really care about the answer. My job was to take Stella out, not research her motives and life's story.

"Did you say something Aki?" I nodded at the curious Chichiri while Shokyoku gave him a "back-off" expression.

His face fell. "Shokyoku, right?" I nodded again, hearing the disapproval in his rhetorical question. Shokyoku's name popping up again pulled the group's attention back onto me once more.

Groaning in an exhausted manner, Nuriko complained, "Shokyoku _again_? As if we don't have enough problems." A vein on the little girl's temple convulsed. You could tell that she was sincerely trying not to claw the Suzaku Warrior's pink eyes out. "It's like the universe really hates us today."

"You think _I'm_ a problem?" Shokyoku spoke with a low, eerie tone before completely exploding. "You don't even know how bad I can be—"

"Shokyoku is haunting an emotionless and unstable Akimoto while my country is being targeted by a lethal army." Hotohori walked up to me while casually holding his sheathed sword in his hand, unaware that he interrupted Shokyoku. An indistinguishable expression covered his facial features. "Suzaku must be testing my worthiness as an emperor." He then smiled while looking down at me. "I know this might not mean much to you right now, but as far as I'm concerned, you and Miaka are not only very dear to me, but I consider you citizens of this country." He was right, that didn't mean much to me. "Therefore, I will do everything to protect your well-being. And I believe that your well-being in in jeopardy as long as a bad influence such as Shokyoku is around you in your vulnerable state." _I'm not vulnerable. _Distracting himself with the issues of a single person was a bad move for an emperor to make.

"He thinks _I'm_ a bad influence? Please!" Shokyoku pouted while visually shooting daggers at him. "_I'm_ not the one responsible for putting her in this predicament." Her venting was to no avail, unfortunately for her, considering I was the only one around who could hear it. "Maybe he should swing the comment back around to himself." Then she uttered in a low volume, "Stupid human…"

"Perhaps you should be supervised until we can alleviate this problem—"

"No, it's not necessary," I told him. He blinked at me in mild astonishment. "Stop wasting your concern on someone who doesn't need it. I don't need you all to fight for me, I don't need you to fix my problems, I don't need your sympathy, and I don't need your protection." My expression was blank as I spoke, my voice in a slight monotone. "If you want to do what's best for your kingdom, then you need to lose the delusion that I'm somehow a part of the Suzaku equation. Your people will suffer as long as this displaced concern persists." Hotohori had to stay focused. He was emperor and there was no room for errors, not in the middle of war.

Lowering her head, Shokyoku's body shook vigorously. But before I could pin it as something serious, stifled cackling could be heard originating from her. Then she threw her head back and erupted in full-blown laughter. I blinked at her curiously. _I said something funny? _She was laughing so hard that she involuntarily wrapped her arms around her stomach and bent over.

"That…That was amazing Aki!" More laughter. "Way to tell him to back off!"

His hazel eyes becoming even more sorrowful, something softened even more on Hotohori's face as he examined me, not saying a word. Nuriko, however, averted my eyes as he killed the conversational pause. "She doesn't even get it…does she?" He asked to no one in particular. Shokyoku's laughing was still going on in the background, thought it was sounding like she was beginning to become tired of it. Even so, I was still the only one who could hear it.

Chichiri shook his head. "No, she doesn't…she can't, even if she wanted to, ya know?"

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Shokyoku got a grip on herself and cleared her throat. I still didn't understand how what I said even made her laugh like that—I wasn't trying to add any humorous elements into my statement. Well, whatever it was, it was over. She flipped her hair again as she stood on the border of the room and the outside. The remains of a huge smile still lathered on her lips. Snapping once with her fingers, she said, "Let's go Aki—I'm sure this meeting is over." As far as things went, the discussion was over, at least for us. Everything that concerned me had passed, therefore, I could leave.

I turned my back to the still growing Suzaku Seven and their priestess, tuning out anything else that they happened to utter that had absolutely nothing to do with me.

* * *

><p>"Don't waste our time." A black, crackling surge of energy covered Shokyoku's small hand like a glove, and she immediately shot herself at the pair of guards positioned in front of my room. Being at such a close proximity to the child, they didn't stand a chance. The moment the attack made contact, their coloring momentarily flashed through a darker shade. A spontaneous and aggressive shockwave blossomed at the epicenter of her palm, sending the armored guards flying straight to the wall—the intense impact and effects of the spell had no problems knocking them out cold as their bodies peeled off the wall and onto the ground.<p>

It had only been a few hours since the confrontation in Miaka's room. Shokyoku and I had only returned back to my room to rest and distance ourselves from the others. But now it was late in the night and there wasn't any doubt that they had relocated Miaka to a new, non-destroyed quarters, and everyone eventually separated, returning to their respected spaces.

No one had bothered to follow after me when I left, so Shokyoku and I were given peace for a little while. Nothing worth mentioning really occurred during the duration of time in between. But at some point, Shokyoku had told me that she had to do something important. Her form was beginning to fade in and out, without warning, adding to the urgency of her request. She didn't feel the need to tell me what was happening or where we were going, so I was kept in the dark. The thing we didn't expect was to discover two of the palace guards standing in front of my door—right on it really, as if they were there to keep us blocked in.

In fact, that was _exactly_ what they were put there to do.

I tried to open the door, but the insisted on keeping us in until after sunrise, telling me that Hotohori wanted them to keep an eye on my actions and whereabouts now that I was mobile again. To him, staying trapped in my room meant less damage to the outside world and its inhabitants. While I wouldn't doubt that theory, it certainly wasn't _their_ place to stop me.

Shokyoku slipped from my room without detection by the two guards, making it quite clear that she wasn't happy about the emperor's unnecessary interference. After a few shoves on the door, I was able to poke my head out and observe the little girl's tactics for alleviating the problem. The obstacle ultimately resolved with her knocking them out without hesitation. Upon opening my door completely, the unconscious bodies spilled over partly into my room. Hearing their faint breaths confirmed that they were indeed still alive, which was fortunate for them, I supposed, since I had no clue what Shokyoku's true intentions for them were.

Anyhow, there was no way to guess when they'd come to, so we had to take advantage of them being out if commission. On Shokyoku's orders, I grabbed the two guards by the back of their collars and dragged them off the porch, hiding them in some thick bushes directly across from my room. No one was likely to look there, and it would probably keep the other guards off our backs until we were through with our venture. The two of us quickly made haste as we traveled throughout the vast royal palace.

The activity in the palace was buzzing more than it would have on an ordinary night. Though things had died down since the initial pursuit of Stella, there were still more guards on patrol than usual. Hotohori was clearly taking caution to anything else that could possibly occur. Or perhaps it was more security to keep me at bay? It didn't matter. Shokyoku and I didn't plan on any more confrontations than were necessary. And after her attack on the soldiers, her form was not only flickering in and out, but lines of what looked like static interference crackled horizontally across her, similarly to those TV stations that were receiving bad signals. Her condition got worse after her attack on those two, and she couldn't risk wasting more energy on peons. All of this was helping to make things clear for me—Shokyoku was losing her connection to the outside world. Maybe she wasn't meant to stay out her for that long.

Just as we were about to round a corner, her tiny, sluggish body halted as mini gasps escaped past her lips. She weakly looked forward, and then around the corner. "Damn…I didn't think this whole thing through…" Just trying to make any part of her solid and physical took a bunch of effort from her, so who other than herself could possibly gauge how much she was giving when she was controlling Miaka? "I just remembered that she's probably not even there anymore…"

"She who?"

"Yuki." Shokyoku couldn't stand 99.99% of everyone she ever met or encountered, and Miaka was a part of that percentage. So why go looking for her? "It's really important that I find her, but it didn't occur to me until now that they'd put her somewhere else." She giggled feebly. "If I knew I'd be whacking my brain over this, I would have thought twice about demolishing her room." Instead of walking off with her nose high in the air, perhaps she should have done what she wanted with Miaka while she was still in our sights. Rounding back to the initial fact, I still had no idea why we were tracking her down. "Aki, sorry to ask, but could you please use your Aura Vision to see if you could spot her anywhere?"

I nodded once and closed my eyes. In the midst of the pitch blackness, silhouettes outlined with brightly illuminated halos emerged, some farther away than others. Each faceless form had specific color to their auras, some even changed in response , to different emotions or purposes. Some were clustered together, some were alone, and some, very few, were even walking around. But most of them stayed in their own areas and many were laying horizontally as they slept in their beds.

After a certain distance, it was difficult to trace the detailed outline of a certain person—in fact, it would be impossible at if I were expected to search too far away.

"So? Do you see her?" Shokyoku's aura was a non-surprising purplish-black, and while being at such a close proximity noticed the little details of it—how its energy was not at all still, but seemed to dance and flow unevenly, kind of like how the sun appeared on those close-up video feeds of it. However, it was peculiar to find how it was slowly dissipating. The flares were weak and not at all lively like the others I had seen. Her aura was like steam off a hot skillet in that it rose up and quickly disappeared. Which ultimately meant that it was true.

Shokyoku was getting weaker.

"Aki?" She tried again. "Do you?"

Opening my eyes to the more meticulous world, I saw her peering back at me with her eyelids drooping from weariness. "No. She's not in this immediate area. After about twenty yards, it's hard to tell who anybody is anymore." And it was a huge palace, Miaka could have been anywhere.

Shokyoku's shoulders suddenly dropped as she sighed. "That's just wonderful. Don't tell me that we're gonna have to search this entire place for her." A small roughness in her voice indicated that she was on the verge of tears. On the more positive note of that plan, we were to run into her at _some_ point.

But I had thought of a better way.

"Nuriko, Tamahome, Hotohori, or Chichiri would most likely know of her whereabouts."

Her expression then turned sour, like she had just eaten something foul. "The last thing I want to do is bring more people into our business." _You're already involving Miaka. _She sighed again in defeat. "You know where their rooms are at?"

"Yeah, I think so." I at least thought I knew for a fact where Hotohori was. After that night he proposed to Miaka, some things just stick with you.

Attempting to straighten herself up, she struggled to show me a wide smile that caught me off guard. _Huh? _"Well then Miss Aki," she said with a bit of whimsy in her voice, holding out her hand as if presenting me. "Lead and I shall follow~!" _Umm…okay? _The abrupt shift in her tone was certainly unexpected, but that didn't change our objective. I'd lead her to Hotohori so that we may learn of Miaka's location…so that Shokyoku could do whatever it was she needed to do.

We resumed our walk, with me leading the way this time, down several of the many paths that made up Konan's royal palace. I didn't care for spotting the little details of the scenery or of the structures' columns or designs and such. The sounds were few, being mostly void of the hustle and bustle of the tenants and servants performing their daily routines. Every now and then, we had to avoid a few patrolling guards, but it wasn't anything major and we were always successful in not grabbing their attention.

My attention floated back to the guards we stashed away. It was evident that they hadn't been discovered since no other soldiers were in a frenzy looking for us. Still, it was best to not be seen and just stay under the radar as best as we could. Starting a riot would not have been an efficient usage of our time and energy. The only convenient encounter would have been if we ran into one of the Suzaku Warriors, or better yet, their priestess. But the probability of that specific event was pretty low considering it was still the middle of the night.

At some point, Shokyoku broke the silence and said, "Hey Aki…something's been bothering me for a while…and I'm not completely sure about this but…are you able to tell what other people are feeling?"

Without visually addressing her, I told her, "No, of course not."

"What I meant was…Oh, how do I put this…" She thought about how to phrase her next words carefully, but there was no need for her to elaborate.

"In my current state, it's impossible for me to fathom the complexity of the emotions that intelligent beings possess. I'm pretty sure that I'll never understand the affairs of the heart." I ceased walking and then heard Shokyoku stop as well in response. "Besides, it's not like I did a great job of that before…"

"Aki…"

"However," I continued, "I was born as someone who could feel emotions—I've seen them and have been taught at a young age the relation to facial expressions, gestures, and the kind of speech that equates to specific ones. Keeping all those factors in mind, I can, at the very least, point out the three basic emotions." My memory took me back to the instances of the night's encounters. "When someone cries and their cheeks become red and puffy from tears, and if there's a hiccup or unstableness in their voice, it usually means they're sad." A picture of Shokyoku from earlier came to mind when she was telling me how she never wanted any of this to happen to me. Her eyes were glazed over with tears as she spoke to me. "When someone smiles and laughs and their eyebrows are arched high and symmetrically, it usually means that they're happy." When I first appeared in Miaka's room as she was held hostage by Stella, not only did she seem relieved, she had a wide grin when calling out to me using that pet-name "Onee-chan". "And when someone begins yelling a lot, nostrils flared, eyebrows having a negative inward slope, fists clenched, eyes narrowed, and gritting or bared teeth, they're usually angry." Nuriko and Tamahome were good examples of that with their reaction to my spell that was aimed at Stella and was dangerously close to Miaka. "The point is, it's a basic need of survival to be able to anticipate your enemies' next move. They're less likely to be benign and much more of a threat in anger, and that's when I need to start preparing for tactics of defense and offense, preparing for anything. Had I not been born with emotions in the first place or acquired the knowledge of identifying them, then I'd be no better off in the world that that of a helpless and naïve child."

Shokyoku just stared at me for a few more seconds before softly saying, "Oh, that makes sense I suppose…"

Off to the side, my peripheral vision caught hold onto a flash of movement under the moonlight. My head snapped in that direction, but I was too slow in spotting the unanticipated guest. _Was there even anyone there? _I knew there had to have been. Were we being stalked? Or was it just someone passing by? If so, then why move so quickly? Like…they were hiding something, trying to avoid getting caught.

Seeing that my senses had caught onto something, Shokyoku curiously followed the line of my sight. She tilted her head. "What is it?"

"There was someone over there…"

"Are you sure?" Quitting her attempts to see what I saw, she just shrugged and crossed her arms. "Even if there was someone, who cares? Weren't we going somewhere? I'm kind of on the clock here." Despite what she was saying, my attention stayed oddly fixated at the anomaly. I had to check out who it was. If it was a threat, at least I'd be able to confront them before they had even knew that I had caught on.

* * *

><p>The mysterious and elusive man leaped and sprinted through the sleeping palace, positive that one would detect his absence until the daylight hours. All he had to do was go over the wall and he was home-free. As he ran, he couldn't help but have his mind wander back to the maiden he left behind, sleeping blissfully in her room, thinking that he'd be the first person she saw when she woke up. It pained him to leave her, any minute he wasn't at her side felt like a thousand eternities. He wanted nothing more than to serve his duties as a Suzaku Warrior and protect the one he loved, feeding off of her warm smiles and the purity of her voice when she said his name…<p>

"_**Tamahome." **_

He'd see her smile in his thoughts and his heart ached. When she woke up and discovered that he wasn't there, no doubt she'd be devastated and frantic to find him—she'd be scared for him, but she'd be strong. He knew Miaka and her heart was set on summoning Suzaku and saving Konan. But until then, he'd have to take it upon himself to save Konan—his family, his friends, _Miaka_—by giving himself up to the enemy.

It was the only way…

There, off in the near distance Tamahome could spot the perfect side of the wall he needed to jump in order in order to make his way to Kutou. But before he could make plans to scale over it, a lone figure leaned against the structure, her blank crimson eyes staring him down, almost as if she could see right through him. He gasped at her presence there, knowing fully well that it was too late to try avoiding her. Slowing down his momentum, the teal-haired Suzaku Warrior approached his emotionless friend, curious of how she was able to predict his actions and meet him before he could go through with his decision.

"Aki? What're you doing here?"

* * *

><p>"If your goal was to avoid detection, then you failed," I told him. I wasn't completely sure it was him when I saw someone running out of the corner of my eye so I took a detour , strictly against Shokyoku's wishes, so that I might be able to cut him off, just to prove my unspoken hypothesis.<p>

And I was correct.

Chuckling, he scratched the back of his head nervously while a slight blush appeared on his cheeks. "Well, _I _thought I was doing a pretty good job, but you singe-handedly proved me wrong. I'll make sure to improve on that." Once his laugh settled down, he dropped his arm and looked at me somewhat seriously, a small smile still hung on his lips. "So, I guess you're gonna turn me in or try to stop me now, huh?"

"Tch." Shokyoku sat cross-legged on the ground next to me, leaning her head in a palm supported by her elbow on her knee as she glared up with spite at Tamahome, her grey-scaled body increasingly flickering in and out. "What she should do is punish you for taking a part in ruining our night."

Ignoring her statement, I shook my head lightly. "Why should I? This choice of yours is, after all, the most logical means of action." His body relaxed upon finding that I wouldn't retaliate. "Leaving here to keep Kutou's army at bay while we remain here to search for the remaining three warriors is a good plan…that is, as long as you stay alive—otherwise, it would all be for nothing."

There was a slight pause before Tamahome busted out with a choppy, uneasy laugh while robotically patting my shoulder. "It's definitely gonna take time to get used to the new Aki's somewhat macabre sense of humor! Gotta love how you stay on the positive side!"

I frowned, trying to contemplate his reaction to my words. _I was being funny again? Maybe people are catching onto a punch line that's going over my head… _How can these people take me seriously if they laugh at what I say?

Once his laughter died down, I permitted myself to speak again. "At least this path you've decided to take is an effective one—unlike the hesitance that that weak emperor displayed."

"Hey!" All joking was completely out of his system now as his patriotic urgency kicked in. "His Highness is a great emperor and leader. He only hesitates because he wants to make sure that he makes the best plan possible—for his country and his people. I can't even imagine the kind of pressure he's under all the time, especially now. Man, talk about a life of stress…"

I raised an eyebrow at his outburst. "You defend the man who is your rival for Miaka's affections?"

Closing his eyes, he squeezed his fists closed before releasing the tension and exhaling. "Yes I do. I'm not threatened by his advances anymore. I know that Miaka loves _me _and that he'd be wasting his time with that—but don't change the subject!"

"Okay then," I didn't know what the big deal was—there wasn't much of a reason for him to get worked up like that. "Back on topic. If Hotohori wanted to do what was best, he would have taken the obvious choice by letting you go instead of trying to look for the easy way out by thinking of something childishly creative. Had the situation not involved a large army having the power to strike at any time, then sure, he could pace himself. But since this is not the case, better safe than sorry."

He opened his mouth to say something, but resisted, which was visually noticeable with the obvious strain on his features. Grabbing the back of his neck with a hand, he rolled his head to loosen some tight muscles. "Well, I can see there really isn't a point in arguing with you. Just promise me that you won't tell Miaka until morning. Or…let her find out whenever she wakes up. I'd rather she still sleep peacefully and without a worry while she can."

"Alright."

Normally, I would have said that the likeliness of me randomly walking up to her saying that Tamahome was gone was extremely low, but since Shokyoku and I were planning on seeing her, I figured his request seemed valid. It wouldn't have really made a difference to me either way if she knew. But he was right, she'd know soon enough.

"Aki," Putting both hands on my shoulders he stared straight into me with his violet eyes complete focused settled in its shine. "While I'm there, I'll do everything I can to get Stella to reverse what she did to you."

Shokyoku chuckled mockingly without giving him her full attention. "Hate to break it to you, but that's not going to do you much good. But by all means, confront her. Having you killed would certainly brighten _my_ day."

He, of course, couldn't hear her death sentence for him. "We all want the old Aki back—we want you to be you again, with all your _pleasant_ sarcasm, stubbornness, and all."

Without faltering, I said, "But I'm right here."

Then, the most peculiar thing, his eyes softened in almost the exact same way that Hotohori's did when he was talking to me earlier that night. The look was just so different than anything I was used to. It definitely wasn't anger, didn't exactly seem like happiness, there was a similarity between sadness, but it was _different_ somehow. I just…didn't understand…

Out of nowhere, he placed his hand on top of my head rubbed it a bit as a more melancholic smile blossomed on his face—that odd look never leaving. "I should have went back to help youthe moment I was sure that Miaka was okay. I am so sorry Aki." _Why apologize? It's unneeded and it doesn't change the past. _It was just like a "what if" sort of thing. None of us could change what was. Besides, his interference with Stella and I would have ended up in his own demise.

_He shouldn't be a fool. _

His rubbing ceased, but his hand remained. "This whole patting your head thing probably would have been much more awkward if you had your emotions." His grin started to shed the sadness. "I have a feeling that you wouldn't like it much, so I might as well take advantage of your current mellow state!" I just stared at him, not knowing what the right response would be. Then he laughed softly. "Just kidding."

As he released me, Tamahome began to turn his back to us and facing the wall, leaving a small portion of the front of his body to be visible to me. "You, Miaka and the others stay safe, alright?" His head spun around while his eyes scanned for something. "Shokyoku, or whatever your name is," The little girl's cat-like eyes sharply shot to the corner as her addressed her, "please don't take Aki away. Miaka would be really upset to see someone as close as an older sister be absent in her life. She…can't lose the both of us."

Shokyoku gave her signature scoff while taking her eyes off him. "Stupid human…pretending like I give a damn…"

"Let's part ways on a more positive note," he said, no longer talking to her. "I'd like to see everyone together and in one piece when I come back." Crouching down for a split second, he launched his body into the air and landed flawlessly, like a feline, on the edge of the wall. He took one last look at the grand palace behind him and whispered something to himself with a far-off gaze. With his final glance at me delivered with a smile, I heard, "See ya," and then he was gone.

"_Finally_." Shokyoku picked herself up and fussed with her Lolita dress, trying to straighten out any wrinkles that might have formed. She took a few steps back towards the palace and our initial destination while her small, unstable body continued its steady deterioration. "Now that he's finished with throwing himself into the lion's den, we can proceed with what we were doing before—looking for Yuki."

And just like that, I resumed following the little girl on our search, almost as if we hadn't even stopped to confront Tamahome.

So now, the growing Suzaku members temporarily lost a member. They were being given time to search for the final three, one of which I already knew about, leaving two faceless identities. If no one screwed up, or as long as Kutou didn't go back on their word, which was a possibility (so they needed to act fast in order to ensure that Tamahome stayed alive), then Konan had a good enough chance at summoning their god and winning the war. That was fortunate and all for them, but my only focus was if all this assisting led me to Stella—otherwise, why stick around? It actually didn't make any difference to me who won or not. War was war, so someone had to lose—which meant that someone, probably a whole bunch of someones, had to die.

Suddenly, something in my brain sort of…clicked, causing me to halt prematurely on our search.

Shokyoku took notice and stopped again. "If someone else is attempting to break out of this palace, just _ignore_ them."

"It's not that."

"Then what?"

I didn't know why, but I closed my eyes and activated my power to see auras. The many color-bordered silhouettes emerged in my sight of blackness once more, seeing past the concrete walls and other lifeless, inanimate objects. This time around, my scanning wasn't in vain. Right next to me, only a few yards away was the bright-green outline of a sleeping girl. To anyone else with the ability, the picture would have been nothing, but I'd known that particular shape long enough to think otherwise.

I opened my eyes and saw the solid, closed door to the occupied room beside me—the one I was just peering through. "Miaka is in there—"

"Thank you!" The tiny girl shouted and ran right through the door onto the other side before I could even blink.

For a few seconds, I was left alone standing conspicuously in a suspiciously quiet corridor. Shokyoku and I may have gotten lucky in the final stretch, not having to hide from any guards. But odds were that one of them would turn the corner at any minute, and Shokyoku said that we needed to avoid any more confrontations. So I grabbed the door knob and twisted it, gently pushing the door open to not wake the slumbering priestess.

I closed the door behind me, then lifted my head to find Shokyoku standing beside Miaka's bed with her arms extended and palms fanned open towards her. A black, almost smoky-like veil of energy covered the small girl's body as well as Miaka's, causing the sleeping one to stir relentlessly and whimper softly but without waking. The energy seemed almost alive the way it escaped Miaka's being and continuously migrated to join with Shokyoku's person, increasing her own power. Shokyoku was sucking—no, _absorbing_ a part of Miaka into her, the result bringing back the healthier appearance she was meant to possess. Her breathing was steady once more and she no longer looked like her form was receiving bad reception.

The black energy of Miaka's thinned progressively, along with the link connecting hers to Shokyoku's. The dark purple-haired girl struggled to carefully sever the connection, lowering her arms slowly, allowing the transfer to safely complete itself. And then, it was complete. Miaka became suddenly calmed as she rubbed her cheek against her pillow, bringing a subtle smile to her peaceful face as she carried on with her undisturbed slumber.

Shokyoku rose up her arm and wrapped it with the other as she stretched her refreshed muscles. After dropping them to her sides, she faced me with a wide grin. "You have no idea how much I needed that, but I'm all better now!" I would have said something back, but I wasn't the invisible-to-the-rest-of-the-world Shokyoku. My voice might've work Miaka up. Shokyoku must have sensed my curiosity because she said, "I would've done it earlier while Yuki was in her original room with the others, but," She turned her head away and pouted her lips bitterly, "I _really_ didn't want to listen to all those humans bitch about it. 'It' being taking her Darkness to refuel my own." _So my hunch was pretty close. _Her face returned back to normal as she faced me again. "Now that I'm not in my space since it's…uninhabitable at the moment, I have to find another valid source of Darkness in order to stay in this form that you see here on the outside world…or rather…I need it to stay alive." Her space…the Dark Ring. I had actually been inside it when we officially met for the first time a little while ago. I was at the center of that ring my whole life. For the longest time, she had led me to believe that she actually was the ring—that this, what was standing before me with the Lolita dress, long hair, and orange and turquoise cat eyes, was just her humanoid form . But from what I was hearing, the ring was actually her space—her home.

My lack of emotions drained the Darkness in me to almost nothing, so she wasn't being sustained the way she needed anymore. But…

"Why Miaka?" I heard myself quietly ask. Shokyoku lived in the ring made of my Darkness, so why take someone else's?

She giggled and playfully spun around on light toes. "Things are kind of…_complicated_ with your system right now…as you can imagine. And…Yuki was the only other option." I cracked my lips open to ask again, but she interrupted and answered with a vague, "Don't ask me why cause it's a S-E-C-R-E-T!" _Huh. There's that small urge at the back of my mind again…telling me to hit Shokyoku with something hard. _I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow in self puzzlement. _Where is that coming from? _Shokyoku's hype managed to die down a notch. "The only downside to this whole thing is that Yuki's lack of all the Darkness I took from her will end up giving her good dreams while she's sleeping tonight. But~," She brought both arms to the back of her head and intertwined her fingers as a smug expression crossed her eyes and lips. "The moment her Darkness replenishes and she hears the news that her lover-boy is gone, she'll be sad in no time. So…everyone wins!"

"…"

Once morning came, the next chapter of the Suzaku Warriors and their Priestess's lives would begin. Depending on their strength and decision making, we'd see just how far they could actually go. With Tamahome setting the ball in motion, tomorrow could place the foundations for their victory, or utter destruction.

However way it played out, I'd complete my mission.

_I will get my prey. _

***It was now clear that Aki (and in conjunction, Shokyoku) would stay with Miaka and her Suzaku Warriors as long as it continued to benefit her and bring her closer to completing her mission of defeating Stella. Without her emotions, Aki really only cares about herself and her survival, thinking logically with every move she makes—while her friends sit off to the side, having to endure this new Aki until they find a way to reverse what was done. Now that Tamahome has given himself up to their enemies, he's allowed his friends time to turn the tide of the war, the remaining heroes must go out and search for the remaining three stars of Suzaku. Where will they find the next warrior? How will they learn to cope and accept Aki's temporary, yet new personality? What dangers await, and is Shokyoku's influence on Aki going to end up putting the warriors and their priestess into a dire situation? Are they still able to trust her? Well, I guess you'll have to find out next chappie!***

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><p><strong>So…how did you like the newest chapter? =D<strong>

**Keep in mind that Aki can't physically feel anything and she has no emotions, so you know why the writing seems a little flat and have lack of "feeling" and borderline robotic, especially since it's in her POV. So…please bear with me until when/if she gets her emotions back. **

**PLEASE REVIEW! Tell me your opinions, predictions, hopes, anything that spiked ur interest during the chapter—anything! For every new review I get, the less likely the Hulk will crash through my house and do the same thing to me that he did to Loki. Please save me a trip to the emergency room X3**

**OMG Deviant Art is sooooo addicting! I remember when I steered clear of that site, thinking it was stupid.**

**BOY WAS I WRONG.**

**I love that site! And people have been so supportive of my works X33**

**Speaking of which, for all of you peoples who have a DA account, head on over and join the Love-Hurts-5-Ways-FC—a group dedicated to the story—where people can submit artworks or literature based on the story and the anime in it. We already have over 130 members and I'm hoping that it turns out to be a real success! Other people have drawn Aki by herself and with her friends, and if any of this peaks ur curiosity, head on over! So, if you'd like please join ^^**

**Anyway, THANK YOU ALL SOOO MUCH FOR READING!**

**Until next time, **

**C ya!**

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><p><strong>Here are the trivia questions and such for ya~<strong>

***LH5W Fan-Questions #3! What do you think it will take to get Aki's emotions back? You think the same goes for her memory? Or do you think her positive memories are gone forever?***

***LH5W Trivia #7! Akimoto's name means "Autumn book" and Tsubaki is "Camilla Flower". Just in case anyone wanted to kno~***


	41. Hollow Soul of a Marionette, Part 2

**Hey everyone! **

**I hope everyone is doing well ^^ **

**First off, I am SUPER SUPER SORRY! It's taken me FOREVER to update! I just hate this semester SOOOO much! I have to do so much annoying reading and writing that I just COULD NOT find any motivation to write this chapter. I'd NEVER abandon this story, it just makes you not want to write when you have to write analytical essays as well as read some of the most boring stuff EVER—stuff that I just do not give a damn about—just makes you lose a bit of the spark, ya know? My classes could have been worse, I'll admit, but so far, this has been THE WORST semester—I hate not having top priority for class picking…So now I'm just praying that my classes next semester aren't so…hectic. **

**So…PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! Don't hate me for not updating in 3 months (btw, quick update on my life from the past 3 months...lets see...I turned 19 last month...I went to my old high schools homecoming game to play with the band again and that was FUN =D...I've been inspired to write a childrens book due to the most adorable event happening at my college...I lost some of my faith in humanity from just one philosophy class...and thats all i can think of besides being swamped with homework lol). **

**Thank you all so much who continue to put up with me and continue reading this story—especially after my seemingly long hiatus. It means a lot and I LOVE YOU ALL!**

**Here's Chapter 41!**

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><p><strong>*On the last chapter of <em>Love Hurts 5 Ways, <em>the emotionless Aki was introduced to Miaka and the Suzaku warriors, the main being controlling her motives was the tiny and adorable yet vindictive Shokyoku, whom the Suzaku Warriors and their priestess are wary of. Stella gave the group a message that if they didn't send Tamahome over to Kutou, then their army would wipe out Konan. The group hesitated to make such a rash decision while to Tamahome and Aki, the choice was clear—he had to go in order to buy the Suzaku warriors enough time to find the remaining three warriors. So while he sneaks off to the rival country, his actions now unknown to everyone except Shokyoku and Aki, the group is left with an emotionless and literally unfeeling friend who has absolutely no sympathy for them or anyone whatsoever and who only seems to be fulfilling an assigned mission to destroy Stella as well as look out for her own safety. For now, it is unclear if everyone can trust Aki seeing as how she almost killed Miaka without any regrets. But as long as it's clear that she's fighting on their side for the time being, perhaps they can rest easy and even find a way to deal with her until she can recover from this negative condition. **

**Meanwhile, we also learned that Shokyoku needs Darkness in order to sustain her life. Now that she's connected to someone who is unable to emit the necessary energy for her survival, she spitefully looks to Miaka for aid, without her knowing, seeing as how the priestess is the only one besides Aki whom she can get her Darkness from. The reason is unclear, but it's reality. **

**The story continues to unfold…***

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><p>There wasn't much to say about the rest of the night. Shokyoku got away with stealing Miaka's Darkness as she slept, and we were able to slip out of her room and back to mine without any detection. Apparently, I wasn't as much of a priority as I initially thought since no one seemed to have come to check on the unconscious guards who were supposedly assigned on making sure that I didn't cause trouble. In a way, that was convenient since we didn't have to deal with anyone bothering us about leaving, but in another sense, it was poor judgment on their part because they—I mean Hotohori—assumed that I could be managed by a couple of normal humans. He was lucky that I had chosen to side with them for the time being.<p>

As we returned to my quarters, I knew it as a time to go to sleep and rejuvenate—only, I wasn't really tired. Though it was true that sleep is a natural process needed to allow the body to rest and feel refreshed, I didn't feel the need to—only 'cause…I couldn't feel. Period. Regardless, it was actually a better plan that I should follow through. Shokyoku had no trouble hoping over my hollow body as she lied contently beside me on the bed, giving a small grin that seemed a bit melancholy to tell the truth, while wrapping her tiny arms around one of mine. Not thinking much of it, I continued on with my attempt at sleep. With a little added effort and after excessive staring at a dark, almost blackened ceiling, my eyes slowly shut and drifted me off to an uneventful, dreamless slumber.

It had been long after the sun had risen when a rude awakening encountered me. Only a few knocks on my door was heard in my semi-unconscious state, though at the time, I hadn't really pieced the connections together. That is, until there was an abrupt slam, which happened to be the catalyst that knocked me back into the awakened world of reality.

"Hey Aki! Rise and shine! A girl without emotions couldn't possibly need that much sleep." Nuriko. Usually it was customary to await someone's response before barging into a room. But obviously he thought himself so regal that he was above decency. Then again, customs in this world may have varied from the ones I was accustomed to. Well, at the very least, it wasn't like he walked in on anything important.

Opening my eyes, I found the room illuminated by the sun's peeking rays past the high windows, inviting a revealing morning light into my domain without consent quite similarly to the purple-haired intruder. And just as with the former, no harm done. I turned my head to see that Nuriko was crouched down to my height, with his arms rested on my bed as he smiled wide with his eyes closed—without a care in the world. _I guess he doesn't know about Tamahome then…_ Shokyoku sat up and wiped the crust from her eye as she sneered at the awakening situation.

"I was in high hopes that I'd just wake up to the site of Aki, then here this thing is to already ruin my day." For the most part, her eyes stayed squinty as they attempted to adjust to the brightness. She complained, "And what's with all this light? I can barely even open my eyes!" Shokyoku had been in a literal world of Darkness all her life, it made sense that she wasn't used to something as imposing as the sun. Her pale skin even made that point apparent. She may have been seeing the world through my eyes this whole time, but, now that I thought about it, this was really the first time that she'd be able to experience the world in her own body—as much as she could anyway with a form that was mostly intangible. "Can't we just wait until it's nighttime again? I don't like the world all lit up like this…"

Not to my surprise, Shokyoku's complaint went unaddressed both because Nuriko couldn't hear her and because I didn't see enough of a reason to answer—besides, it sounded more like a rhetorical question. She must have known why we couldn't waste time simply because she preferred a nocturnal schedule.

Leaning away from my bed, Nuriko whipped out a white handkerchief from out of nowhere in order to wipe away a fake, stray tear which was forming on the outside corner of his eye. "It's a shame that Stella had to come in the middle of the night and ruin my sleep patterns." Just as fast as he brought out the handkerchief, it was taken away from site while the self-righteous Suzaku warrior rubbed his cheek tenderly. "This baby smooth skin and shining exquisiteness doesn't just happen you know, it takes a fair amount of sincere beauty rest." His pink eyes abruptly locked onto me in what I interpreted as some attempt at taunting. "I don't really expect you to understand though—your sleep doesn't seem to give you justice like it does for yours truly. Women like myself are just born with more luck I suppose!~" And with that, he just stared at me wide-eyed with somewhat of a goofy smile on his face, setting down a silence of expectation that opened the floor for me to speak my next line, as if rehearsed. Only, I hadn't gotten the script for that day, therefore I had no idea what he expected me to say then. All I could do was blankly blink at him until someone explained to me exactly what was going on.

Considering the silence, I half-expected Shokyoku to come in with some kind of remark, but instead, she just gave Nuriko a grimace with her eyes partially drooped. She let out an exasperated sigh and then whispered off to the side in disapproval. "That's not going to work you simpleton…" Somehow she managed to catch on to whatever he was trying to do before I even had a chance to comprehend it.

After the passage of a few more moments, the rather uplifting gleam in Nuriko's eyes faded as he dropped his arm to the side, resting his hand on his waist. "Nothing, huh?" I tilted my head to the side to indicate that I was still in the dark about his motives. Sighing in a disappointed fashion, he shrugged in defeat. "I just had to try to confirm it. You really _don't_ have any emotions, do you? Usually if I said something like that, you would have retaliated somehow."

"Oh, I see…" Now things were cleared up. "You didn't believe Chichiri, Shokyoku, or I after last night? Did you think we were kidding?"

Chuckling silently, he closed his eyes and shook his head lightly. "No, it's not that I thought it was a joke, I was more like hoping that the solution was simpler than what we were expecting. Or maybe I was thinking it would wear off over night or something…I don't know…" His eyes opened to gaze into mine. "I guess I'm at fault here for thinking too optimistically."

"Or maybe you just fail at understanding the complexity of magic…" Shokyoku muttered under her breath.

Lifting himself up from the bed and onto his feet, Nuriko said, "Well, this only proves that I'm not very good at understanding the effects on this kind of magic on a person~" Shokyoku immediately jumped in response to hearing a statement that almost echoed hers.

"How the heck did he..?"

The coincidence was just enough to increase my own curiosity. "Did you by any chance hear anything before you last spoke?" I just had to ask him since it was supposedly impossible for anyone other than Shadow Maidens or I to hear or see the evasive little girl.

Nuriko blinked down at me in confusion. "Umm…no, I don't think so…Should I have?"

_So it was just a coincidence…Unless he's lying about not knowing. _But that might have just been me thinking too hard on such a trivial topic. "No, never mind. Forget I said anything."

Shaking off her moment of astonishment, Shokyoku tugged on my sleeve, using a smidge of energy, while still looking onto our visitor with contempt. "Ask him why he's here."

I followed through with her demand—after all, it wasn't like Nuriko to just come into my room for a friendly visit—actually, it wasn't like him to drop by at all. "What did you want?"

"What did I want?" He repeated my question as if trying to make sense of the words. There was probably a chance that he was attempting to switch his focus back onto the primary topic since whatever conversation he was initially went for got thrown off on a tangent. "Well, first I came to say good morning and check up on you." There seemed to be an awful lot of "checking up on me" lately. And I had an intuition that that phrase really only meant that people were keeping tabs on me to make sure that I didn't do anything that they and their emotions would disapprove of. It was really looking like everyone would be looking at me out of the corner of their eyes for as long as my situation persisted.

They really needed to invest their time on doing something more important.

Shokyoku was offended by his words, her offence being demonstrated by the raising of her voice a bit above inside levels. "You never cared about checking on her before—you're only here to babysit, even if you don't want to blatantly say it." Crossing her arms and snapping her head in the opposite direction of him, she added, "At least _I'm_ here because I care about Aki. _I_ want to be here." I gave her a sideways glance. _You _have_ to be here. _At the present moment, there was no way for me to tell if Shokyoku would actually stick around if she were to be given her freedom. The thought led my mind to wander to her condition now. She was out of her space, The Dark Ring, and here in the outside world. She could walk around and everything. Yet she still stayed relatively close. Which either meant that she wanted to be with me, or bringing it back to what I said prior about her _having_ to be here. Nuriko, unlike her, was not obligated to me in any way, shape, or form—so his motives were in question, but were, for the most part, obvious. As degrading to my status as it was, he was essentially there to babysit me.

Nuriko smiled. "And plus, I thought it would be helpful to help you get started on your day—now that's not a crime, right?" _Motives still in question. _His behavior was still too uncharacteristic to what I was used to expecting from him.

There was something that he was avoiding telling me.

I wasn't completely sure of this inference, but it would explain his change in demeanor.

As I swung my legs around to the side-edge of the bed to where my feet touched the floor, Nuriko referenced the door with his thumb. "I couldn't help but notice that the guards at your door weren't exactly up to the task of keeping watch. By time I got here, they were asleep on the job! And behind the shrubs of all places." _It took that many hours for someone to notice. _"I really only noticed them because they were just waking up all disoriented and such. And then I thought to myself, 'what are the chances that guards in front of _Aki's_ room would be knocked out cold in such a way?' There's no way that they would have gotten drunk while having to look after someone like you." His expression then became serious. "So then I put the pieces together and wondered what happened…" _Here it comes…he's going to lecture me about how it's not morally right to exploit magic against humans who are deficient in the skill. _People like him fail to understand that sometimes violence is necessary to get results—especially when dealing with a stubborn party. Wars happen sometimes because talking does not always get the job done.

I was completely thrown off when he perked up and proclaimed, "You knocked them out so that you could sneak off and see your secret boyfriend! I'm right aren't I?"

Shokyoku and I sat there staring at him for his ridiculous accusation. Then we simultaneously answered, "Not even close."

His response to that was a laugh, this one sounding sincere and not at all forced. _Why do people keep laughing at what I say? I really need the answer so that I may remedy it and make it so that people will take me more seriously. _"I was just joking." I continued to stare at him and his look became softer. "I wasn't really laughing at _you_ you. I just couldn't help but think how that conversation would have went if you were your normal self…" He sighed, saying something to himself so low that I wasn't able to discern what it was. Then he brought the topic back on track. "But I was right about you knocking them out, right?" He didn't give me the time to respond that it was technically Shokyoku who did it. "I don't blame you. No one wants to be cooped up in a room that long—especially with how long you were kept in here. I'd probably have done the same to be able to get out of here and breathe some fresh air." He shrugged. "Of course, I would have felt a bit bad for knocking out the poor guys—they were just following orders. But I guess that feeling of guilt just completely goes over your head, doesn't it?" He asked me.

"Pretty much."

"Well, I _know_ one things for sure," Nuriko's face flushed a bit as he held his cheeks in his hands. "If I were stuck in His Highness' room with no other option than to stay, I'd have absolutely no rejections to that whatsoever!"

Shokyoku tossed him a skeptical look of censure. "Suzaku _can't_ be serious. He chose this girl/guy to be a celestial warrior."

"Nuriko…what's this about?" I asked him.

His daydream subsided as my question brought him back to reality. "What?"

"This…acting casual around me." Effortlessly, I stood up and almost matched our eyes, but not perfectly since he was a couple inches taller. "Now, it's either you want something or you're hiding something—which is it?"

He frowned and placed his hands on his hips as his voice adapted an accusing tone. "So I can't simply be nice without some kind of ulterior motive? Is that what you're implying?"

"Yes." People were naturally like that in order to get a result that they want. It may or may not have been intentional, but that's basically how things went.

Frown deepening, his face scrunched up even more as his foot began to tap feverishly as he tried to maintain a calm stature. This lasted for only a second though, for then he ceased the tapping and folded his arms. "Things don't always work out so negatively—you have to learn that some people really are more sincere than you're giving them credit for. It's just plain rude to accuse someone without evidence—and someone who's your friend at that!"

"My 'evidence' is experience. And we're not friends…if anything we're associates working towards similar goals." I walked past him towards the door and missed any physical reaction to my words. Stopping a few feet away, I told him, "Don't confuse 'friendship' with 'working together'. Keeping those ideas separate and away from each other will prevent you from mixing them up and getting angry over a matter such as this."

From this, I heard him growl a bit before turning around and saying, "I'm not angry—well, I'm trying not to be. But more than anything I'm frustrated."

"Don't allow yourself to be."

"It's not that easy! You're not the one who has to deal with you like this…we're all trying to adapt but…but it's frustrating!" _I'm not the one who has to deal with me like this? _It was my situation, therefore I was more affected by it than any of them. Who were they to really complain? They chose to keep me around. If I _could_ feel, I'd be the one suffering by my curse and having to deal with it alone. At least this way I can get things done without the useless feelings of pity for myself or anyone else weighing me down. The rest of them didn't have my freedom though. They were all susceptible to drowning in whirlpools of sorrow, worry, and guilt—their mind's completely clouded to what was important. Which was why I wasn't so surprised by Nuriko's reaction to my non-reaction—he just didn't understand.

"I'm sorry," was all I could say.

He just stood there gazing down at me with an expression that was half-expecting, and half-disapproval, until he eventually sighed in exasperation and relaxed his arms, allowing them to hand at his sides. "No you're not…you're just saying that because you think you should say that—not because you honestly mean it. It would be impossible to be mad at you because you can't understand my feelings."

Trailing behind me almost like a shadow, Shokyoku tossed the Suzaku warrior a scornful look. "You can't talk about being upset that she can't understand your feelings…I've had one day…_one day_—no, less than a day with Aki where she sympathized with me and knew that I sincerely cared about her. Just that one moment in all the years of my life I was the most happy because I thought that we'd be together like that more often. But now, not only has she known you monkeys for a significantly smaller amount of time than she had known me and has got to see you all every day that she's been here so far, but it's because of all you that my Aki is so messed up now." Her voice began to crack as a sob could be heard from her. "Now she won't even acknowledge me the way she did—now she has absolutely no sympathy for me and it's all because you humans ruined everything!"

Nuriko apparently had a better sense of perception than I initially thought, since I could tell that he was reacting to the sudden change in the flow of chi that she was creating. His body vibrated ever so slightly as it started to shift uncomfortably in his spot as his eyes attempted to hone in onto where the disturbance was originating from. "Something's happening…But what is it? Is it Stella again?"

Drawing her arm back, a swirling ball of black and purplish fire concentrated itself in Shokyoku's palm, growing ever bigger as her emotions fueled the energy. Nuriko's eyes caught onto it, seeing as how the energy she was collecting was not invisible like the rest of her was. The warrior held his stance and stood prepared, yet perplexed to the obvious threat.

Throwing my hand onto the top of her head, Shokyoku's small body jumped as she looked back at me with a look which seemed a mixture of fury and distress. "Don't waste your energy—this isn't something worth getting worked up on." I took my hand off her head and she calmed down, calling back the energy that she brought forth.

Then, discarding the feeling as if it were nothing, the little girl scoffed and looked away, pretending to be disinterested with the situation that she was so zealous about moments before. "Whatever…I'm not going to trouble myself with the likes of this queer human." She puffed her cheeks. "It's not like that or any of them can hear a thing I'm saying anyway…those inferior monkeys…"

"That was weird…where did it go?" Nuriko looked around for the black fireball, but not a trace of it was left behind. "I mean…that did just happen, right?" I nodded. "So if you can't use magic, then it must have been that girl hanging around you. What was her name…Shutpoku?"

Anger marks appeared on her cheeks and all around her head as she shouted, "IT'S SHOKYOKU YOU DUMB MONKEY!" so loud that the whole palace seemed to shake. Bringing a fist back, she said, "How dare you forget a name as perfect as mine you simpleto—" As she swung her fist forward in an attempted punch, she immediately became disoriented as her whole body phased right through his, and unlike last time when she lost her balance, she couldn't intercept this one with her foot. She went down with a thud, face down to the ground, and there she remained for several moments. "Dam…mit…" From the hair that was moved away, I saw her ears turn a shade of bright red. "I forgot that I wasn't tangible…" _And that's why emotions screw you up. _

Nuriko, being completely unaware to any of this that was going on, continued looking on in confusion. "And now I just felt a slight breeze…hey are you being haunted by ghosts _and_ Shutpoku?"

Shokyoku turned her head while still on the floor as streams of tears rushed from her eyes, the blush on her cheeks still evident. "I'm not haunting anyone and my name is Shokyoku…" Gathering herself from that spot, she crawled over to me and wrapped her body around my leg. Then she peered up at me with big watery eyes while pointing back to Nuriko. "Akiiiiiii! Can I pleeeeease kill him? I j-just wanna do it soooooo baaaaad!" I couldn't help but think how all of this could have been avoided if no one had cared about what the other said or thought. This charade was just wasting a bunch of time.

"No, you can't kill him." Then I addressed Nuriko in order to help resolve this whole thing. "Yes, for the most part, that was _Shokyoku_ –not Shutpoku—and she would appreciate it if you didn't mispronounce her name—"

"There's a difference between mispronouncing and getting it _completely_ wrong!" Shokyoku complained as she continued to cry while burying her face into the side of my hanfu. "They're all such idiots Aki! I hate them all so much!"

"Oh, really?" Nuriko gasped and hovered an open hand over his mouth. This was followed by a wide smile and cheerily closed eyes. "Silly me, I guess my memory must have slipped from last night. I apologize for the mix-up!" _I don't think I'll ever know if that's sincere or not. _He opened his eyes as the perkiness began to fade. "By the way, what was with that black energy? Was she trying to attack me or something?"

"Don't worry about it."

He shook his head as he talked to himself. "And to add to the difficulties, Aki's got this invisible girl hanging onto her for dear life for some reason. I'll pray to Suzaku that things don't get even more complicated than they are now. And with Tamahome missing again—" At that he cut himself off, and looked at me in such a way that he was expecting something again. This time I anticipated what he must have wanted. He wanted me to be surprised about this fact. What he was unaware of was that I was the first to know of this bit of information. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Didn't that surprise you?"

"No."

"But he's gone…I mean, with how things developed recently, he decides to go _now_."

"Yeah, I know." I was actually more surprised of how surprised he was. Tamahome made the right choice.

"He left a letter and everything to Miaka—I can't believe he'd just follow through with what Kutou wanted—that's such a brash move! We figured he must have left pretty late for nobody to notice—" Then the realization of what I had just said finally hit him. "Wait, what do you mean you _know_?"

"I was the first to know—I saw him off."

"And you didn't say anything?!"

"He told me not to."

Slapping his hand to his face, Nuriko groaned. "Oh Aki…" His hand descended as it slipped completely from his face. He muttered softly, "It's like dealing with a child—Look," He spoke up signaling that he was addressing me full on again. "I won't tell His Highness that you knew about this, but just tell me why you thought that this was a good idea—without consulting the rest of us on it no less." His concerned expression lingered on me as he spoke. "We're a team, and it's kind of important that we collaborate. I know that ring makes you lose your emotions and because of Stella you lost your—" He caught himself going too far in that last sentence—stopping before saying anything that he'd regret. "Disregard what I was about to say, but you do know what a team is, right?"

Was he insulting my intellect by assuming that I didn't know the meaning to simple words? "Yes, of course I do."

"Then you need to start acting like it. I really don't want any miscommunications like that to get anyone hurt—what if something happens to Tamahome? I don't mean to jinx it, but that would not only hurt our cause, but break Miaka's heart. There's a reason why His Highness told us all to sleep on it so that we'd discuss it in the morning…"

My voice remained flat as I spoke. "I'm sorry that my decision has upset you and others so much. But I stand by what Tamahome and I believe is correct. This was the right choice." For a few moments, the two of us just stood there, staring each other down with intense gazes, neither one in danger of backing out. However, his glare was more intentional than mine, seeing as how I was confident on my fact and wasn't exactly determined to get him to see things my way. Tamahome had gone to Kutou—it was what it was. And what it was, was the right thing to do for Konan, even if the rest of the Suzaku warriors failed to see that.

They'd come to see things my way in due time.

Nuriko released his gaze and moved past me and opened the door, allowing even more of the sunlight to barge in, scaring any shadows that may have before dominated the space. Without giving me a straight look, he said, "There really is no arguing with you on the matter, is there?" Then he maneuvered around me, forcing Shokyoku out of her nested place around my leg, to this she let out a loud, "hey!", and applied some force to move me forward towards the outside.

"Where are we going?" Once we were out, Nuriko shut the door before Shokyoku even had a chance to follow us through.

"You and I can go back and forth on the matter all day, but there are things that just must be done—I think we've kept the others waiting long enough." Then he continued to herd me in a particular direction in the palace.

Shokyoku phased through the physical door without any trouble, but couldn't help but cringe the moment her skin came into contact with direct sunlight, to which she let out a loud, "Gah!" Attempting to keep up with us, she flattened her whole body against the wall where the shade was and proceeded by walking sideways, making sure that her pale complexion never again brushed up against the rays of the morning star. "How can _anyone_ say that that blasted ball of gas is pleasant?! It's much too bright, it's hot, and it makes everything look too cheery! The colors are blinding me and those rays are bound to mess up my perfect skin. I cannot work under these conditions!" I heard her complain from behind. "Akiiiii!" She cried out. I didn't find much of a need to look back or offer any assistance. Shokyoku was a resourceful girl, I assumed—she'd figure something out.

Somewhere along the line, Shokyoku's voice trailed off as we left her behind. As in distress as she sounded, her melodrama was not enough for me to give notice. With the curse, there was no way that she could be too far from me at any time, again, I assumed, so at some point, she'd find a way to get over her sunlight phobia and catch up.

Meanwhile, Nuriko and I persisted on to Miaka's room without any words being exchanged between us—not that there really needed to be. After all, I think we've both said what we needed to say to one another. And frankly, I was beginning to believe that most of my conversations with any of these people were a huge waste of time. Most of their words and opinions were being fueled by emotions, so they'd never come to see things the way I saw them. They really were too inadequate to make any necessary decisions on their own…

During the last night when Shokyoku and I were looking for any Suzaku warrior to tell us Miaka's location, we failed to continuously scan at certain checkpoints to see if the priestess was around anywhere. My point being that she was actually closer to our location than we initially thought. It was not that much of a clumsy blunder considering our overlook was justified by the fact that it is much easier to see and identify a certain person's aura when you are closer to them—the fact is actually quite true for when you want to see anything really. Added to that, our minds were so focused on looking for the Suzaku warriors and dealing with Tamahome that it didn't occur to us to keep scanning. At least it was convenient to know that Miaka was closer than we thought—information that may prove helpful in the future.

So the two of us, Nuriko and I, arrived at the girl's room in a fair amount of time. The voices of the others were jumbled and indiscernible at first, but once the proximity began to close, I was able to distinguish more easily who was talking.

But before we had a chance to turn into the girl's room, Shokyoku came running at us from behind, her voice yelling out, "Wait, Aki! I'm here!" This time, I stopped to look back—a request of my curiosity. And there with the little girl was something I did not expect to see. Her whole body was covered with a barrier of shade while in her hand she held a pitch-black parasol with ruffled lining around its circumference that spanned wider than her entire body, making it so that absolutely no sunshine touched even an inch of her. _Where did she get that? _

"Where did you get that?" I asked her.

At my question, Nuriko turned to see what the hold-up was, and almost instantly, his eyes widened as he faced the more than obvious umbrella standing out in the middle of the hallway. "Is that a black parasol? What's it doing here?" Inching closer to it, he placed a few fingers over his mouth as he inspected the strange phenomenon. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but this thing is floating on its own, right?"

I shook my head. "Nope."

"Huh…then it's Shokyoku again? She's the one holding it?" I nodded.

"Ah yes, I see that the girly monkey has noticed the fruits of my genius and good-taste," Noted Shokyoku who rested a hand on her waist while she tossed her head in arrogance—somehow managing to elicit sparkles that floated around her head as she spoke. "At first, I didn't know what I was going to do about that pesky star in the sky but then I remembered how amazing my powers are. I simply manipulated shadows influenced with a smidge of Darkness and voila! A little molding and creative talent formed this umbrella that will keep those rays off of my skin." _So that's how she pulled it off._ Judging by how calm and lively she was, it occurred to me that this wasn't necessarily wasting any magic since the energy literally remained in her hands…just concentrated…and in the form of a parasol. So concentrated in fact, that even Nuriko could see it.I couldn't help but recall when she and I first met face to face. When she was in the Dark Ring, she used her powers to make some kind of black throne that she sat in. This power to manipulate shadows and Darkness in such a way seemed eerily similar to something else I've witnessed…

"Shokyoku _again_? Doesn't that girl have anything better to do than follow you around all day?" Nuriko complained with a slight groan in his voice from exasperation. "I mean," Bringing his hand up, he repeatedly poked my cheek. That's what it looked like he was doing anyway since I couldn't feel it. "You're not really that interesting right now, so I don't see the appeal."

"Hmph!" Shokyoku threw her head to the side. "As if I really care about whether or not _you_ want me around. I'm here for Aki's sake, not you humans'."

"Hey…" The blue-haired monk poked his head out of Miaka's room and peered at us with a troubled expression, witnessing the out of ordinary position of Nuriko pulling my cheek across from the mysterious "floating" parasol. For a few seconds, he didn't say anything as he tried to figure out the chain of events that lead to that scene. "What exactly…is going on out here?"

Nuriko and Shokyoku blankly blinked at him before the former released my cheek and proceeded to lift both my arms outward as we faced the monk. "Oh, it's nothing really—I'm just trying to convince the tacky parasol that Aki is no better off than a lifeless doll." He repeatedly lifted and lowered my arms, moved them back and forth and around in an odd manner as if he were a little girl playing with a toy for the first time and trying to figure out all of its functions. "Then again…I've played with dolls, and they're more entertaining than she is. Plus they smile."

Clenching onto the handle of the umbrella, Shokyoku ordered, "Don't call Aki a doll you—" Then suddenly, right in the middle of her sentence, something became apparent to her, causing her widen her eyes for a split second before stomping her foot on the ground and throwing down her free hand in irritation. "And what exactly do you mean by 'tacky'? I'll have you know that I possess more fashion sense in my _pinky_ than you'll ever possess in your entire li—"

Chichiri sighed while dropping his head. "I think there are more important things to focus on at the moment, ya know?" Shokyoku and Nuriko both ceased their mindless squabble at the monk's command, listening to a particular voice coming from the nearby room. It was a female…and she sounded distraught—with her tone shaky and rather low compared to how vocal it usually was.

"I can't believe that Tamahome would just leave like that—that he'd just…leave me behind. I would've went along with him without question! Not even if he tried to pry me away…I just don't want to be separated from him! And now he's…he's…"

"Miaka…" Hotohori tried to soothe her with his words. "I know it's hard, and I don't particularly condone his actions…but I'm positive that Tamahome took your best interest to heart when making this decision."

The three of us moved to her room's entrance, witnessing the teary-eyed, puffy faced priestess who sat on her bed, still in her pajamas from her world, clenching onto a piece of paper for dear life. On her cheek lie a reddened line, the scratch left by Stella the night before, just now beginning to heal. The emperor sat beside her, a concerned look on his face as he wrapped a comforting arm around her trembling shoulders.

"Hmph!" Shokyoku scoffed at the sight. "So the baby's crying because she lost her favorite toy, huh? Big deal. If she breaks down this easily, perhaps she shouldn't even be priestess of anything."

"Miaka's been upset from the moment she woke up," Nuriko told us with a long face. "You should've seen her before I came to get you guys—she was so determined to search every inch of the palace to find Tama." It couldn't have possibly been that difficult to put all the pieces together. For the time she was wasting running around like a chicken without its head, she could have been doing some more productive. I scanned the room and noticed everyone, except Shokyoku and I, giving Miaka the most sympathetic expressions I had ever seen. _This pity party is getting nothing accomplished. _Although I have come to learn that the only way these people could really function was by going through pointless cycles in emotional extremes—either that, or marinating in someone else's cesspool of emotions. I couldn't help but wonder how efficient the world would be if everyone had my fortune. "But at some point she must have realized he was gone…even before finding that letter he left for her." _Letter? _So that's the paper she's holding.

Looking a bit uncomfortable, Chichiri intervened with his priestesses sulking. "Miaka, I know you must be upset, but…Priorities, ya know?" She lifted her heads up to him. "Tamahome gave us this chance, against our consent or not, and we should take it to find the other warriors, ya know?"

"Yeah, it's not like we have very many of us left to find," Nuriko joined in the encouragement. "I'm sure we can leave and get the final three before anything bad happens to Tama-kins!" Something in that last sentence of his triggered Miaka's tear ducts, seeing as how she began to chew on a white handkerchief with pathetically teary eyes as big as dinner plates. Jumping from her reaction, Nuriko held up two hands to her to try and calm her down. "But of course nothing bad will happen to him! I wasn't thinking when I said that. Tamahome will be fine—no doubt about it." He turned to me. "Right, Aki?"

"Oh, I don't know. He could be fine."

Miaka's eyes then began to look hopeful past the tears. "Onee-chan?"

"On the other hand, it's also possible that Stella was lying and they killed Tamahome the moment he crossed their border and they're only telling us he's alive so that we'd be playing into their game even more by putting us into a false sense of security." At this, Miaka began to squeal.

"Aki!" Nuriko scolded.

"When you think about it, there's really no benefit on their end keeping him alive. It doesn't even make any sense that they would. I mean, why would a country who has such a strong army with the potential of crushing their enemies just stop what they're doing just for the possession of one guy?"

"Akimoto!" Holding onto his priestess even more Hotohori joined in Nuriko's chastisement. "Can't you be more sensitive to Miaka's position right now?"

Chichiri scratched the side of his cheek lightly. "Of course she can't, ya know?" Hotohori gave him a look. "No disrespect Your Highness, but haven't you been paying any attention to recent events?"

I tilted my head, not understanding what I said wrong. "What? I did say that he could be fine."

Hotohori groaned, only shaking his head in response to Chichiri and I, then turned his attention back to Miaka and said, "At this point, we can't lose sight of what's important—"

"I know," She replied. He blinked at her while she wiped away her tears with her arm, then abandoned the letter on her lap as she lightly slapped her cheeks simultaneously with both hands, ultimately ending up with her placing a small, determined smile across her lips. "I can't just be sitting here crying like a baby—you guys are right…despite what Onee-chan said…and I know she really didn't mean it, but I know that Tamahome is still alive…" Her hands fell down to the letter once again, holding it so tight almost to a point where she ripped it. "He just has to be…I know that Yui wouldn't have him killed! She may be mad at me, but she's not that kind of person…she'll—I mean, Kutou will keep their word…"

"If this is Miaka's friend's idea, which we're still not completely sure that it is, then because she's the Priestess of Seiryuu, they'll most likely honor her wishes, ya know?" _I wouldn't be so sure about that. Yui has a vendetta against Miaka. Killing off her boyfriend would be the perfect revenge. _Chichiri continued, "But we can't exactly ignore what Aki pointed out either, ya know? I don't see exactly why they'd keep him alive…especially since they have the upper hand…"

"Chichiri! You know better than to take Aki seriously right now!" Nuriko pointed out. "You more than the rest of us should know that she's all gloom and doom right now, so of course she'll see the glass as half empty and given the situation, it'll do none of us any better to think that way."

"I'm being realistic, not pessimistic," I informed him.

He shot me a glare. "Clearly you can't see the difference between the two right now. The Aki I know would have assured that Tamahome was okay—or at least she would have ensured it in order to settle Miaka's nerves." I probably would have said something like that—for some reason or another, I must have enjoyed giving people false hope.

"Then!" Miaka spoke up above the rest of us, making us all face her. "Then we need to make sure ourselves…I mean, I don't know how exactly we can do that, but I know that we should do all that we can to help him out! He did this for a reason, right? He did this to help Konan, and I have no doubt that Onee-chan was on his mind as well. Tamahome's doing his part, and even though I don't like it, and I mean, I hate it so much that it makes me sick, but we have to go on without him." Snapping her head up, we all got sensed the fiery determination she was harboring in that body of hers. "I know we'll find those last three warriors, we'll get Tamahome back, and we'll find a way to help Onee-chan." Everyone besides Shokyoku and I all flashed smiles at her, then nodded once in agreement.

"Exactly, ya know?"

"Well said Miaka."

Nuriko held up a finger and winked at her. "Oh, and don't forget, we're going to summon Suzaku as well!"

Miaka nodded enthusiastically while smiling widely. "Yup! Definitely!"

_Summon Suzaku…_That's right. While we still had three warriors to go, who was to say how many more _they_ had? Kutou was probably just as determined to summon their god just as Konan was—which meant that while we were searching for our last few, they'd either be doing the same thing, or taking advantage of our absence to either summon Seiryuu. For all we knew, they could have had only one more to find. Then what would we do? More importantly, what would be Stella's hand in all of this? My eyes captured everyone's happy exteriors as a result of Miaka's speech. I decided to keep these thoughts to myself, seeing as how sensitive they all seemed to get whenever I spoke or said something that wasn't to their liking.

Shokyoku rested a hand on her hip as she closed her eyes and turned away from the scene. "Is it just me, or do you get a little annoyed when these people are _this_ happy?" Then she abruptly opened her eyes again while giving a nervous chuckle. "Oh…right…never mind."

"So, what's our plan gonna be?" Chichiri asked. "We're not gonna get anything done just sitting around here!" Everyone silenced as they tried to come up with our next plan of action.

Then, Hotohori spoke up. "It's important that Miaka go out to find our remaining comrades. And I'd be grateful to Chichiri and Nuriko to accompany her and keep her safe." _Just those two should go with her? _When he realized that everyone else was probably wondering the same thing I was, he frowned and continued. "It can't be helped—as much as I'd love to be with Miaka and support our cause, I must remain here and govern my country—if Kutou ever received word of my absence, I have no doubt that they'd definitely break their word and attack."

Miaka put a hand on his arm with a saddened countenance, shaking her head as she attempted to insist that he come with her as well. "But Hotohori, we—" Taking her hand in his, the emperor looked deeply into her eyes, making it seem as if they were exchanging some sort of sentimental silent message that was meant only for them.

"I'm really sorry Miaka—the thought of you going out there, without me, shreds my heart to pieces, but my country needs me to be here." He turned his head towards us. "But I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Chichiri and Nuriko will keep you safe." Smiling in our general direction, he said, "I trust them completely and I have very much faith in their abilities."

Nuriko's automatic reaction to Hotohori's confidence in them was for his face to suddenly turn into some shade of red while holding his cheeks with a goofy smile on his face. "Oh Your Majesty! I can't believe you think of me so fondly! I'm honored!"

"It is quite the compliment to be getting from you Your Highness—and we understand your predicament, so we'd be happy to assist and protect Miaka—and that's not just because we have to since we're Suzaku warriors, ya know?"

Okay, so he singled out Nuriko and Chichiri, but failed to say anything regarding what my role in this journey would be. "I was not included…why is that?"

"Akimoto…I know that you're fully capable of using your powers to help but…" Giving one last longing look at Miaka, he stood up and made his way towards me, stopping short of just a few feet. "I'd feel much more comfortable if you were to remain here…under my watchful eye." _Remain here? And do…nothing…_There's no role for me to play…I didn't fit in to their plans. So I would just stay at the palace until they came back. And then…

"UNACCEPTABLE!" Shokyoku's shouting broke me away from my train of thought—her sudden outcry vibrated between my ears, making me echo her words in my mind. _U-Unacceptable? _In a flash, she contracted her umbrella and dashed up to Hotohori, tilting her head almost ninety degrees in order for her to see his face from her short height. "How dare you belittle my Aki! You may be the emperor of a human nation, but you have absolutely _no idea_ who you're talking to! You people would be lucky to get anything done without her!"Bearing her teeth, her differing cat-like eyes glowed above her grey-scaled form as she hissed at Hotohori, who took no notice of her whatsoever. Realizing this, she muttered under her breath, "_Dammit_…" Leading to her running over to Miaka on the bed and smashing her tiny palm onto the other girls' shoulder. The moment Shokyoku made contact, Miaka's body jerked, followed by the familiar hanging of her head as Shokyoku's essence began to take control.

Seeing Miaka's awkward pose caused Nuriko's eyebrows to pop up as he leaned a bit to the side to get a better view of her. "Miaka?"

"Where do you get off…" Their priestess whispered.

"What?"

Bringing her head up abruptly, Miaka's eyes shifted to match Shokyoku's, and her face was riddled with fury as she glared at Hotohori. "Where the heck do you humans get off telling Aki what she can and can't do?! The nerve!" Alarm struck the Suzaku warriors as now they were faced by the same "malevolent" presence that possessed their priestess the night before.

The face on Chichiri's mask scrunched with concern. "Shokyoku."

She/they let up a bit on their anger. "At least _someone_ has enough brain cells to remember my name." At the very last words of her sentence, Shokyoku/Miaka visually shot daggers at Nuriko who jumped a bit from the intensity of her stare.

It didn't take very long for Nuriko to retrieve his blasé stature and cross his arms while facing her. "Yeah, yeah, so I messed up your name before, my bad—but did you have to try and threaten me with that black fireball? That was very immature by the way."

Shokyoku/Miaka's eyebrow twitched while averting his eyes. "I'm ignoring you—out of all the monkeys, you are the _least_ worth my time." Nuriko clenched his fists and held one up to his face, ready to go off on a tangent and engage in a meaningless argument. Fortunately for the sake of this conversation actually getting somewhere, Chichiri stepped in.

"And how about you releasing Miaka?" He asked.

She/they turned to him. "I'll let her go once I get my point across," a statement that lead to her shooting a look back at Hotohori.

Without phasing from the presence of the intruder into his priestess, Hotohori tried to reason with her in a firm voice. "I only have Akimoto's best interest at heart." _What exactly is my best interest?_

She scoffed and made her tone as cold as ice. "That's a lie. You're excluding her because you don't trust her—you think she's dangerous so you're willing to abandon your faith in her. Not that I want her to be included with any of your affairs…" I supposed in their eyes, I would be a danger to them, wouldn't I? Those people who didn't understand the concept of doing whatever it took to win. They were too overly sensitive and their paranoia's would get them killed. I was a weapon that they were too afraid to use.

Pity.

Hotohori sighed at her accusation. "You jump to conclusions too quickly. I'll ask that you do not assume my intentions. Akimoto is in a difficult and complex situation right now, we can't risk anything else happening to her…" His eyes trailed a bit to the side as his sentence seemed to die off. Something about his words seemed a bit…strained—like he had to convince himself to say what he did.

Shokyoku's orange and turquoise eyes glowered. "You don't want to risk anything happening to _her_, or you don't want to risk something happening to your priestess?" Hearing someone say the truth out loud made Konan's emperor clench his teeth and fists while clasping his eyes shut. Was it really so hard for him to admit that? I figured that was the reason. I didn't see why it was such a bad thing for him to say…or not say. It was his duty to protect Miaka, so naturally his first instinct would be to keep her away from any hazards. And I could not guarantee that she wouldn't get hurt with me being around her. But wasn't that the point of having her warriors around? To protect her? If they were competent as Suzaku pinned them to be, then they shouldn't have been so lacking in confidence with their abilities. So…maybe this was a matter of a lack of self-assurance on their part? "You all are just treating her as a burden at this point…Believe me if that monk didn't potentially have control over Aki with that ring on her head, I'd relieve you guys of her presence in an instant."

Before Hotohori could rebut, Chichiri made an inference. "Umm…by this point, I've figured out that you probably don't have a solid form." Shokyoku/Miaka's eyebrow cocked up while the monk lifted his index finger while explaining. "Which probably means that even if the ring wasn't an issue, you still most likely wouldn't be able to physically take her anywhere—something you made pretty obvious by taking over Miaka to communicate with us, ya know?" Shokyoku/Miaka's eyes blinked wide, a blush running across their dumbfounded faces.

She/they stuttered angrily through their words as they worked through her embarrassment from Chichiri realizing a flaw in her threat. "Sh-Shut up! D-Don't underestimate me and pretend as if you know what I'm all about you inferior human! You don't know what I can and can't do!" Adding an extra bit of energy, Shokyoku, who still had a bit of a blush on her face, made Miaka point an accusing finger at the Suzaku warriors. "Just know this: Only I know what's best for Aki and you guys should be grateful that I allow you to be blessed with her as long as I've been—so start acting like it!" And with that, the little girl took her hand away, breaking the connection. The absence of the energy that once filled her left Miaka temporarily empty, making her fall forward and almost off her bed, if it weren't for Hotohori who moved fast to hold her up.

"Miaka, are you alright?" He said while repositioning her onto the bed.

She held her head with her hand and gave a reassuring smile. "Yeah…I'm fine! Just…some things take some time to get used to." _I wonder how often Shokyoku plans on manipulating Miaka like that…_

Upon finding that his priestess was alright, Chichiri breathed a sigh of relief, and then proceeded with speaking to who he couldn't see. "Shokyoku, I know you're still there, ya know?" He had her attention. "For some reason or another, you're attached to Aki and this may be something that we'll have to accept. You accuse us of having little faith in Aki, well, it looks like you have little faith in us. Even if you only see what you want to see, the truth of it is that we do care about Miaka—she's very important to us for more reasons than one and it will always be our main priority to look out for her, ya know? But we also care about Aki. She's our friend for better or worse."

"And seeing how things are going, I say that it might spiral a few times on the worse side before it gets any better," Nuriko commented off to the side.

Chichiri sweat-dropped. "Not helping…But the point is that we need her just as she needs us, ya know? So try going a bit easier on us, alright?"

Shokyoku crossed her legs and tossed her head to the side in a huff. "Don't flatter yourselves. And I'll treat you however I see fit…intolerable humans…" Being a spectator of this whole performance, the result to me appeared as if Shokyoku lost. Lost what exactly? I wasn't sure, but she had an air of failure surrounding her so I guessed that whatever that was, she did not come out on top like she had probably planned.

Without dwelling on the situation any longer, Hotohori proceeded on, bringing back a sense of urgency to the group. "If we plan on helping Tamahome, then we should act quickly."

Nodding, Chichiri agreed with him. "Right, the sooner we head off, the better, ya know?"

Hotohori gave him a confirming nod, then nudged Miaka, her big olive eyes looking up at him with what I saw as hope, but I could have been wrong. He told her, "I will assure that you three can have all the essentials you'll need on your journey within a couple hours—will you be ready by then?"

She gave him a wider smile and nodded once. "Yes! Heck," Jumping up from her bed, she placed a hand on her hip while the other hand was clenched into a fist that she held up in determination, fueled by some kind of fire that we couldn't see. "I'll be ready in fifteen minutes if I have to be! Anything that'll speed up the time to when we can get Tamahome back!"

Shokyoku groaned. "I knew her being depressed was too good to be true…"

Hotohori grinned at her from behind. "I do admire your spirit—it's contagious. How about we aim for an hour then?"

She twisted her upper body to face him. "Yeah!" Just then, a peculiar grumbling sound emerged from the pit of Miaka's stomach, making us all stare at the monster that must have been lying dormant in her depths all this time up until now. Rubbing the back of her head, she laughed uneasily with flushed cheeks. "Oh, but…um…can I have something to eat first? All this worrying has made me hungrier than usual."

Nuriko chuckled. "Didn't know that was possible. But it's nice to know that given the circumstances, some things don't change."

"Of course they don't! If there's anything to rely on in the world, then food is a constant! It's never betrayed me and it always gives me something to look forward to!"

The purple-haired Suzaku Warrior then took her hand and inched towards the door. "Alright then, let's get you something to eat so that we can get ready." Miaka complied wholeheartedly. "Please excuse us Your Highness."

Hotohori gave him a look of acquiescence. "I shall call for you when preparations are done." And with that, the two dashed out of the room, leaving behind the monk, the emperor, the child, and myself.

Using his thumb, Chichiri gestured to somewhere outside. "Please excuse me as well Your Highness, I must consult with Lady Taiitsukun before our departure, ya know?" Before he even heard Hotohori's response, he exited Miaka's chamber.

_Well, I guess there's no more of a reason for me to be here either then._

Jumping off of the bed, Shokyoku took her contracted, shadowed parasol in hand and made her way towards the door. "Let's go Aki before I break out just from being exposed to human for too long." I could only assume that she was exaggerating with that statement.

Right when I was about to follow everyone else's example and go my own way for the time being, my motion was halted by some outside force. Something was holding me back and keeping me from moving forward.

"Akimoto…" Well, that explained it. I looked back and saw Hotohori holding onto my wrist—something I couldn't feel since I had no feeling. There was a something particular in those hazel eyes of his that compelled me to cease my propelling forward. "Do you mind if we talk in private?"

"Like hell you are!" Shokyoku protested.

"Sure," I said against her wishes.

"Akiiiii!" She whined. Not allowing myself to get caught up in yet another pointless tantrum, I let Hotohori guide me out of the room and down one of the many hallways of the palace.

* * *

><p>It was well into the morning at this point, so most of the servants and occupants of Hotohori's palace were running or walking around, going about their everyday royal duties and routines, whatever they were. Whenever one of them came across us, they'd stop in their tracks and bow politely to their emperor, giving me respectful yet wary looks as they passed on. From behind me, I could hear indiscernible mumbling from Shokyoku who went back to hiding from the sunlight under her large parasol.<p>

For a while, Hotohori didn't say anything and I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I was pretty sure that he wouldn't do anything to put me into danger, but if he did, I was fortunate to have Shokyoku around to retaliate with. No…he wouldn't try anything. He knew what I was capable of and he wasn't so foolish as to make such a vital mistake. So where was he leading me?

Eventually, we stopped and leaned over one of the intricate railings that bordered the hallway from one of the palaces many gardens filled with plentiful types of flora that seemed to complement each other.

"So Akimoto…what do you think of our gardens? Quite beautiful arrangements, wouldn't you say?" After how long he had me walking, that was the first thing he said. How were a bunch of plants and flowers relevant to our day?

Trying to see the relevance in his words, I replied, "If you think so…"

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "But what do _you_ say about it?"

I shrugged. "Nothing. I don't know what to say. All I see is a bunch of colorful plants. Is there something I should say?" When I glanced back at him, he was giving me a saddened expression, one that I hadn't gotten from him since the night before. _Why does he continue to look at me in such a way? _My eyes were then distracted by a light breeze that moved through a bush that I hadn't noticed was directly in front of us at about waist level. The many pink and magenta flowers at the end of the stems were swaying with the wind, them being the heavier part of the plant made it sway even more than the leaves. I blinked curiously as I watched them move from side to side. _Those flowers…Those pink flowers…Those intricate and plentiful petals…I…I remember seeing that flower before. _

_**Just as I was walking out, something that was lying before my doorstep happened to catch my eye. There was a pretty flower with larger magenta petals on the edges and a bunch of light pink, skinnier petals on the inside that had more well-defined points at the ends. Tied around the greenish stem of the flower was a scarlet ribbon, wrapped on neatly, as if it were a gift.**_

_**Blinking a few times, I tried to figure out why there would be a flower—that was clearly meant for someone—on my doorstep. There was the possibility that someone dropped it**_**…****No…it was placed down way too nicely for that.**_**Then again there was also the chance that it was meant for someone else and the deliverer got the rooms mixed up.**_ **But all the people who live and work here should know the palace by heart. They shouldn't have made a mistake like this. Unless…**

**Unless it was meant for me!**

_This flower…_

"Akimoto…" Blinking hard, I turned my attention back to Hotohori, who I momentarily forgot was even there. _How did I get so—_In his hand was one of those flowers…and around its stem was…a scarlet ribbon…

…_distracted..._

Shokyoku caught onto my hesitation and she blinked at me with concern. "Aki? What's wrong?"

I didn't know why, but my eyes were wide from seeing that flower in his hand—why was I reacting in such a way? What was with the hesitation?

"Do you remember this?" I didn't say anything—I just continued to stare at the plant as if it were some kind of foreign specimen from space. So he rephrased, "Do you remember seeing this in front of your bedroom door that one morning?"

Finally shaking out of my trance I nodded my head slowly. "Mhm…yes—I remember." _So it was him._

"I was the one who left it there for you to find—I was hoping it would bring a smile to your face—you'd often look melancholy and I prayed that this could bring you at least a little happiness." I wouldn't take the flower from his hand, so he retracted the invitation, but probably still hoping to probe some kind of emotion out of me. He flashed me a particular smile. "Did I achieve my goal?"

"I'm not completely sure…." His smile dropped. "I don't remember feeling that emotion upon seeing that flower, so I can't say that it did. When I picked it up, I was neutral, and I wondered where it came from and who left it. And I doubted that it was even for me—so I'm not sure if any of that equates to happiness." _What would that have even felt like? _Maybe I couldn't feel at that present moment, but I could remember the anger and the sadness and the suffering I went through. There was no margin there for me to be…"happy". As far as I was concerned, that emotion was an illusion or maybe even a delusion for the ignorant. I didn't want to associate myself with that feeling or any of them since they were all just a bunch of distractions hindering me from accomplishing anything important. But I couldn't help but wonder…even for a second what it would have been like for me to have been happy about receiving that flower. But the positive aspect to it was just too incomprehensible to me…

Instead of giving me that same pitiful look, Hotohori actually went back to smiling…but it was the "happy" kind of smile you'd expect…it was different. "I don't know why I keep forgetting—I guess I was just in denial and needed confirmation myself." That sounded familiar. Nuriko tried doing the same thing when he came to my room that morning. Why were so many people doubting reality? He held up the flower to his eye level. "This flower is called a Peony. It's supposed to be one of the most exquisite flowers, as you can see. They symbolize value, feminine beauty, and peace—they just seemed like the most perfect flora to give to you. Even if you didn't know their meaning, I hoped that they'd bring you the luck and happiness you longed for." Did I long for happiness? That…didn't seem right… His facial expression became serious. "Akimoto, a lot has happened in a short amount of time—for all of us. And I fear that things may end up getting worse, although I pray for the best for all of my friends and my country. I don't know how much of what I'm saying is actually getting to you, but, I just want you to stay strong and keep fighting, I know you're capable of getting through this. Despite anything that Shokyoku says, it may seem like we're occupied by our Suzaku duties, but you should know that you can always count on us to be there for you—we're not going to give up on you, we'll fight through the frustrations." He was right, that meant nothing to me. Absolutely nothing. None of his sentiments were being absorbed, just reflected off before marinating in them was even possible.

"Oh my gosh!" Shokyoku groaned even louder. "Why do these people keep repeating the same cheesy speech?! None of it has any meaning since their hidden agendas keep popping up."

I gave her a sideways glance and asked, "Hidden agendas?"

"The fact that pretty much everything they do, every decision they make is revolved around their whiny glutton of a priestess." That's old news. I was already aware of that. "Besides, no matter how guilty they feel, saying sweet words won't make everything better."

"What?" Hotohori's face was riddled with confusion. "Hidden agendas?"

I addressed him once more and shook my head. "Don't worry about it."

Staring at me to see if I'd elaborate any more, he finally gave up on that venture and cleared his throat, ready to continue on with his initial topic. "Very well then…where was I? Oh yes…I wanted…to apologize…"

"For what?"

"Being born," Shokyoku muttered.

"This whole time, during your predicament, most of my thoughts have been preoccupied on my kingdom." He turned his gaze towards the garden. "After you were brought back in that darkened state from Kutou and before Chichiri gave you that ring, we all assembled without you to discuss our course of action as well as how we were going to handle this new obstacle in our path. It was…difficult for me to choose between you and Konan…and I'll admit that I was leaning towards the latter. I even went so far as to…think of you as a weapon to use against our enemies in Kutou…" Where was the fault in that? Being the ruler meant responsibility over an extended area and a bunch of people. If he was willing to falter and throw away important leadership qualities for the sake of someone as insignificant to his life as I was, then he was a fool. He hadn't yet learned that war requires cruelty and sacrifice. Had our roles been reversed, I would have used him as a tool and would have been willing to have him killed in order to get the job done. "No honorable friend would think of the other in such a way." He pounded a heavy fist onto the railing, crushing the stem of the Peony in his grip. "I felt so disgraced…and yet, I found that I had no choice…I wanted to give you my full support, but an emperor's life is often one of sacrifice. Between choosing just one life out of so many should seem like such an easy decision—hence the misconception people often give to the role of an emperor." _Why is he telling me these things? _"I've been given these responsibilities since I was a child, and I fear that because of that, I'm not used to having close friends…so I may not make the correct decisions when it comes to affairs amongst my companions. But I'd like them to know that I'd do all I could in my power for them." He chuckled bitterly. "How ironic is it that now that I have friends as well as woman that I love, I'm the powerful ruler of a country and yet, I cannot even be there to assist them in the way that they need me the most? I have to remain here on my throne while they're out there risking their lives. Tell me, what kind of emperor am I to just sit back and watch my subjects suffer?"

"I'm guessing the kind who doesn't think that his friends are strong enough to go off on their own," Shokyoku pitched in.

"The last time I couldn't come along, I almost lost Miaka…" His hand continued to clench at the flower's stem so much that the plant was losing its ability to maintain its erect position. It was starting to limp, the bulb drooping downwards on an angle. "I'd never be able to forgive myself if anything happened to her. And of course," Finally, he realized what he was doing to the flower and eased his grip, dropping the wounded plant back onto the bush with the rest of its brethren. Watching the dying, detached flower seemed to have saddened him as I noticed his expression softening. "I wasn't there…during your incident. I just…I just can't help but feel responsible for all of this." What? Was he looking for me to console him or something? I had no interest in taking part in his worthless self-pity.

And yet…

There was something there…something stirring inside of me that I couldn't explain. It was attempting to peak the whole time while he spoke. Whatever it as, it was faint…like a fleeting thought…It was so faint that I wasn't even sure if anything was there. Perhaps my mind was playing tricks on me.

It was obvious that Hotohori wanted to accompany Miaka, Nuriko, and Chichiri to find the final three warriors. Why he was pouring his heart out to someone who couldn't sympathize with him, I'll never know, but…I don't know! His excessive worrying on trifles made him out as an inferior emperor in my mind…and that should have been the only thing on my mind. But instead, I was going through all the possible ways that I could help him out. What brought upon this urge? I shouldn't have even been having any urges of any kind, no matter how faint.

I was malfunctioning.

That had to be the only explanation…something was wrong with me. But what was it?

Finally, a well-enough idea made its way to center stage in my thought processes.

"You want to go with them, right?" I asked him.

He seemed surprised by my voluntary comment, but answered, "Of course. Nothing would make me happier than to assist my beloved on her journey. But…I've accepted my role in the bigger picture, how I must remain here in order to keep my people safe from Kutou or any other enemy force."

Shokyoku looked puzzled. "…Aki? What're you…"

"What if I told you that there was a way for you to be in two places at once? Or at least fool enough people to think that you're where you need to be instead of where you want to be?" Hotohori gave me his full attention with added interest as I relayed to him my nearly flawless idea.

* * *

><p>"Aki! Why the heck did you do that?!" It was only a little while before Miaka, Chichiri, and Nuriko would head off in search for the final three Suzaku Warriors, and Shokyoku didn't waste any time after Hotohori left me to complain to me (even more) about my decisions. "Why would you just help him out like that? What made you do that? You couldn't have possibly wanted to do that because you don't have the emotions to <em>want<em> anything."

"Honestly? I don't know."

"What?" She asked, holding back on some of her anger.

"I mean, I'm sure that telling him what I did is sure to be beneficial to me in the long run. It has to be…after all, I only care about myself and my survival and my mission."

"And yet…" Her voice lowered to something just a notch higher than a whisper as she held onto the handle of her parasol with dear life. "Even without your emotions…you're still choosing them over me."

Giving her full eye-to-eye contact, I told her, "I'm not choosing one person over the other—I have absolutely no preference." With that, Shokyoku didn't come back with more opposition—she just stood there looking up at me past her tilted umbrella. Then she retreated back under the somewhat semi-spherical shape, most likely attempting to hide whatever she was expressing. The silence between us allowed my memory to relay my time in this unemotional state. And I was realizing, just as I had during my conversation with Hotohori, that my constant unfeeling nature wasn't as constant and iron clad as I initially thought. I had experienced…I guess you could call them hiccups. Those hiccups had opened my eyes to a flaw that was buried someplace…

I could see cracks…

…pieces of something that wasn't filled in…

…broken shards of something…or somebody…

Buried deep inside…

Something was missing.

I wasn't complete.

"Shokyoku." She didn't stir. I tried again. "Shokyoku."

She hesitated to answer. "…yes?"

"I can't feel my body… I can't _feel_ anything at all. You're right when you say that I shouldn't be able to feel anything. But now even I know that something isn't right. I don't know what it is." Holding up my arms, I inspected my unsuspecting palms which were covered by long, black, partially fingerless gloves. If I closed my eyes, I wouldn't have even been aware that they were there. I really was just a consciousness floating around in a vessel. "The only thing I have right now is my life—my…existence. I function only to ensure that I maintain this existence. However, I don't know why. When I destroy Stella, then what? What's to become of me? There has to be a reason for me to automatically be programmed to ensure that I go on. Otherwise, it wouldn't matter if I lived or died. But since it does matter for some reason or another, I think…I think that whatever I'm missing is important for my survival. And…I need whatever it is to fully function, so that I won't be threatened." I clenched my fists and looked down at her and said, "I need to be complete."

Shokyoku's parasol began to tremble and soon, faint sounds of sobbing could be heard from underneath it. Tears fell from the girls' cheeks and onto the ground, creating a plethora of droplets next to her stockings. "I…" She fought to get her words out. "I…I…I" Bringing her head up, she revealed a small face drenched with tears, the puffiness finally adding some color to that pale complexion of hers. "I can't do anything to help you!" Dropping one of her arms off of the parasol's handle, he brought the free one up to her eye, trying to wipe away at least some of the tears that were flowing. "I know I said things like I'm the only one who can help you, but I said that mainly because humans are incompetent, and because I didn't expect you to realize that something was wrong—at least…at least not this quickly…I was willing to take that time to figure out how to help you on my own. But now that…but now that even in this state when you can't feel, you still long for something that you need and I…I don't…" Her hand dropped from her face as she scowled, her tears drying up quicker than I expected. "I don't have any other choice."

My face twisted. "No other choice for what?"

Her scowl transformed into a grimace. "I…have a theory…" She paused, her face becoming even more disgusted, almost as if she was trying to keep vomit down.

"Go on."

"There may potentially be a way that you can retrieve the thing you're missing…" Again she paused.

"And that would be?"

Taking a deep breath in, she let it out, however her frown never wiped away from her face. "You remember that bandit monkey, right?"

"Bandit…monkey?" I repeated.

She grinded her teeth. "You know! That fanged moron with the flaming head!" I just continued to stare at her. "Tasuki! Formerly known as Genrou…"

"Oh yes. What about him?" It wasn't exactly that long ago since he and I went our separate ways. The bigger questions were why it was so difficult for her to just blatantly say his name, as well as how in the world would he be the answer to my problems?

"We'll have to find him in order to prove my theory. And in order to find him…bleh…" There was that vomiting face again. "We'll have to go with the whiny priestess and her flock of loyal monkeys…he's one of the people they're looking for, right? A Suzaku warrior?" I nodded. _That's right…he is a Suzaku warrior. _And I was probably the only one who knew that—even I only found that out by accident. Apparently I'm supposed to keep it quiet both because he told me to and because Taiitsukun said that Miaka had to do this on her own. If he'd that important, how bad would it be to just tell Miaka in order to shorten the process? "Then I'd like to think that the priestess has some special ability or something to find her cronies faster than we can blindly. So as much as I hate the idea, we," She sighed, dropping her shoulders as low as they could do, "have to go along with them."

"But…Hotohori said that I had to stay here."

"To Hell with what he said! He's just a human, don't let him tell you what to do! Besides," Crossing her arm as best she could while holding a parasol, a snarky grin ran across her face. "I know what's best for you!" Taking a few steps around me, the little girl twirled around as if she were playing in puddles on a rainy day. "Like I said, I hate the idea, but it's the best we've got. And you want to find what's missing, right?" _I can't really say that I want it necessarily…it's just…essential. _"Then we have no choice." She stopped twirling. "And it's not just that we find him—he has to touch you. And not just any touch, he has to _feel_ something—like _sincerely_ feel something, otherwise this would all be for nothing."

"Okay." I still didn't see the point of him touching me, in fact the whole idea sounded ridiculous. But Shokyoku sounded pretty sure of herself and I did need what I was missing in order to maintain my survival. So, I guess I had to try.

"Now, this may be difficult since he's an insensitive idiot…and his personality is rather irritating at that," From out of nowhere, this heavenly spot light shone on top of her as a choir of what I thought were supposed to be angels sang. For some reason, this seemed highly illogical especially given the fact that Shokyoku had a sunlight phobia. But, I guess she was on a roll. "But I'm willing to go through whatever it takes for my Aki! We'll figure it out together!"

Speaking from behind her spotlight, I interrupted by saying, "Alright then. So…don't we have to ask permission?"

At that, Shokyoku fell over as the heavenly choir ceased their song. She chuckled slightly uneasily as she peered up to me with a sweat drop and said, "A-Aki…Let me…explain this 'not listening to humans' thing to you one more time…"

* * *

><p><strong>Well, that was the chapter, how did you like it?<strong>

**Writing Aki as an emotionless person is still rather tricky. What did I get myself into? Meh, hopefully she gets her emotions back soon so that I can go back to writing like a normal person again (lol). **

**PLEASE REVIEW! ****Tell me your opinions, predictions, hopes, anything that spiked ur interest during the chapter—anything! For every new review I get, I'm less likely to get brain freeze the next time I eat ice cream. Please save me from the feeling that unpleasantness X3 Cuz I likes me ice cream. Mmm chocolate…X33333 ^^**

**Thank you again to all those who are keeping up with me on here and DA—I love every new person who comes along. I especially love it when people ask me questions about the story or just feel like talking about it. Or it can be any random conversation—I love talking to people and starting conversations and making friends =D**

**Srry of future updates take a while, y'know college and all. So ya, I promise I will continue this story just please be patient with me and don't leave! (unless you want to cuz then I can't stop you haha). But ya I kno some people don't like outrageously long stories, so I thank you all again for keeping up and bearing with it (it's not that painful, right? lol)**

**Until next time, **

**C YA!**

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><p><strong>Here are the trivia questions and such for ya~<strong>

***LH5W Fan-Questions #4! How do you think Tasuki is gonna react to seeing Aki this way? Do you actually think that he can fix her condition, or is her condition more serious than what Shokyoku believes?***

***LH5W Trivia #8! Aki actually has 3 piercings on each ear~***


	42. Pursuing the Spark

**What up people? =D**

**Now I now that I've been really unpredictable and inconsistent with my updates…so much to a point where some of you (who still even give a darn about this story) may be questioning if it is even worth reading if the author won't put in the time to write it. Well, I know I've said it before, but I'm telling you the truth when I say that I really love this story and no matter how long it takes, I am willing to continue writing until the very end. I mean, how would I have the discipline to be a legit author if I can't finish anything? I know I can do it, and I wanna do it! I know it's only a fanfiction, but…it's a bit more than that to me. To me, it is a legit story and I care about it. So please have faith in me…and please be patient. I am a university student and my main priority has to be with school, so updates might be slow, but THEY WILL COME. Unless anything health wise comes along that prevents me from doing so, I'll continue this story. ^^**

**Fo sho X3**

**Well then, let's get to it! Here's for you, Chapter 42!**

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><p><strong>*On the last chapter of <strong>_**Love Hurts 5 Ways, **_**Nuriko tried to adjust to Aki who is under the influence of a silver ring used to give her mobility at the expense of what remained of her shattered emotions. But the frustrated purple-haired Suzaku Warrior came to learn, but not fully accept that this Aki was a completely different person. Then it had come to Aki and Shokyoku's attention that the others had finally learned of Tamahome's absence—the opening he had left them in order to buy Konan more time in the war. The distraught Miaka lamented over her love's leaving her, but with the encouragement of the Suzaku warriors and her determination, Miaka resolves to find the rest of the Suzaku Warriors in order to bring Tamahome home and in order to find some way to help Aki. Hotohori's plan to go along with this consisted of only Nuriko, Chichiri, and Miaka venturing out while he and Aki stay at the palace. This angered Shokyoku who accused the Suzaku Warriors and Priestess of not having any faith in Aki by keeping her confined on the sidelines. They assure her that this isn't the case and that they all have Aki's best interest at heart, while at the same time, they have to perform their duties and protect Miaka. **

**Hotohori reveals to Aki that he was the one who gave her the flower some time ago in order to encourage her and expresses how sorry he is for both contemplating using her as a weapon, and not being able to completely be there for his friends so that he may perform his duties as emperor. This is when a peculiar stirring occurs inside of Aki where she wants to help Hotohori, although she doesn't know why. Shokyoku notices and confronts Aki, who suddenly expresses a need to find what she has lost. This sets out a plan between the two to find Tasuki, formerly known as Genrou, for he may somehow, have what it takes to help her. **

**The story continues to unfold…***

* * *

><p>The hour quickly passed and the two assigned Suzaku Warriors and their priestess prepared to depart from the palace in search for their remaining comrades. Nuriko and Miaka sat atop a brown stallion, Miaka sitting in back, equipped with whatever supplies they'd need for the journey and Chichiri was situated behind them on his own grey horse with a significantly less amount of supplies. We all gathered in the courtyard facing the strong gate that led into the city and on into the wilderness, the place that they'd be heading towards first and perhaps onto any more towns and villages in Konan after that. No one really had any idea how long it would take to find the remaining warriors—even if I did know about Tasuki, and even if I was allowed to reveal this information to the others, absolutely none of us knew about the identities or whereabouts of the last two. And for all we knew, the Seiryuu Seven were all assembled and accounted for, meaning that it would only be a matter of time before Konan's downfall.<p>

But that part didn't necessarily appeal to me. My only concern was finding Tasuki and getting back whatever it was that I lost…if Shokyoku was right about her theory anyway…

Hotohori, dressed in his more impressive royal attire, approached the horse carrying Miaka while Shokyoku, who was once again under her parasol to protect herself from sunlight, and I lingered behind watching the good-bye. Patting the side of the horse's face, he looked up at his priestess. "Tell me, do you have any idea how you will go about locating the final three? The last thing I'd want is for you all to travel blindly." He sighed. "I really wish I could be of more assistance to you."

Miaka smiled down at him and fanatically waved her palms. "Oh no Hotohori! Don't worry about a thing!" Reaching into her pocket, she brought out a small circular hand mirror with a red rim and showed it to him. "Taiitsukun gave this mirror to Chichiri who gave it to me! It's supposed to warn us whenever we happen to get close to one of the other Suzaku Warriors. I just know we'll find them in no time!"

Winking in confidence, Nuriko said, "Have confidence in us Sire! We'll find the others and bring Miaka back nice and safe. Then we'll get Tama-kins back, Aki will somehow be healed, we'll summon Suzaku and crush Kutou, and then we'll all live happily ever after!"

Chichiri tilted his head to the side in confusion. "Is it really that simple? I would have thought that we'd go through _a lot_ more trouble, ya know?"

Miaka looked back at him, keeping her optimistic smile. "Of course it is! Mind over matter! We think positively and only good things will happen!"

"See? Miaka's got the right idea!" Surrounding them were peculiarly rising and twirling transparent flowers that not only seemed oddly animated to a point where it looked unbelievable, but it only remained in their area as the two of them smiled. This space consisted of a magically yellow background and a soft glow covering them with sparkles. _What reason do they have to be happy like that? What's fueling it? _So Miaka had a mirror that could tell her if she was near a Suzaku Warrior, that didn't necessarily mean that the game would play in her favor.

From beside me, I heard a faux gagging sound coming from Shokyoku as she held her parasol with one hand. "It's so pathetic to see them faking their happiness like that." A bit of the sparkles from that peculiar anomaly sitting as a backdrop to Miaka and Nuriko's giddiness sprinkled over to where we were standing. Almost immediately, Shokyoku scrambled behind me, only to take a peak with one eye towards the scene. "Just tell them to keep their shameful glitter away from me!" Okay…so if it was the case of them faking their happiness, then I especially didn't understand the notion.

Even Chichiri sweat-dropped from seeing their stressed performance. "Given the situation, I kind of admire the added enthusiasm, ya know? But I think it might be a bit much…"

As the emperor cleared his throat, Nuriko and Miaka came back down to earth from their artificial high. He gazed into her dark olive eyes. "Just…please be safe Miaka. Come back to me safe and sound."

At this, Nuriko looked offended. "Hey! The rest of us are here too, Your Highness."

Hotohori blinked at the hint. "Oh, yes of course! I wish you all safety on your travels as well. I thought that went without saying…"

He forced an uneasy smile. "It'd be nice to hear it anyway Sire." _Jealousy…_At least I could still recognize that. Nuriko still harbored feelings of companionship towards Hotohori. So much to a point that he went through sneaky and selfish means to achieve what he wanted—all for naught since he still didn't have what he wanted. And yet he continued to foolishly chase after a lost dream. He was a Suzaku Warrior and he had much bigger things that he needed to focus on.

This was one of the many examples of why I believed that emotions hold people down and blind them from what's important.

I didn't need them.

I knew I was better off…especially better off than this bunch of people who only seem to function on emotion. It was a wonder how they even functioned at all. The inefficiency of it all…

Miaka just giggled nervously. "You guys…Nuriko, of course Hotohori cares about you! No need to get upset! And Hotohori…" She stopped giggling, but kept a wide, appreciative smile on her face. "Thank you for worrying, but we'll be fine! I promise! Plus, don't forget that I can be pretty tough as well!" She said while holding up a fist and holding her flexing bicep with the other.

Chuckling softly in response, most likely as to humor her, Hotohori said, "Yes, I know."

"Try not to miss us too much here at the palace," Nuriko told him. He brought a palm up to his face and held his cheek longingly. "It really is a shame that you can't accompany is. I could, of course, stay to keep you company if you'd like~"

"People become less attractive when they're desperate," Shokyoku bluntly commented. I couldn't really judge on regards to the attractiveness, but they certainly did become more pathetic.

"I won't really be alone here," Hotohori commented with a smile as he signaled to me. "I'll have Akimoto here to accompany me."

Looking at me for a few seconds, Nuriko's playful smile flipped upside down as he pouted. Turning his head around, as if no one could hear he mumbled somewhat softly, "A girl without emotions isn't company—might as well be talking to your reflection. At least that way, you'll be engaged in somewhat meaningful conversation…" Then he brought his head back around, completely missing the sour look Shokyoku was giving him, and motioned for Miaka the emperor to come in closer so that he could tell them something in private. But obviously not so private that he failed to lower his volume enough. "Aki is just no fun without her emotions, she takes things too literally, and not to mention that she's seriously lacking in the teamwork category." He sighed. "I like the girl, but I just can't stand her like this. And I'm pretty sure you have similar sentiments Your Majesty." _I'm not fun…how does "fun" get the job done? I'm too literal…how else am I supposed to take things? And I don't understand teamwork? _That last part, I supposed I understood. I and the Suzaku Warriors and their priestess haven't exactly been seeing eye to eye—I've been doing things the right way, and they've been inefficient. They say it was a matter of opinion—I corrected them and told them it was fact. They didn't need teamwork to get the job done, they needed someone who wasn't willing to let emotions get in the way.

Miaka perked up from their little whisper group. "But that's just another reason for us to go and find the final three! Because once we find them, we'll be as strong as ever, then we can go back to Kutou, and once we have Tamahome back, we can get that Shadow Maiden to make Aki-nee-chan normal again!" No matter how many people they thought would help, it wouldn't work. Stella was a completely different being on a completely different level. It didn't matter that Suzaku was on their side, they were still only humans and this wasn't their fight. Chichiri's somewhat solemn expression in response to his priestesses comment revealed that his frame of thought was similar to mine.

And yet… "That's exactly how we should be thinking, ya know?" He scratched the back of his head nervously while grinning. "But I don't exactly think that saying she'd turn Aki 'back to normal' is the most accurate way to put it. Aki wasn't exactly normal in the first place, ya know?" If he agreed with me, then he shouldn't have been fueling their ambitions even more like that.

"Yeah Chichiri, because _you_ are the poster-child for 'normal'," Nuriko mused whimsically, which earned him a laugh from Hotohori and Miaka.

Chichiri just turned his head back and forth from them all and asked, "What's so funny?"

"Humans sure know how to stall," Shokyoku remarked, finally coming out from behind me. And she was right, they could have just said their good-byes and been off already. I couldn't quite get what the hold-up was.

Somehow getting the cue from us, Hotohori soon became serious again and addressed the two Suzaku Warriors going along with Miaka. "You two make sure to keep Miaka safe. I'm counting on you." And then, he gave Chichiri a knowing look and then nodded to him. The monk nodded back in response. The whole subtle exchange went by without Nuriko or Miaka even noticing.

I knew exactly what that was about. About an hour earlier, I relayed to Hotohori a plan I figured would help him achieve his wish to go along with Miaka on her journey for the final three. And in order for that plan to work, not only would Chichiri have to be on board, but everyone else in the palace would have to have actually seen Chichiri go off with Nuriko and Miaka in order to fool them into believing that that was the actual group meant to go off on this trip. Seeing as how only the monk and the emperor nodded at each other, I could only assume that Nuriko and Miaka weren't in on it yet. Which was fine, I supposed, they weren't exactly needed for this exchange to work.

I was there when Hotohori relayed my plan to Chichiri, and not during any of that time was there a point where I was considered to go along as well. They still planned on keeping me at the palace doing nothing, which would have been fine if I wasn't out on a mission of my own. So I took the initiative of adding myself into their plan, on Shokyoku's encouraging, whether they accepted it or not. And my addition would end up being so spontaneous, that they would have no choice but to tolerate my tag along. Somewhere along the way, Miaka's group would run into Tasuki…and I needed him. Theoretically anyway… I still wasn't completely sure as to how he would help (by touching me?), but Shokyoku did always mention how she knew the most about me and I was beginning to question how much exactly I knew about myself. I was just…malfunctioning and whatever it was needed to be fixed. Other than Shokyoku, I had no other leads on how to fix myself. Of course, there was Stella, but she was my enemy, and the last thing she would want would be for me to be fully operational.

I…had to trust Shokyoku…this one time I would have to look to someone other than myself who was the only person worth trusting. Just this once…

It didn't take much longer after that for the group of three to make their way out of the palace gates and onto their adventure. The three of us that remained didn't budge until we couldn't see them anymore. Hotohori then turned around and walked towards me, stopping just as he was about to pass Shokyoku and I.

"Feel free to go anywhere you'd like in the palace, just refrain from using your—uh, _Shokyoku's_ powers unless threatened by the enemy. And…" He flashed me a sympathetic smile again. "Try to overlook any expressions given to you by my soldiers or anyone else. They're all just trying to be cautious. You understand?"

My answer was unfaltering. "Yes, I understand." I'd be alienated just as I was while growing up. It wasn't like I wasn't used to this style of living. Only, now I didn't care if they got hit with the crossfire or not. So it was to their best interest to just stay out of my way.

"Come see me if you need anything at all," was what he said before stepping back into the immediate palace, leaving me standing in the courtyard technically all by myself and technically not because of the phantom-like Shokyoku.

"Huh, he's not holding you on as short of a chain as I initially thought he would," Shokyoku said in a somewhat astonished tone of voice. "I was so sure that he'd hold you on a leash or something."

"Are you impressed?"

"Goodness no! That monkey emperor isn't even worth praising." She turned around and gazed upon the ancient structure of Konan's royal palace. "He may have expanded your boundaries, but he still insists on keeping you locked up here—telling you what you can and can't do. I won't stand for it!" She rested a hand on her hip as she looked up at me from under her parasol. "We'll follow him and show those monkeys that only you control your destiny."

I nodded at her. "Let's go."

* * *

><p>For the next few hours, I spent the time trailing Hotohori's movements throughout the palace—watching him consult with his supervisors, signing some parchments, as well as other miscellaneous royal duties. A lot of the time, he didn't even get a chance to himself, so I figured he didn't even catch onto my presence. Or maybe he did and chose not to give it any attention. I had to stay close to him if I wanted to intervene on the plan between him and Chichiri—a plan that would be difficult to initiate unless he was alone. All the while, I managed to receive some of those disdainful looks that Hotohori was talking about. The various residents didn't approach me in regards to following their emperor around—their hesitance was mainly out of fear. All the better, though. They would have just gotten in the way if they had voiced their inner thoughts at me. And it would have wasted their time.<p>

_But it should be any time now. _

As predicted, the time finally came when he shook off all of his entourage, which signaled the initiation of the plan. So of course we pursued him down the hallways towards wherever his destination was. A few yards after turning a corner, I poked my head around to see him walking even further down towards what looked like his throne room.

But before he reached it, he stopped in his place. "Akimoto, come on out." _I figured he knew. _Complying to his command, I stepped out from my spot and stood behind him. "I gave you the freedom to go about the palace as you please and you choose to follow me?" Why was it that he sounded somewhat amused by this? He turned around and we met eye to eye. "Is something troubling you? I wouldn't want you to feel as if I'm confining you or anything."

"I don't feel," I answered, "and that's not why I'm here."

For a brief moment, his sincere smile fell to my statement, but he forced himself to bring it back up. "Yes, of course. But I'm surprised that Shokyoku is okay with you pursuing me. I've gathered that she doesn't like us very much."

"You can say that again," Shokyoku replied while crossing her arms. The shadows provided by the afternoon sun allowed her to go without her parasol as we strode throughout the palace. "And believe me, if there was another way, we wouldn't be following you."

"Hotohori…" I began. He blinked with curiosity. "I know about the plan you have with Chichiri, it was _my_ plan after all, give or take a few details. So you shouldn't be all that alarmed with me saying this: I'm coming with you, and your opinion about it doesn't really matter."

He let out an exasperated sigh. "You're right, I'm not surprised. But that doesn't mean that I approve to your agenda." I opened my mouth to tell him once more that his opinion as invalid, but he continued, "Look Akimoto, it's because that I care about you that I want you to stay here and just wait until we have all seven Suzaku Warriors. In your condition, I think it unwise for you to be exposed to the outside world." He didn't want me out in his country and endangering his people or somehow making the burden of the war even worse.

"It's not for you to decide."

"But it is." Using a bit more force with his tone, a part of him still hung onto sympathy. "I have a duty to protect my people, and as I've said before, I've come to think of you and Miaka as part of this country. And I'll do anything to protect you. But please don't make me choose again between you and everyone else that I'm responsible for."

Shokyoku glared at him as she tugged at my sleeve. "I'm going," I told him. His face scrunched uncomfortably as he prepared for a more zealous protest, but I prevented the continuation of an argument that was going nowhere. I extended my arm and held my palm out to him to hush him up. "Wait, Shokyoku wants me to relay a message to you." So I proceeded to say everything exactly as she put it.

"For once in your life, stop acting as if you know everything and how the world works," She said, and I repeated. "You can continue to be stuck in the delusion that your little Suzaku grouping can actually make a difference in Aki's condition, but _we_ are actually going to take the initiatives that will most likely work. The secret isn't to get Stella to change her back, but to find another means—Darkness doesn't have the capability to heal, only to destroy. And I have reason to believe that Aki will find what she's looking for while traveling with Yuki. I'm not looking for an inferior human such as yourself to understand, and I don't expect you to. But we are going to do this." She looked him straight in the eye as he took in all I was resaying, and it seriously looked like he was taking all that she was saying into consideration. "I'm not telling you to trust me, I don't want that, but I am telling you to trust my knowledge. I care about Aki more than any of you ever could, so no one more than me wants her back." Then she shouted, on the verge of tears, "Will you be an intelligent monkey and do the right thing?! What do you think Aki would want—the real Aki?" I had always wondered about Shokyoku's significance. If she was only meant to be my curse, then why was it that she seemed much more than that? Who exactly was she? And what was it to her that I achieved what I lost? I mean, in this state, she was more or less released from her confines in the Dark Ring, if anything, the state of my condition was benefitting her. And yet she was so dead set on going through with this. Her motivation baffled me.

For a few minutes, Hotohori just stood there contemplating everything he just heard, closing his eyes as he rattled his mind. And to my surprise, he actually smiled slightly. "I do believe that Akimoto would be quite passionate about this, so who am I to get in the way?" He opened his eyes. "Somewhere deep inside, you are still the Akimoto I met those months ago. So I can say with confidence that having you come along will not be a mistake." Then, the most peculiar thing, he actually bowed to us. "I can tell that Shokyoku deeply cares for you, and even though I do not agree with how she goes about things, we can all at least agree on _something_, right? And I apologize if I ever stepped over the boundary at all. I'm just trying to do what's right."

"Hmm…a human bowing down to us…" Shokyoku stroked her chin and smiled mischievously. "I can get used to this. It's good to know that not all monkeys are completely inadequate. Maybe this one can be trained." Assuming that she still wanted me to repeat her, I told him what she said.

He blinked at me curiously. "What?"

"Aki! You weren't supposed to repeat that part!" She whined.

I tilted my head to the side. "You didn't tell me to stop."

"Oh Aki…" It almost looked like she was trying to frown, but it all went in vain when she just squealed and used her energy to wrap her arms around mine. "I can't stay mad at you! I love you too much!"

"Well," Hotohori motioned to the open door of his throne room, "shall we go inside? Our guest should be waiting for us there." I walked forward, now noticing the lack of soldiers stationed in this particular area. Guess he got rid of them too for the time being until the plan commenced. Upon entering said domain, he closed the door behind him and then proceeded to the middle of the room. Without wasting a second more, a familiarly patterned cloak manifested, bringing forth a masked monk with blue hair sporting a kasa hat.

Once both feet touched the ground, he lifted the hat from over his yes and asked, "What took you so lo—" He stopped mid-sentence as he took notice of me. Sliding up to Hotohori, Chichiri put up a hand to conceal his failed whispering. "Um, Your Highness? You are aware that Aki is standing right there, right?"

"Why yes, I'm aware. And it's fine." Chichiri lowered his hand at the okay. "She's in on it and she's—um, _they_ are coming along."

"Oh…umm…" He brought his hand back up, acting as if I couldn't hear what they were saying. "I'm not quite sure that's a good idea, ya know?"

"Will you stop doing that?! Obviously we can hear you!" Shokyoku yelled while throwing her fists down. "If you're trying to be polite, you're doing a rotten job at it!"

Hotohori shook his head. "It's fine Chichiri. I trust them."

Both the monk and Shokyoku asked, astonished, at the same time, "You _do_?"

"Yes. And I think that Akimoto needs this. It's been brought to my attention, that there may be something about this journey that may be able to help her."

Chichiri only looked skeptical about this, crossing his arms as he thought about it. Part of me was preparing for a similar scene that occurred right outside between Shokyoku, Hotohori, and I. Because for some odd reason or another, these people had a baffling tendency to repeat themselves on a particular topic—especially on topics they strongly opposed. And considering they usually all had similar sentiments, I could already predict what would perspire next.

Chichiri released his arms and grinned. "Well, if you say so Your Highness." _Huh?_ My eyes widened a bit from hearing him say that—I was so sure that he'd stretch it out a bit longer. However, this suddenly uplift in his spirits suddenly led to a more solemn atmosphere. "We are still unaware of any kind of contamination inside of Aki due to the side-effects of that Shadow Maiden failing to Turn her." Without thinking, my hand reached up over my heart and pressed against my chest. Stella had done something to me from the inside…she took something away, something I needed to function properly. And he was right, there could be something else there that I wasn't even aware of—something dangerous. My hand unconsciously balled up into a fist.

Shokyoku gazed up at me with concern riddled on her features. "Aki…"

"You'll have to be ready for anything," Chichiri told us.

And then, my body worked on its own again without my consent, as I uttered the words, "We will." They all turned to face me. I was powerless to stop the message passing my lips. "And if I do anything to deter from the mission, or if anything unexpected happens due to my faulty programming—a sort of time bomb implanted by Stella, if you will, then I request for my immediate extermination. And don't hold back." An expression of horror crossed all of their faces. "I know _I_ won't." _Why did I say that? _It was _my_ survival that mattered the most, so why would I tell them to kill me? Even if something was internally wrong, I wouldn't give up my life just so that _they_ would live. I had to do what it took to achieve completion, no matter who the casualties were.

"Aki!" Shokyoku maneuvered herself in front of me and grabbed my hanfu as she buried her face in the area just below my chest. "Why would you say something like that? I don't care what's wrong with you, I'd never allow you to die! And certainly not at the hands of these people!"

"We'd never even consider that as a last resort! It's not even an option!" Grabbing my wrist, Hotohori brought it up and held it between us as he covered my hand with his other palm. "I swear to you, on my honor as emperor, and as your friend, that nothing will go wrong."

I didn't blink. "You can't promise that, you don't know the future. All I'm relaying to you is the reality that could be. In which case, you now know the solution." My eyes caught on to Chichiri in the background, a frown on his mask has he looked down and away. He most likely understood the situation as well as I had and was aware that worse could most certainly come to worse.

"But I'm sure that won't happen, ya know!" The monk shot his head up and held up his index finger as he replaced his frown with a smile to hide his inner thoughts. Why did I suddenly get the impression that Chichiri was responding more to what I said in my mind that what Hotohori said out loud? "Now Aki…" Hotohori released my hand as we listened intently to the monk's words. "If you're set on doing this, then I won't stop you. Just be smart on your decisions and sometimes, it's okay to at least pretend that you can empathize, ya know?" I raised an eyebrow. _How is empathy going to help anyone? _"And as long as you keep that ring on your head, you should be able to walk around. Just refrain from using your powers. Since we don't know down to the last detail of what Stella did to you, your flow of chi could have been affected severely, ya know? In that case, it could literally be a bomb!"

Shokyoku gave him the sort of grimace one would have if they were about to vomit. "How could you say that so enthusiastically?"

"So I theorize, as long as you keep the ring on your head and do what I said regarding your magic, then none of that bad things we dread will even happen, ya know?" Without the ring on my head, then I'd just revert to that helpless, immobile state where I was literally drowning in whirlpools of Darkness. I couldn't possibly be any more useless…or unstable. They had to keep me in a magically sealed room to protect the outside world from how much of that Dark energy I was leaking. But at least then, I was feeling something. Which made me wonder, if that me was any more capable of realizing what I was missing than the me that lacked emotions completely.

It didn't matter. I'd get this resolved soon and then it wouldn't be an issue anymore.

"I won't be without defense," I said. "I have Shokyoku who specializes in Darkness-based magic. As long as I direct her in what spell to use, she'll execute it. Until I'm able to use my own powers again, this will have to do." He nodded in understanding. Then, without warning, his voice came into my head.

'_So, are you hoping to run into Genrou? Or should I say, Tasuki?'_

_Oh, so you are aware of his celestial destiny? _I asked back.

'_I've been aware of it the entire time. You just technically weren't the person to tell, ya know? So are you?' _I nodded in confirmation. _'I can't exactly guarantee that that's gonna work."_

Neither could we. _I have to try. _

"Well, now that we have that serious stuff out of the way, we can get down to business!" He outwardly exclaimed. Grabbing the emperor's arm, he led him a few yards away from me and then released him. "Wanna see a cool trick?" Throwing his cloak into the air, he let it fall down on Hotohori, completely covering him, which was sort of odd because I could have sworn that that cloak wasn't big enough to achieve something like that.

Hotohori tried to let out a few words, "Chichiri, what're you—"

"Don't worry, Your Highness! I'll be done in a few seconds, ya know?" Using his hand, he twirled Hotohori around a few times while he stood covered by the cloak. And after saying, "Presto Change-o!" Took the tarp away and revealed Hotohori wearing his more civilian and convenient clothes—a long-sleeved white shirt and burgundy pants with light-blue cloth boots tied with string, and over the shirt and pants he wore a long red, no sleeve robe that went past his knees, tied in the front with a dark blue belt. His hair was down in a really loose ponytail. "Tada!" Chichiri finished and then bowed.

"Wow!" The impressed Hotohori said, he and I clapping. I only clapped because it was a customary thing to do when it came to magic tricks.

"And now for myself!" Twisting his fingers into some sort of sign, Chichiri's body then poofed (literally) and out from the smoke, came an exact replica of Hotohori in his imperial robes! _Huh…I had forgotten his ability to change into anyone. Or…did I even know about it in the first place? Hmm… _"While you're off doing your thing Your Highness, I'll just be here substituting for you, and no one here at the palace will even know the difference!" Hotohori looked a bit distraught from the sight and Chichiri took notice. "Anything wrong?" How could there have been anything wrong? He looked _exactly_ like Hotohori. They could have been identical twins…or clones…

"It's just that…" The emperor looked at Chichiri with complete seriousness. "My body is _way_ sexier than that." Shokyoku and Chichiri both fell over and sweat dropped after hearing this.

Shokyoku was the first to scramble up and complain. "ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Someone _please_ tell me that this narcissistic monkey was born in this world accidentally! I don't see how on earth he wasn't meant to be in that Host Club! I mean, really! This is a joke, right?!"

Scratching the back of his head sheepishly, Chichiri slowly stood back up. "Y-Your Highness…"

"Sexy?" I asked, trying to figure out what all that commotion was about.

Hotohori sighed longingly. "Oh well, I guess it'll have to do. To the untrained eye, one could say that we're identical. Just try not to blow your cover, alright Chichiri? If you need anything just contact me." Walking over to his throne, he reached down for something, which turned out to be his sheathed sword which he had kept hidden.

Chichiri still had a sweat-drop as he chuckled uneasily. "O-Of course Your Highness…"

Then something occurred to me. "Not to rush anyone, but if we don't move this along, the guards will eventually get curious."

A determined face struck Hotohori's clone. "Right!" Picking up his kasa hat, Chichiri held the inside of it, which looked like a black void, out to us. "Good luck you guys! And be careful!"

"We're counting on you Chichiri," Hotohori told him. And with that, the three of us were immediately sucked into the hat, a portal that somehow defied the physics and warped space. Because of how I was, I couldn't feel what was happening to us in the mere moment we were being transported, so I could only rely on my other senses…which really weren't telling me much. Everything was pitch- black and there were no sounds.

But as instantaneous as it was, we fell out of the portal and back out into the logical world faster than I really had a chance to take in the distortion of that peculiar space. The three of us managed to land on our feet without injury and take in our new environment.

We were in the wilderness alright, but where? All around us were tall, lush trees that seemed to cover most of the terrain along with different rock formations that seemed to become higher and more plentiful, as the trees dwindled in numbers, as I looked onwards towards a rising slope in the distance. In fact, the rock formations were becoming so impressive that I only noticed an ongoing series of rough and jagged hills that covering the landscape for quite a distance.

I hadn't been to this part of Konan before…

"Ahhh! The sunlight is touching my delicate skin!" Shokyoku whined, causing her to use her abilities to conjure up her black parasol once more, which, in turn made her location more obvious since her powers had more of a physical form than she did. She exhaled with relief. "Mmm much better! So, where are we anyway? I don't see Yuki or the purple-haired monkey anywhere."

"I don't know…" You'd think it more logical for Chichiri to place us in a more convenient spot instead of expecting us to locate them ourselves.

Hotohori was stuck in the same conundrum. He both listened and watched for any signs of his priestess and comrade in the middle of the wilderness. "Where do you suppose—" Just then, a squeal rang out that pierced our ears, coming from a particular direction.

"Nuriko!" It was Miaka's voice coming from behind one of the larger rock formations.

"Miaka!" Hotohori ran in the direction of the scream while Shokyoku and I followed suit, however in not as much of a panic state as he. Once we went around, a small one-story restaurant type of place lay by itself in the middle of the forest. And from it, as we got closer, we could hear multiple voices and sounds of action with plenty of movement as well as things breaking.

When we cautiously approached the building, windows shattered, prompting us to avoid the sharp glass fragments that flew outwards. Hotohori proceeded on and inside from the entrance, as inconspicuously as he could to avoid detection. I decided to look inside using the broken window in order to inspect the full situation. There were a few, menacing and unrecognizable men carrying both blunt and sharp weapons as they surrounded and launched themselves out at Miaka and Nuriko, who was trying to protect his priestess. One of the brutes came charging at Nuriko with a long, thick blade, to which the Suzaku warrior reached out and caught without cutting himself on the sharp part, and used his incredible strength to throw the criminal straight through the wall that contained the window I was looking in from. The guy landed outside and out cold, unable to continue with the assault. So I turned my attention back onto the action.

Miaka tried to back up and take cover, but was met with someone who had other plans for her. He violently took hold of her arm and tried to drag her out. As small as she was, she gave him enough resistance to force him into physically subduing her.

"Miaka!" Nuriko took notice but was unable to assist her, seeing as how the thugs realized that he was the bigger threat and honed in on him. But even though they were no match for him, there was no possible way he could reach Miaka in time to save her from getting lethally impaled. The man brought up his arm and as he was about to swing, she closed her eyes to prepare for impact. Just as he was about to follow through, his body jolted as he lost his grip on Miaka and fell to the floor. Standing behind the unconscious man stood Hotohori, who, I supposed, used the hilt of his sword on the back of the guy's neck in order to knock him out.

"Hotohori!" Miaka cried out with relief at her savior.

Nuriko, on the other side of the room, and surrounded by a couple unconscious bandits, had one of the thugs tucked tightly underneath his arm by the neck, as he continuously punched his face in. It wasn't until he saw his emperor that Nuriko had decided to let the guy drop to the floor. "Your Highness! Boy are we glad to see you! Kind of unexpected, but we are glad!"

Lowering his sword, Hotohori addressed both of them. "I am happy to see you both unharmed. What happened here?"

Miaka answered. "We were just sitting here innocently eating our lunch and those jerks ambushed us!" Then she pouted, "Ruined a perfectly good meal…"

"Yeah, who would have thought that this place would be a trap?" Nuriko added.

Just as I was about to reveal myself, Shokyoku cried out my name, but it was too late. An arm wrapped around my neck, bringing a small knife into my sight with his other. "Are you with those bastards that took out my buddies here? They'll regret leaving you out here all by your lonesome, sweetheart." At first I thought it was the guy that Nuriko knocked out first, but this guy was completely different, seeing as how the other guy was still face first into the ground and rubble. The guy threatening me was probably the one-man reinforcement or something along those lines. The Suzaku people were slipping for missing one like this. He held the blade up against my neck…or at least that's the general area I assumed it be near since my peripheral vision downwards could only go so far. "Well? Aren't you gonna cry or scream or beg for mercy?"

"And why would I do that?" I causally asked him.

"Aki!" My three other traveling companions must have heard the bandit while they were inside since they ran outside to investigate and found me at the "mercy" of this uneducated brute.

"Just stand right there guys," I told them. "No need to step any closer."

"Did I give you permission to speak to them?!" He tightened his grip around me and displayed the knife to the others. "If you all surrender your goods to me and send over that other chick with the weird clothes," he signaled to Miaka, "then _maybe_ I'll promise to keep this one alive." So many flaws to pick at…

I casted, _"__Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini. Look upon yourself with horror and then claw out your own throat…"_

"Eh? What did you say?!" The guy demanded an answer, and he was about to get one.

Shokyoku stood before us and used her fingers from the hand not holding the parasol to draw out a red glowing symbol in the air. I completed the spell by saying, _"Geki." _And once she completed that first part, she extended that palm out, fingers closed, towards the guy who captured me. Her body became engulfed with an eerie red aura. That same red energy then completely covered the bandit holding me, completely paralyzing him in his place. Taking the opportunity, I calmly shimmied my way out of his grasp and stood to Shokyoku's side as she kept him in place.

"Bitch! What're you doin' to me?!" He managed to mutter.

"Oh, we're not even done yet!" Shokyoku exclaimed almost too enthusiastically. "Teach a nasty human like you to threaten my Aki!" She tossed a look to me, practically begging me to proceed.

I opened my mouth. _"Gravirei." _She released the red energy and as soon as she did, the little girl unleashed a heavy gravitational field that landed right on top of the guy, smashing him into the ground in an instant, creating a crater and completely knocking him out cold upon impact. I stood there looking at the pathetic piece of flesh that lie inside that crater, thinking that he was lucky I didn't use a more lethal spell. He just wasn't worth the time or energy.

"Jeez Aki, think you did enough?" Nuriko asked as he approached me and inspected the damage. "I mean, he wasn't really a threat to you."

"Which is why I didn't kill him."

He squatted down and poked the guy with a stick he conveniently found nearby. Not a second later, a painful groan escaped the guy's mouth. Nuriko blinked with surprise. "Well! What do ya know, he is alive!" Turning his head around, he grinned at me. "I guess your spells look more intimidating than they actually are, huh?"

"They were low-level spells…unless he was completely incompetent, they shouldn't have killed him," I explained.

"As for how much damage they _actually_ cause, that's a different story!" Shokyoku snickered.

* * *

><p>When we left that particular location, Nuriko and the others thought it appropriate to leave those bandits there and tied them to a tree, just as a warning and to make life a tad more unpleasant for them when they all came to. A little after we ventured down a trail through the woods, Hotohori took Miaka off to the side to talk to her in private. In the meantime, Nuriko, Shokyoku, and I excused ourselves to a small area nearby, within listening distance to the couple.<p>

Nuriko was crouched behind a tree as he intently listened in to their conversation, while Shokyoku and I sat a couple feet away from him, she enjoying the shade that the close proximity trees provided and me not really paying much attention to anyone's voice.

_Why does it seem like it's been such a long time since I've been outside? _It wasn't that long ago when I was traveling around with Chichiri and Tasuki…or when I went off on my own to Kutou. I had been out plenty of times and my confinement in Konan's palace was only for a short while. Since that was the case, I didn't understand why my brain was fooling me in thinking that the world looked so new to me. It may have been since I hadn't really been outside since the incident in Kutou…Stella's effect on me may be the cause…

My active senses took in every detail of my surroundings—the fresh air mixed with various aromas coming from the plant life, the way that the wind made the branches sway and my hair blow lightly across my face, the sky gradient from light blue to a sort of orange where the sun neared its daily completion in the sky, and…the grass…I slowly slid my arms away from my body and my fingers combed through the blades of grass surrounding me. I had felt grass countless times in my life, so much so that I had memorized its texture and every other feature one could possibly acquire from a blade of grass. Even now when I couldn't feel anything physically, I kept thinking that I could…because of my memory. I remembered grass being…well, not necessarily smooth since it had some resistance to it if you were to slide your finger up and down a single blade. The feel was unique, unlike anything else I could really recall. Opening and closing my hand, I watched as the grass bundled in my palm. We learned in school that each one of our senses are connected to our brain in some way…when we touch something, the nerve endings in our skin are activated and gather the information from what we are touching, and then that information is sent to the brain where that particular feeling is registered. I could remember what grass felt like, I could imagine how it would feel as I comb through it. So…_was_ this feeling? Or was it merely a memory?

A small, swift snap pulled me away from my deep thoughts.

I looked up and there was Nuriko leaning in front of me with his hand out in front in post-finger-snap position right in my face. He had a rather annoyed expression.

"Hey, Aki, did you even hear what I said? I know I can't exactly look for sympathy with you right now, but I also can't hear Shokyoku, so you'll have to do."

I turned my head slightly to Shokyoku, silently asking what Nuriko was talking about. The little girl shrugged and said, "He was complaining about Yuki and the human emperor over there. I tried to tune him out, but it didn't work." _Oh…that emotional stuff again…_

"You know," I told him, "if you didn't spy on them like that, you wouldn't become so upset."

As if this was a complete surprise to him, he leaned back up against the tree and crossed his arms. "I'm not upset! Not really…It's just…" His expression suddenly saddened a bit. "They don't have to do that _right_ there. Do they?" I shifted my position a bit to see exactly what was going on between Hotohori and Miaka. All that I saw going on was them intensely looking each other in the eyes. My eye brow raised again in confusion. _I don't really understand any of this. They aren't even doing anything. _Whatever it was, it was upsetting Nuriko no matter how much he denied it. So what I didn't get was why he wouldn't just take him away from the stimulus that brought him such discomfort.

Nuriko then suddenly snapped his head up in alarm. Scrambling to move, he launched himself from his spot and knocked me completely down. My ears caught onto the sound of something flying swiftly in the air, and then making an impact in something solid. As I looked over his shoulder, I was surprised to see a spear lodged into the tree that Nuriko was just sitting against. If he hadn't pushed me down, it would have hit the back of my head.

"Aki!" Shokyoku fell down to her knees and started down at me as Nuriko slowly got off of me. "Who—"

A low scream emerged from Miaka and Hotohori's location, soon increasing in volume as some type of danger approached the victim. "Miaka!" Hotohori shouted out in panic.

"Miaka! Your Highness!" Nuriko then jumped to his feet and dashed to assist his friends.

We were under attack…again. And this bunch, from what I could tell, seemed slightly more competent than the wave we had to deal with back at the restaurant.

"Aki! Behind you!" Shokyoku yelled. Without even looking, I jumped ungracefully forward to avoid whatever was trying to strike me. And I heard a swing, followed by a ruffling in the bushes in back of me. Unfortunately, my less than coordinated move left me on the ground flat on my stomach, in a vulnerable position.

There was a low chortle. "Good job avoiding that," I looked backwards to see a couple pair of legs standing behind me, "but good luck thinking that'll work again girly."

"_Sekienton,"_ I quietly uttered. Shokyoku took the hint and slammed her palms on the ground, creating a black smoke screen that immediately burst from her casting spot.

"What the—"?

"What's going on?!"

While in the middle of all the confusion, I quickly got up on my feet and exited my cover, knowing not to panic in a situation that hindered your eyesight or any other sense. Once free from the smoke, Shokyoku and I entered the clearing where Miaka and the others supposedly ran towards but there was no one there. This wasn't peace though. No, it was much too quiet.

"So these guys like to ambush people left and right, huh? They're here…definitely…just waiting to pounce like the animals they are." Shokyoku inferred. "No doubt they're with the guys who attacked us earlier." _That's a pretty safe accusation. _I tried to stand as perfectly still as I could in order to either bait them out or wait for them to make a mistake. I was actually rather surprised. These men, whoever they were, had never even met me before, so as far as they were concerned, I was just a helpless girl in the woods. Logic dictates that I would be an easy target. The mere fact that they were showing caution of any kind proved my theory of this group being more competent than the last.

However, only _slightly_ more competent.

Eventually, the perpetrators got tired of waiting for me to make a move and a group of around ten men, maybe less, appeared from the camouflage of the environment, each of them holding some type of weapon, be it bows and arrows, blunt branches, chains, the works. And all of them having some type of slimy and confident grin as they circled around me like a bunch of vultures beginning to close in on a doomed animal.

Two of them held up my missing comrades, Hotohori, Miaka, and Nuriko, who had all been knocked out cold and chained up by the wrists and ankles.

"We got'chur friends here girlie," One of them taunted, "Why don't you move that sweet little ass of yours over here and join them? It'll be easier if you just come without trying to fight back." They stepped even closer.

Shokyoku sighed and then gave them a dirty look. "Just because you captured those humans doesn't mean that you have any chance of capturing Aki." I didn't say anything in response. My mind was going through the different scenarios of how I could possibly play out this scene. I didn't particularly care about what happened to Miaka and the guys, but I sort of needed at least Miaka alive in order for me to find Tasuki, which meant that I had a wider range to do what I wanted as long as Miaka stayed alive and functional. These men were wasting my time with all this and that couldn't be excused. They had become an obstacle that was intruding on my mission.

"So what's it gonna be?"

"You gonna come quietly or are we gonna have to rough you up a bit?"

"Shokyoku…" She turned her attention to me, waiting to hear my command. _"Thrust. _Fire at will._" _At that, she grinned mischievously and spread her arms out wide, apart from each other, and pointed her fingers out like imitation guns. Not a second later, an invisible force shot out from her index fingers and impacted whoever she happened to be pointing at during the time. They were immediately pushed back from their spot, completely knocked from their standing, and fell to the ground, or whatever structure was behind them with a thud. The little girl twirled her body, her dress flying up a bit from the action, as she shot a burst of energy at another two victims, putting them out of commission for a moment.

"What's happening?!" The bandits looked around to the person initiating the attack, but they couldn't see her…which made them sitting ducks.

"It's you! Isn't it you bitch!" One of them came charging at me with a chain sickle, ready to slash. But Shokyoku caught him at the corner of her eye and pointed her finger at him without hesitation, sending him soaring in the air, hitting the two men holding my companions, knocking them to the ground without any trouble at all.

"Now, who else wants some?" Shokyoku politely asked with a sweet voice, keeping her arms outstretched.

The few men that remained on their feet began to shake from what I presumed to be fear, but still they insisted on keeping up their weapons. This attack wasn't meant to kill anyone, as before, it was only a warning to them to not interfere with my plans. However I was beginning to believe that their lower intelligences was keeping them from making the smart decision, seeing as how the ones that were knocked down started to get up and stand their ground for round two.

"We don't know what kind of trick you're pulling here," A man with a rough voice said from behind me, "but we're not fallin' for it, or running away from a woman like you!" I turned my head to the side to face him, seeing him only out of the corner of my eye. "You see these men? They've been through a hella lot more than what you can throw, so give us your best shot!" Any fear that they had before was suddenly wiped away, replaced by a confidence and bad conscience that prompted them to step even closer towards my personal space.

Can't say I never gave them the option to live.

_I'll stun them with an _Explosion Array_ and then finish them off with _Dragon Slave_…at point blank they'll be dead without any resistance._ I couldn't help but notice something though…they were still pretty careful to not all come charging in at once. What exactly was keeping them from the kill? Didn't matter, just because they weren't taking their chance didn't mean that I wouldn't.

But that was when someone said something that completely stopped me mid-execution.

"Mt. Reikaku is our turf, and if you think that you'll one-up us here, you have another thing coming!"

The plan completely washed out of my brain after hearing those words. _He said…Mt. Reikaku…_

Shokyoku blinked back at me with confusion. "Aki? What's wrong?"

I recognized that name…it was where…

Holding up both my hands, palms out in a diplomatic way, I told them, "I surrender." And so each and every one of them, including Shokyoku all gave me a blank look as they dropped their arms limply, not expecting that at all.

"WHAAAAAT?! Aki?!" Shokyoku ran in front of me with an alarmed expression. "Wha-why? We can defeat them! We don't even have to try!" I didn't give her an explanation then and there because our attacks might have overheard me.

The bandits just sat there for a few seconds taking in my surrender, looking at one another with bewildered faces.

"So…uh…do you think she means it? Or is it a trick?"

I looked them square in the eye. "No trick—I give up. You can take me." To show them I meant no harm, I brought my arms down and put them behind my back in a similar fashion to how they tied up the others.

The scruffy one who had his hair in a loose bun and held a long metal chain in his hand approached me cautiously, taking one step at a time, preparing himself for anything else I might throw at them. When he got close enough, I looked me in the eye and I just stared him down without blinking or expression, waiting for him to make the next move. And he just stood there for a few moments, as if he was expecting something out of me. After a while, his face began to scrunch uncomfortably while he broke out in a cold sweat, and if I wasn't mistaken, it looked like he was vibrating a bit as well. But I just stood there, complying to their wishes to capture me without resistance, not knowing what else it was they wanted me to do.

The guy shakily cranked his head to the side and spoke to his pals. "I…I'm not quite sure if I wanna do this…this girl…she's creepy! Her eyes are freaky and she shows no emotion whatsoever! It's like she's staring into your soul!"

One of his companions grunted and crossed his arms. "She's just a woman! Man up! She's probably just playing mind games with you."

The chain-guy gulped and brought his attention back to me. "Y-Yeah…mind games…" Maneuvering behind me as cautiously as he could, he proceeded with his task, and I was only aware of this because after a while, I wasn't able to move my arms out anymore.

Shokyoku just watched the whole thing, switching her eyes from my chains and back at me. "Aki? I don't understand…but…if…if you know what you're doing then…" She mumbled bitterly, "I'll go along with it…" Following his chaining me up, the guy quickly backed off and rejoined his companions in the vulture circle.

"Hey, I think we should knock her out. Ya know, to make sure she doesn't know the location of our hideout."

Someone else agreed. "Yeah, the boss wouldn't like it if she somehow got loose and went squealin' about it." A larger man with a prominent build stepped from their circle with a thick wooden plank in his hands, displaying it in such a way that was traditionally meant to intimidate someone. "I'll take care o' this." Once he was close enough, I found that he towered me by a good feet or two—he was definitely bigger than the average man and I saw that he let his size speak for itself most of the time, thinking that was enough to scare enemies away.

As he raised his arms ready to swing, Shokyoku flew up to his height and spoke softly in his ear. "If any part of that stick touches Aki or even gives her a splinter, I will make sure that you end up in the darkest abyss I can find, with all of your appendages either broken or ripped off, never to see the light of day again as you wither and die like the pathetic little specimen you are." While I was positive that the guy didn't hear or see her, his face suddenly turned white as all the blood rushed away and his whole body shivered uncontrollably. Throwing the plank clear out of the area with a mighty throw, he made no mistake to hide himself behind his comrades, crouched in the fetal position.

"I just couldn't do it…There's just something about that woman…she's freakin' creepy! She's just gotta be cursed or something…I don't even think we should bring her with us…" Then he yelled. "JUST DROP HER IN A DITCH SOMEWHERE!" Then suddenly, one of his friends grabbed him by the collar and slapped him across the face repeatedly.

"Look! We are not gonna let some woman beat us? She is just a _woman. _So maybe she's got some tricks up her sleeve, so what? Are we, the Mt. Reikaku Bandits just gonna sit here and take crap from this chick?!" At that, they all glanced back at me and they all shuddered simultaneously.

"It does um…kind of look like she's got something a bit…off or evil about her…"

"Who the f$%k cares?! We take her with us just because she's creepy! She is an obstacle that we need to face. Right, men?" They all muttered answers under their breath, none really discernible. The ring leader soon became agitated. "I said, RIGHT MEN?!"

And at the same time, they all shouted, "YEAH!" They all jumped up from their huddle and regained about half of their confidence, grasping onto their weapons for dear life…as if me staring at them had the magical ability to take away their weapons. They all looked over to me with intense expressions, although all sort of half-assed because they were all breaking out in nervous sweats.

"Now how exactly do we go about this?"

* * *

><p>For a couple hours, I sat in some unknown location with my arms and feet bound together and my eyes blindfolded with some kind of cloth. When we were all still in the forest, the bandits resolved to cover my eyes because apparently, they caused quite a bit of a disturbance, in order to proceed with their task. Shokyoku was opposed to this as well, but somewhere along the way, I had to draw a line for her interference. If I didn't let them do what they want, then they wouldn't have taken me to the place where I'd run into Tasuki. So she just puffed her cheeks and endured, holding herself back from unleashing Hell.<p>

Once they blindfolded me and tied my ankles together, one of the bigger men, I presumed, picked me up and carried me to their hideout. I actually couldn't feel anything that was going on, so it was like I was stuck in some black abyss just waiting for my fate, but eventually, because of the context of the situation, I deduced, from things such as the topics of their speech, that they had brought us to the prime location. Oh, and it helped that Shokyoku actually told me where we were at. It was some obscure building structure in the middle of a mountain valley about an hour's journey from where we were captured. In fact, if it weren't for her, I wouldn't have even been aware of Miaka and the others being somewhat close to me in the room they had dropped us off in. They were all still alive, just knocked out. And taking hold of this opportunity, not knowing when she'd be able to seize it again, Shokyoku performed her Darkness transference ritual on Miaka once more in order to fuel her own energy. It didn't appear as if the grey-scaled little girl was running low on energy, but I guess she was just being prepared for anything.

I just was so close to Tasuki…so close to getting back whatever it was I lost…all I had to do was wait a bit longer, and then he'd show up.

A little while after dumping us, the bandits retreated to some other room, one in which Shokyoku had no interest, so she didn't pursue. And I just sat there with my mouth shut, not saying anything the entire time unless spoken to, waiting patiently for my opportunity…

Some time went by, and I wasn't completely sure how much time, but I heard some stirring coming from either Miaka, Hotohori, or Nuriko.

A small sound came from one of their mouths. "…anh…" Some, almost faint, movement as clothing ruffled was also recognizable amongst the darkness I was floating in.

"It's Yuki," Shokyoku said from my side. More sounds came from her as she regained consciousness and adjusted to her new environment.

"…huh?..." More movement. "…what?" She moved some more. "Onee-chan? Why…?" Then she paused for some reason. "Nuriko! Hotohori! Come on you guys, wake up!" Her calls brought on bits of movement from two different locations.

"Mi..aka?" Hotohori muttered. "Nuriko, Akimoto?"

"Where are we?" Nuriko asked. "And why the heck is Aki blindfolded when the rest of us aren't?"

"Akimoto, are you alright?"

"I'm fine."

"Miaka?"

She answered positively. "Oh, I'm fine too Hotohori! I'm just relieved! I was almost positive that we'd be killed."

"Speaking of which…" Nuriko addressed me. "I'm a bit surprised that they captured Aki as well…I mean, right now she kind of has an extra pair of eyes to lookout for her. I just would have thought that Shokyoku would do her job better."

"What?! _I_ did my job just fine you girly monkey!" Shokyoku replied angrily. "At least _I'm_ not the useless Suzaku Warrior who couldn't keep his priestess from getting captured! _We, _as in Aki and I, are here because we want to be, not because we have to!"

"I let them capture me," I told them.

"What?!" They all asked at the same time. It was pretty much the same reaction as my initial surrender earlier.

"Akimoto, you really let them capture you?"

"And you let them take us _all_ away?!" Nuriko scolded. "How in the world did that seem smart? And please tell me that you didn't know about their ambush." Was he suspecting that I had a hand in their attack?

"I did not know that something like that would happen—they took me by surprise as well." Perhaps if I had known that we were on Mt. Reikaku, I would have been more aware of what could have happened. But in this case, everything happened for a reason. "But you're not dead, so relax." Now there was even more movement, and it was coming closer to me. And then unexpectedly, the blindfold around my head slid around to the knotted part, and then it dropped down to my neck. It was Miaka. She had hopped(?) over to where I was even while her ankles and wrists were chained up and used her teeth to take the blindfold from my eyes.

Sitting right in my face was a wide-eyed, smiling Miaka. "There. You should be able to see just like the rest of us Onee-chan."

"Tch…" Shokyoku tossed her head to the side. "We could have gotten that thing off at any time. Don't flatter yourself Yuki." Using her thumb to refer to herself, she stated, "I will always be Aki's favorite so no getting any delusions." We were indeed in a wide room being lit by several lamps closer to the ceiling with somewhat plain Chinese-decorated concrete walls and unimpressive dark green ceramic flooring. There off on the opposite side of the room were all our supplies that the bandits had stolen, one of them being Hotohori's sword, just as Shokyoku said. And a little closer than that was a long wooden table accompanied with chairs all around. Seeing as how it was only us who occupied the room, I couldn't help but wonder where all the bandits went.

"So does anyone know where—" Hotohori winced from what looked like a wound on his arm which happened to be bleeding a bit through his white sleeve.

"Hotohori!" Miaka confirmed my hypothesis about her method of travel when she hopped using her knees to get over to the emperor. "You're hurt! Oh…you got that wound when you saved me…"

And…that was about the time when I tuned the world out again. Somewhere along the way, my mind, when in this emotional state at least, developed a defense mechanism to times when faced with over-emotional situations.

We were getting ever close to finding Tasuki…although I supposed that I'd have to go back to calling him Genrou since he did request, in an intoxicated state, that I not reveal to anyone of his true identity. So if we found him, and Shokyoku's plan worked, then I would get back what I had lost, whatever that thing was. And if that happened, I think I'd choose to keep the ring on my head. My mind was clearer and I could think more rationally, make the wiser decisions…and I wasn't distracted by emotions. I was already allowed emotions to weigh me down all my life and all that did was cloud my sense of judgment, and at times, made me act upon foolish impulsions or fail to act completely. Not to mention that one could achieve far more when not stopping every second to boil in their feelings. Life was about playing it smart, and stupid decisions get people killed.

Being fully completed, I would no longer have a need for Miaka and her warriors. I didn't matter to me who won the war, who lived, or who died. My target was Stella. And once I killed her, I'd…

I'd…

What then? What other purpose did my life have? Would I just wander this world endlessly? I couldn't see any other objective…

But at least I'd be alive.

I blinked and was then returned to the more active world outside of my thoughts. And standing before us were some of bandits, maybe like seven or eight of them, that attacked us and brought us here. They were in the middle of saying _something_, but I had just recently tuned in.

"You all are lucky that we didn't kill you—consider that a gift of kindness from the Mt. Reikaku Bandits! But that doesn't mean that you'll get away with anything, so no funny moves or you'll regret it."

"Oh yeah and thanks for your various treasures," them referring to the supplies and possessions of ours they stole, "we'll happily accept them as our own and use them as we please." The bandit with light mustard-colored hair reached into one of his pockets and brought out the hand mirror that Taiitsukun gave to Miaka meant to help her track down the remaining Suzaku Warriors. From the corner of my eye, I noticed how Miaka's attention suddenly switched to the small trinket that was rightfully hers. From the look on her face, it appeared as if something mentally struck her. "Now this oughta get us some kind of wealth, right? I mean, even a small fortune is fortune."

"Wait a minute," one of his pals took grabbed the mirror out of his hand. "Maybe I wanna use it—how else can I manage my good looks?"

"If we ever wanna sell that thing, we can't risk _you_ looking into it."

"Yeah! It might end up cracking the glass—then no one will want it anymore!" They all laughed amongst themselves.

"Hmph! Bunch of morons they are," Shokyoku noted. "If that flame-headed monkey is one of these guys then it makes _complete_ sense." She turned her head towards me. "If by some chance he's not here, then we're going to need that mirror back. Want me to release you so that you can get it?"

I shook my head and spoke to her softly. "No, not yet. For now, we wait a bit more." She frowned at this, but nodded in obedience.

Taking an opportunity by using their being distracted by themselves, Miaka called in Nuriko, Hotohori and I for a huddle. "Hey you guys, I just remembered something. When we were on our way towards the place where we were first ambushed, the mirror flashed and showed the symbol for mountain, which means that the fifth warrior must be one of these guys! But the only way for me to find out is if I can check for the sign on their bodies."

"Well, that does make sense," Nuriko agreed and then sighed hopelessly, "but chained up like this, we're all kind of useless…"

_Shokyoku. _The little girl blinked once in surprise and then faced me. _So I was correct. You are still connected to me…_

She smiled widely. "Of course I am~! I'm part of you after all. Now then…" She snuggled in closer to me. "What is it that you need?" As curious as the floating flowers surrounding Miaka and Nuriko earlier that day, floating hearts encircled Shokyoku as she spoke to me.

_I'm going to need you to release Miaka so that she can look for Tasuki. _

"But why? You already know who he is and what he looks like. As far as I'm concerned, this whole thing is just a waste of time and energy. We can get the job done a lot quicker if I just let you go and you and I find him ourselves."

_As priestess, it's Miaka's job to discover her warriors on her own—Taiitsukun said that I can't interfere with that aspect of Miaka's journey. _

She gave me a strained smile. "Aki…you really have to stop taking orders from people like that and taking them literally…Especially people like that old hag."

_Logic also dictates that if we don't need to go through the trouble of wasting our energy on violence, then we shouldn't, not if he'll easily present himself to us. And it's not like these humans pose an actual threat to me… Besides,_ I watched Miaka as she discussed the situation with Nuriko and Hotohori. _ I'm curious as to what the Priestess of Suzaku can do using her own intellect and reasoning._

Shokyoku rolled her eyes. "Alright Aki, if you say so."

_Now use this spell using as little energy as possible. _

"_Haien." _Pointing her finger down towards Miaka's chain, a small, dark purple oblong shape of energy shot out and impacted one of the links.

Sensing that something felt different, Miaka stopped herself mid-sentence and blinked, turning her head a bit to see if anything happened.

Hotohori looked at her peculiarly. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't know…it kind of seems like..." Without much resistance, she brought her free hands out in front of her. "I'm free!" She lowered her voice. "Well, my hands are anyway."

Nuriko inspected the chain that fell from her. "One of the links was missing? How didn't you notice that before?" All she did was reply with a wide, goofy smile. "Oh wait…never mind…I already know the answer." It occurred to me that I could have informed Hotohori and Nuriko about this plan, but then they probably would have ordered I release them as well. For the sake of us not leaving this place, I had to ensure that they were still at the mercy of the bandits. Miaka being loose wouldn't affect anything, certainly not with only her hands freed. If anything, she'd need her warriors to come save _her_ after some point. The longer we were there, the better.

Miaka wasted no more time. She hopped up from her spot and launched herself at the bandits without giving it much more thought.

"What the?!" One of them shouted. Using both her hands and teeth, she proceeded to rip and tear at their clothing randomly until she saw skin, hoping to catch a glimpse of a sign that she'd never find amongst _those_ men.

"One of you is the fifth Suzaku Warrior, and I'm gonna find you!" She cried out as she made her way through them. They tried to wiggle her off of them, but she was determined enough to stick to them like a leech until she got results.

Nuriko gave the situation and exasperated expression. "She certainly is headstrong, I'll give that to her."

Hotohori gawked upon the scene with concern. "Shouldn't we do something?"

"Get this crazy chick away from us!" The bandit with the mustard-colored hair shook his arm feverishly, sharing the bug-eyed shock as the rest of his crew, trying to get off the girl who was biting at it and ripping his sleeve.

All of a sudden, another man walked into the room, saw the scene that was unfolding and swiftly walked up to Miaka and, without hesitating, punched her across the back of her head. She let go to voice her pain and grab at the bump that was mostly likely there, but the guy took both of her hands and folded them in back of her in such a way that they were no longer useful to her.

"Kouji!" One of the men uttered..

"What the heck's goin' on here? I tell you guys that you can come hassle the prisoners a little and I come out ta see that you all can't even handle a little girl." Miaka shot him a sour look. This guy, Kouji as he was called, was quite a few inches taller than me, had sort of messy blue hair that was styled similar to Tasuki's, except with a gold headband he wore across his forehead and around his skull that contributed with the difference, and had comparatively darker skin—he was like the color of powdered chocolate used for chocolate milk or hot chocolate. On the left side of his face was a scar that extended from about the corner of his mouth to a little under his eye. He wore a loose white shirt that showed part of his chest tied with a dark violet belt and he wore red shoulder guards and forearm braces along with dark, olive green pants and goldenrod boots that almost reached his knees.

His appearance alone already made him stand out amongst his cohorts. _Could he be one of the people in charge? _

"Hey come on, let me go!" Miaka commanded as she wriggled in his hold but to no avail.

He ignored her while addressing his men. "And who tied _this one_ up in broken chains?" The group of men all singled out one of the scruffier guys with short, spikey black hair. As soon as their eyes fell on him, he shrank from the pressure.

"I coulda sworn that those chains were good when I tied her up!"

"_Yeah_…" Kouji tossed a glance over to us before bringing his attention back down to Miaka. "Well, the boss said that he wanted ta see one of the prisoners, and since this one is bein' so ancy, I guess that she's itchin' ta go first." _The boss? Didn't Tasuki say something before about him being the boss after _his_ boss died?_ Did that mean that the guy that Kouji was going to bring Miaka to was the one who we set out to find a cute for? Or was it Tasuki himself?

"Miaka…" Hotohori gritted his teeth as he saw her in the stranger's grasp. Then he yelled out and demanded, "Take me instea—"

"Hotohori," I interrupted. "Don't. If Miaka wants to find the fifth warrior, then she's going to have to take this as far as she's willing to go."

"But…"

"She's right Your Highness," Nuriko added, "If Miaka goes then we can stay here and give her the time she needs to do her job. And if she needs us, we won't be too far—"

"Hey!" Kouji noticed us whispering amongst each other. "What're you all yappin' on about over there?" Refraining from releasing Miaka's arms, he made his way over to us, inspecting to see exactly what his men had picked up. And that was when he took quick notice of me and stayed fixated on my person for a few seconds, seemingly rattling his brain over something. "There's…somethin' about you…"

Nuriko grinned. "Hey Aki~ Looks like you picked up an admirer!"

The bandit immediately retaliated. "Shut it! It's not that type o' thing." His face looked puzzled as he wondered and wondered what he was getting at. "I coulda sworn that…did I see her somewhere? No.." He took another gape into my eyes and then, without warning, his went wide as he backed off a bit. "Oh, shit!"

"What's up Kouji?" One of the other bandits asked him.

"Th-That girl…the one with the red eyes…"

"Oh yeah…_her_. We kind of didn't wanna bring her along 'cause she's kind of creepy. But we thought it was smarter to bring her along rather than let her go…"

"You morons!" He yelled, causing the other bandits to jump from shock. "Don't'cha know who she is?" No response came from them as they all turned to themselves for an answer. Kouji sighed. "A little while ago some of what remained of the Mt. Kaou bandits came crawlin' up our mountain lookin' like they'd been in some fierce battle er somethin'. I cut 'em off before they got any closer. And just as I was ready to teach 'em what happens ta rival bandits that cross our turf, they totally freaked out over some red-eyed sorceress who had some crazy temper when pissed off. She apparently warned them ta not bother any more folks er else she'd find 'em and bash their skulls in. And they were told ta tell other bandits the same warning." He gave me a quirky look. "She was supposed ta be scarier than any demon…" At that moment, _everyone_ (except Shokyoku who wasn't shocked at al) in the room gradually turned their heads towards me, each of them staring real hard as if trying to see something that was invisible.

One of the bandits asked with a shaky voice, "Have you ever seen someone with red eyes before?"

"No…she's the first…"

"Then it's gotta be her!"

"To make members of the former Mt. Kaou bandits _that_ freaked out…" And then there was a very obvious muteness that echoed throughout the entire room as the bandits, along with Miaka and her warriors, visually dissected me.

Finally, one of the pion bandits broke the silence. "I dunno Kouji…she seems rather calm to me…a bit too calm for my tastes, but still calm…"

"Look, it _has_ ta be her!" Kouji insisted. "No one else has eyes like that. Calm or not, she doesn't belong here. I get a bad feelin' from her…" That was pretty much the story of my life ever since I was old enough to recognize that the curse on me had a negative effect on people. How ironic was it that now that the Dark Ring was, for the most part, gone and there were still people fearing me just from rumors and first impressions alone? I guess this side-effect of my existence was one that was unavoidable just for being who I was.

"Onee-chan?" Miaka asked meekly with a nervous smile. "Just what were you doing while I was at home?"

"Aki must have had some time when she was away those three months to leave _this_ kind of impression on people." Nuriko almost sounded fascinated.

"Hey, I actually think it's kind of cool!" Miaka said, resolving whatever conflicted feelings she was having at the time. "However way she did it, my big sis kicked bandit butt!"

Kouji tugged at her. "You be quiet." Tossing his head over to his buddies, he told them, "do what'cha want with the rest of them while I take this one to the boss. And keep an eye on that red-eyed one." Walking towards the door, he dragged Miaka away without resistance, which signaled Hotohori to try and make a move despite what Nuriko and I told him.

Miaka saw his movement and smiled at him before she couldn't be seen anymore. "Don't worry about me—I'll be back before you know it! Just sit tight!" And then, through the open doorway and down a hallway, she was gone.

"Now that _they're_ out of the way…" A few of the men came over to our side of the room and dropped themselves on the sides and between Nuriko and Hotohori. "We can enjoy the company of you beautiful ladies! If you play your cards right and cooperate~" The two Suzaku Warriors exchanged confused glances mixed with a nauseated expression. _They think these two are women? _Nuriko I could understand since he used to be a very convincing cross-dresser…but Hotohori? Somehow Miaka made that mistake as well when they first met. I personally didn't see it.

"Ha! You think _those_ two are beautiful?" Shokyoku scoffed. "The only good-looking ones in this room are yours truly," she said with a hair flip, "and of course Aki, who's beauty is enough to shine through any form of darkness!" She gave them a harsh look. "Just comes to show how monkeys have bad taste."

The bandit's cuddled and rubbed their faces against Nuriko and Hotohori's, much to the warriors' displeasure. Hotohori tried to shove one of them away and correct the error when Nuriko reminded him how it was their job to cover Miaka during this operation, so they had no choice but to play along and be helpless servant woman.

"The hell? _Me_ serve these men? That's absurd." Hotohori whispered in distaste as the men proceeded to unchain them in full confidence that these "ladies" were of no harm to them.

"Yes Your Highness. I know it's ridiculous and I share your sentiments, but just do it for Miaka! Plus, you have to be kind of flattered, right? I mean, we're obviously so good-looking that they think of us as women!" The emperor gave one more look of disdain before entering his role as a woman. Perking up, he was guided over to the long table topped mostly with bottles of alcohol and empty cups, where he sat in between a few of his admirers and "happily" served them their drinks.

Nuriko was just about to leap over and join in when he noticed a stray bandit boldly approaching me. He squatted down to my sitting height and grabbed his chin, scanning my body from top to bottom. He slapped on a slimy smile. "Ya know, this one ain't all that bad lookin'" His eyes stopped at my chest. "And it looks like she's got a pretty nice rack…too bad she's a freak otherwise I might take her as my own for the night."

"_**What**_?!" Shokyoku lifted a hand that started to collect cracking black energy and slowly reached out for the man's neck, her different eyes glowing more than usual from the rage that seemed to be coursing through her. But unlike the other times when I had to tell her to stop, she grabbed the hand that was threatening the unsuspecting man and tried to pull it away, showing that she did have at least some self-control. "I wanna kill him Aki…I wanna kill him _**so**_ bad…" She lowered her head as she seethed in anger. "No one speaks of my Aki that way…" Resisting ever more, she used a considerable amount of strength to put the lethal arm down and suppress her energy before it was detected by this guy.

Nuriko put on a fake pleasant smile and wrapped an arm around the guy's neck in an endearing way. "Hey handsome," He winked, "How about I pour you a cup of sake, hm?" But to his surprise, the bandit shooed him away with his hand.

"Maybe after this…" The bandit reached out for me, and, on an impulse, Nuriko snatched his wrist without warning, still maintaining that smile. The bandit looked at him with alarm. "What the hell?!"

"What'cha doin?" The purple-haired Suzaku Warrior asked sweetly in contrary to his action.

The bandit gave him a warning glare. "What's it to ya?!"

Nuriko's pink eyes blazed. "Just curious~"

Shoving him away, only able to because Nuriko didn't want to give away his Suzaku-given ability, the guy said, "Not that I have to tell a wench like you anything, but since I can't have your red-eyed friend, I'll just take that shiny ring of hers on her head. I should get a nice amount for that…"

Holding his cheek in his hand in that familiar fashion of his, Nuriko closed his eye as he tsked the man. "I dunno, I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Are you tellin' me what to do?!"

"Oh, never! Just giving you some friendly advice." He narrowly opened one of his eyes and looked at the bandit coolly. "If you can, recall your worst nightmare or even the worst kind of pain or anger or sadness you have ever experienced in your life…" The odd topic shift caused the man to take partial interest to what Nuriko was saying. "Well, times that by about a thousand, and you'll only have an idea of the kind of torture you'll put yourself through if you take that ring from her head." Hearing the serious and somewhat daunting tone of Nuriko's voice instantaneously made the man retreat his arm from my personal space. "It's there for a reason." I was actually rather astonished that he was so aware of a huge part of my curse's effects. Then again, as I recall, both him and Tamahome were both victims of it back when we had all first met. Nuriko had said some derogatory statements that upset me considerably, allowing me to subconsciously give Shokyoku the okay to release my Darkness onto him as well as Tamahome who happened to be standing nearby. Seemed as if my curse left a lasting impression on the Suzaku Warriors psyche. Which raised the question of whether he was at that moment trying to protect me from the bandit, or protect the bandit from me…

The man gulped in horror, and yet continued to gape at the ring with skepticism. "You're bluffing…"

From out of nowhere, Nuriko took out a folded fan and extended it, raising it up to his face and covering the lower half so that only his pink eyes were displayed. "If you're so sure, then by all means, take the ring from her head!" His mischievous eyes smiled. "It would just be a shame to see a handsome man like you shrivel away in despair and cringe on the floor thinking that all of that could have been avoided." He snapped the fan back into its compact state and stuck back on that charming smile. "Of course, I am just a lowly servant woman, so what would I know? And so I cannot help but ask again, _**would you like a drink**_?"

Without giving it another thought, the man jumped up and didn't even give me a second glance, accompanying Nuriko to the table with the rest of his chums. But before Nuriko could get there, he sent a look back at me and said, "I know you can't exactly do anything as you are now, but once you're back to normal, you owe me one." Then he went to join Hotohori in (faux) entertaining the bandits.

Shokyoku watched him and Hotohori as they initiated their part of the plan. Her expression was for the most part indiscernible, but leaned a bit on the troubled side. She had completely calmed down from her wave of anger as her fascination lay with the two Suzaku Warriors before us. But then she just shook her head and muttered, "I guess once every blue moon, even dumb monkeys aren't completely useless." I…think that was the first almost compliment she ever gave a human…at least the only one I ever heard her admit out loud. What exactly had those two done to make her momentarily take a shift in character?

I didn't linger on that inquiry too long…it had nothing to do with me.

From that point on, none of the bandits wanted anything to do with me. They just focused all their attention on Nuriko and Hotohori as they foolishly allowed themselves to get drunk as two complete strangers served them for the next quarter of an hour or so. Every now and then one of them would toss me a glance, but it was quickly repealed as fear washed back up into their system at the very thought of what I might be able to do to them if they took a chance. They thought that I was just tucked up against a wall bound by my legs and arms, away from them at a safe distance to where I couldn't cause them any harm. Little did they know that I had Shokyoku break my chains as well, just in case I was put into any danger of some kind, or if I had to make a swift move and catch them off guard.

Figuring that it would be okay to tear away from their drunkard admirers, Hotohori and Nuriko inconspicuously made their way over to me while still casually carrying the bottles of alcohol they had to pour.

"Your Highness, why did it appear as if you were enjoying yourself a bit too much?" Nuriko asked him.

The emperor gave a blasé answer. "I was merely playing along and fulfilling my role to the best of my abilities. I'd say that I'm doing an excellent job at that."

Nuriko giggled. "Oh please Emperor, you only like being complimented and playing pretend, right?"

Hotohori ignored Nuriko's statement and looked down at me. "Akimoto, that man Kouji said something about you beating up some bandits a while ago. And by the way he put it, you did some permanent damage."

"Yes, that happened. They captured me similarly to how I'm captured now. Except that time they drugged me and made me wear demeaning clothing." My voice turned dark for the next part and yet remained rather monotone. "And for their sins I forced them to repent."

Both Nuriko and Hotohori shivered. Nuriko commented, "If I know the regular Aki, then I don't doubt that story at all. And…" He gave me a sideways glance while sweat-dropping. "It's also kind of creepy how you said something like that so calmly…"

The emperor chuckled nervously as well. "I wonder if that is cause for alarm…" He looked over to the doorway that Miaka was dragged out of as she was taken to see the boss, whoever that was. "I pray that Miaka is alright, we haven't heard from her in a while…"

"Hey beautiful!" One of the men called out from the table as he held up a small cup. "More drinks over here! All around!"

Nuriko dropped his head and sighed as he turned around to comply. "Whatever she's doing, she better speed it up 'cause if my shift doesn't end soon, one of those guys will be replacing this bottle with his spine." Hotohori soon followed after taking another longing stare at the open doorway.

It was rather peculiar…If Miaka had discovered Tasuki wherever she was at, then something would have happen by now that indicated she had succeeded. At the very least, she would have come back and announced it or come back for backup.

Something was wrong.

I was getting prepared to search the structure myself when I overheard part of a conversation that was being made at the table by the bandits.

"Eiken is just an arrogant ass…"

"You got that right. He's only playing boss and orderin' us around 'cause Genrou hasn't come back yet…"

"_**Genrou hasn't come back yet…"**_

Shokyoku shot up from her spot in a fury. "We've been waiting around, sitting on our asses, and watching this pathetic display of human interaction and that flame-headed monkey isn't even here?!" She snapped her head towards me. "Aki!" She whined. I nodded.

There was no longer any reason for us to stay there.

Standing up, I allowed my chains to fall on the ground, hearing as the made a somewhat loud clang. The bandits didn't seem to pay my movements any attention though, seeing as how they were letting the alcohol distort their senses.

I called out, "Nuriko, Hotohori!" They turned to me. "We're finding Miaka and then leaving. This place doesn't have what we're looking for…"

"Akimoto, what—" One of the bandits closest to the emperor grabbed his wrist as he tried to make a move towards me.

"Oh c'mon baby, don't leave. Things are just getting good!"

"Yeah," Another clung to Nuriko's robes. "You all are just gonna stay right here. And there's no way that we're letting you get to your friend." Nuriko and Hotohori's eye twitched. "You see, she's with the boss, and the boss doesn't like being disturbed. Let's just say that if your friend was a virgin before, you can count on that not being the case anymore—"

Hotohori growled. "Nuriko!"

"With pleasure Your Highness!" Without using much effort, Nuriko broke free of his leech and lifted up the table from its side, using the flat part scoop the bandits all into the same area and herd (squish) them straight into the wall in back of them before they even had a chance to react. And by using his strength, the Suzaku Warrior was able to keep them there just by leaning against the table, not allowing any of them to escape.

"Wait a second..." One of them finally figured it out. "You two are men?!"

Hotohori fetched his sword from where the supplies were stacked. He unsheathed it and said, "Took you long enough to figure it out."

The bandit looked over at me. "I know that _that_ one over there is a woman."

"Very good, but that doesn't make you all any less in trouble."

Striding over to them, I crouched down right as I reached the incapacitated bandits. Recognizing one of them, I reached out for him, past him, and into his pocket and retrieved Miaka's magic hand-mirror.

Somehow sensing that something was wrong, more bandits came charging into the room at full speed, not caring who it was, but that the prisoners had to be dealt with for messing with the status quo.

Standing before them, I casted, _"Disfang." _Shokyoku stepped over my shadow and then she sank into the ground, her whole body disappearing in the depths of my shadowed-likeness. On the floor, its shape went through a metamorphosis and growing larger, transforming into the silhouette of a dragon. The dragon wasted no time to ram into the shadows of the men threatening us, and the moment the shadow dragon impacted _their_ shadows, the same thing happened to the physical being casting the shadows. So the bandits were being knocked down like bowling pins by a force they couldn't completely understand—up against walls, into each other, they were barely able to make it past the door before the dragon knocked them out cold left and right.

This…was the efficient way of getting things done.

* * *

><p>Footsteps could be heard coming down the hallway. Hotohori hid himself up against the wall next to the door frame, so that whoever was coming wouldn't be able to see him there until they walked in. It didn't take long for Shokyoku and me to deal with the reinforcements. After they stopped being a problem, Shokyoku regained her more or less normal grey-scale form by popping up from my shadow and ending the spell. The unconscious people were then taken over to Nuriko to add to his table collection, where he contently continued to keep the bandits subdued between the wall and the table.<p>

When the person, Kouji, stepped in, he took one look at his defeated comrades, along with Nuriko's sitting on the table that was squishing them, and said, "What the hell happened here?" Hotohori lifted the sharpness of his blade up to the bandit's neck, silencing him from saying anything further.

"I will only ask this once: Where. Is. Miaka?"

I approached him. "Try not to take this personally and cooperate—we just need the priestess if we ever plan on getting anything done."

His eyes blinked wide with surprise. "What? Priestess?"

Hotohori gave me a look. "Akimoto, I don't think we should be going around relaying the information about Miaka's identity to just anyone." He made the sharpest part of the sword rest up against Kouji's neck. "Especially not a group of filthy bandits such as them."

I didn't agree to that. "No, he needs to hear this." Locking my eyes straight onto his, I said, "The fifth Suzaku Warrior is here somewhere, and if not, then I suspect that _you_ most likely know where."

"Aki!" Nuriko chastised, finally joining us after getting tired of babysitting his victims. "That's not important right now! We make sure that Miaka's alright, _and then_ we worry about the next warrior." That may have been most important on their agenda, but I was more concerned about finding Tasuki. If this guy could reveal his location, then I wouldn't even need Miaka and the others anymore.

* * *

><p>"Alright, hey! Take it easy! I said I'd take you to 'er." Hotohori stood directly behind Kouji, who had his arms up in surrender, with his imperial sword pointed directly at the bandit's back as we walked down a passageway towards wherever Miaka was at. To be honest, it didn't take that much threatening or convincing on our part to get him to heed our demand to take us to the priestess. In fact, he seemed pretty okay with it—so much so that I was questioning if he even agreed with the whole action of taking her to his boss in the first place. If that was the case, then I could tell that Kouji's loyalties did not lie with whoever this boss was. Also, I remembered overhearing some of those bandits before we went up against them. They didn't like this boss either.<p>

Why do what the guy said then?

"For all we know, this monkey could be leading us into a trap," Said Shokyoku, annoyed.

"No, I don't think so this time…" I told her. And I didn't. If this guy was really so much against his boss, then logic said he wouldn't pull something like that.

The five of us stopped in front of closed double doors made of what looked like some type of strong metal.

Kouji announced, "The door is locked from the inside, I dunno how you plan on getting' in."

_Shokyoku, phase through the wall and make sure that their boss no longer holds the ability to move. _

"Happily~!" She sang and leaped through the wall without trouble.

"Well then," Nuriko cracked his knuckles, and wound his arm back. "We'll just have to make our own door!" In a fierce swing, Nuriko punched the wall with mighty impact, creating a crater and many branching cracks. "One more oughta do it!" In the swiftness of one more swing, the wall came crashing down, forcing us to brace ourselves for any debris that may fall on us. In the ruins was left a huge hole that was big enough for anyone to fit through. On the other side we were introduced to a chamber far nicer in quality than the room we were held in before. There was a chandelier for light and actual curtains used in the effort to make the place more presentable. We had to keep the sight-seeing short, however when, in the middle of the room was a group of bunched up pillows where Miaka was laying in shock, watching a stubby, pig-like man sporting a helmet with horns on the top practically glued to the floor and glowing with a familiar red energy. Shokyoku stood off to the side with her arm stretched out as she shone the same color due to casting the _Geki _spell.

Miaka looked over at us and smiled. "Nuriko, Hotohori, Onee-chan!" Her uniform was all messy and her vest and shirt had been unbuttoned, revealing her cleavage. My guess was that that pig-guy—aka, the "boss"—was trying to rape Miaka and Shokyoku had gotten there just in time. If those bandits back there weren't so spot-on with this boss' character, they wouldn't have angered Hotohori and Nuriko enough to agree with me about rebelling. And in that case, we would have been too late.

She and Hotohori both ran towards each other and he wrapped her in his arms. "Miaka…I'm so glad your safe…" My brain was about to tune out again due to the flow of emotion, but fortunately, it focused in on Nuriko tackling the pig-boss on the ground, pinning him in some awkward position that looked painful for the guy. Taking the hint, Shokyoku released the spell and lowered her arms, causing the guy to stop glowing.

"What the hell is going on?! Who are you people?! AHH!" He screamed out as Nuriko pulled on his appendages in opposite directions of which they were meant to bend.

"How repulsive…" Shokyoku used her long, ruffled sleeve to cover her nose and lower part of her face. "This kind of human just disgusts me in every way. Not only is his personality worth damning, but the way he looks…ugh!" She turned away from him. "My eyes should never have to see something that ugly. But of course I do it for Aki…"

Hotohori then pointed his sword down at the guy, who of which began to panic at the emperor's threat.

"AHHH Please don't kill me!"

Scowling at him, Hotohori said, "For bringing harm to Miaka, you deserve to die."

"I agree with the royal monkey," Shokyoku replied with her back turned to the bandit leader. "But not so much with the 'harming Yuki' part, but more with the _dying_."

My comment was meant to respond to Shokyoku and Hotohori. "Since he's the boss, wouldn't it be likely for him to know who the next warrior is?"

"That's right!" Miaka popped in. "He told me that he knew!"

"But there are most likely others who know where the flame-headed monkey is at, I don't see why we don't just kill this guy and ask another." The little girl motioned over to Kouji. "I'd bet that he knows. So what's so wrong about ridding the world of scum like that pig-face down there?" Even though she was keeping her composure pretty well, I could tell that she was restraining herself quite a bit to prevent herself from killing this guy from how insistent she was on Hotohori ending it. She really just wanted the man dead no matter who dealt the final blow. And he was pretty defenseless. All he could do was struggle to no avail as Nuriko came pretty close to ripping him up limb to limb. The leader should have been fortunate that Nuriko had completely control over his strength. Otherwise…

I looked back at Kouji. "Hey, you." He blinked at me to signal that I had gotten his attention. "How much would it take for him to do exactly as we say?"

He shrugged. "I doubt it would take much effort. Eiken is kind of a wimp without his special weapon doin' all the work for him." _…Weapon?_

Nuriko grinned. "That's all I really needed to hear." He gazed up at us expecting permission. "Is everyone okay with me torturing him until he talks?"

Miaka said, "Yup."

Hotohori, "Go right ahead."

Shokyoku, "Make him cry."

Kouji, "Go crazy."

Me, "Why not?"

Nuriko, "Alright then!" Putting enough of his energy into it, Nuriko stretched and bent the man's body out in what I could only imagine as dreadfully uncomfortable ways since he just proceeded to cry out in pain.

Until he cried, "Alright! Alright! I'll tell you! The next warrior's name…is Tasuki! It's TASUKI!" Nuriko then stopped applying so much pressure and gave the leader a bit of a breather.

A wide smile ran across Miaka's lips. "Tasuki…"

Shokyoku groaned in frustration. "This is old news to us…Aki, tell the girly monkey to torture him some more. We want location!" As if he was psychic, Nuriko began pulling at the pig-man's limbs again per Shokyoku's request, going through the same protocol as last time where he only gets a break if he reveals anything useful.

But before we had a chance to get any more information out of him, I was suddenly stricken with an odd case of light-headedness. The room rapidly spun around me as I stood my ground and thus, I was unable to keep my balance any longer. My knees gave in and I fell down, catching myself with my arms hitting the ground before my whole body was subject to the fall.

_What was that?_

Hotohori gave me a face of concern. "Akimoto!"

"Onee-chan? What's wro—" And if things couldn't get any more baffling, a bizarre gust of wind suddenly zipped past us without any warning. It wasn't _my_ Wind, it couldn't have possibly been. But was that even a gust of Wind at all? It seemed familiar somehow…As quickly as it happened, it had already ceased.

Something about the room was…different…

"Oh no, Miaka!" Looking around from my spot on the ground, I tried to locate the priestess, but she couldn't be found. _How is it possible that she was taken from my sight? _

"Miaka! Where is she?"

"Aki! At the window!" Shokyoku shouted out.

"Huh?" As I turned my head around, everyone else got the cue to do so as well. And there, standing on the bigger than human-sized window-sill was a man with flaming orange hair, tanned skin, and intense amber eyes. He wore a familiar long black coat tied with a brown belt and wearing a gold and bronze sash over a white long-sleeved shirt, and light grey-ish pants that were tucked into long, flat black boots. Hung over his shoulder was Miaka, who probably didn't even know how she got there in the first place, but was quickly realizing the situation and starting to struggle.

His expression was arrogant as he scanned the population of the room. The moment his dark golden eyes hit mine, he paused, but only for a second before he continued on with his plot.

He was the one I was looking for. So he did come after all…

Tasuki…

Everyone gawked at the "unknown" intruder who had abducted the Priestess of Suzaku. The silence wasn't broken until Eiken cried out, "So you finally showed your face around here Genrou!"

"Eiken, long time no see. I've noticed how ya moved right in an' took what is rightfully mine."

The pig-man called out in defense, "Hey, _you_ left here, remember?! When you ran off, I thought it appropriate that I took what I deserved—everything that the previous boss left behind! So don't come cryin' just because things didn't go your way, boy!"

Tasuki's smirk widened, displaying one of his fangs. "No Eiken, you haven't gotten what you deserved yet—that's for damn sure. And you have it comin' to ya. But for now," He made sure that Miaka was securely on his shoulder. "I'm gonna take yer bride hostage!"

"Bride?"

"Miaka, you married that guy?"

She did her best to shift in such a way that she would see her head. "No! We didn't get married!"

"Aww, and they would have made such a cute couple," Shokyoku said off to the side, then cleared her throat. "Okay, even _I_ know that that was in bad taste. _No one_ deserves a repulsive freak like _that_." Then she turned her attention back on the closet Suzaku Warrior. "So what exactly is the game he's playing? I mean, he did see you, right?"

"I don't know…" Yeah, he saw me, I knew that part, but I didn't quite get the context of the whole situation and what he was talking to that Eiken guy about. However, if I pieced together bits of their conversation with what he's told me in the past…then…

"You're not going anywhere with Miaka!" Hotohori and Nuriko's body movements and motive signified that they were about to execute some sort of attack.

But Tasuki predicted this. He held up a few paper talismans, threw them towards us and shouted, _"Genjutsu Shinzarou!" _And at that instant, a pack of pitch-black wolves manifested from where he threw the pieces of paper and began attacking us, completely throwing us off from retrieving Miaka from him.

He had never performed a technique such as that one before. But my surprise was not enough to prevent me from retaliating. I casted, _"Reis!" _From Shokyoku's palm shot out a purplish-black soft-ball sized ball of gravitational energy towards one of the wolves that was coming right at me, and it was utterly destroyed on impact, causing it to revert back to a simple piece of paper. A fleeting thought in my mind said that that was a bit too simple, but I overlooked it as I rushed towards the window sill while the others were dealing with their wolves. But I was too late—he had already leaped off into the night. If I had just taken in account his speed, that speed of his that Suzaku gave him, then perhaps I could have prevented this chase from ensuing any longer than it was.

Their voiced carried on the Wind into my ear. Miaka cried out, "Hotohori! Nuriko! Aki-nee-chan!"

And then Tasuki's voice echoed, "If you want this girl back Eiken, you'll have ta come get 'er. And then you and I can finally settle who gets ta be the boss in a one-on-on brawl!"

"Great, now we're going to have to chase after him some more!" Shokyoku complained from beside me.

My eyes looked far into the distance and were able to see nothing while the world was covered by night. "But this time, it's different. We've seen him—we know he's here…"

It's only a matter of time…

_Tasuki, I will find you, and then… I'll get back what I have lost!_

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><p><strong>Well, that was the chapter, how did you like it?<strong>

**PLEASE REVIEW! ****Tell me your opinions, predictions, hopes, anything that spiked ur interest during the chapter—anything! For every new review I get, I'm less likely to get a paper cut in the next few minutes. Please save me from the feeling that "worst kind of pain". X3 **

**For anyone who's still reading, I REALLY appreciate it! I realize I lost quite a bit of readers, and that's understandable…cuz…once again, unpredictable updates…but to all you who still give a damn about this story I WANNA HUG ALL OF YOU AND YOU GET A CYBER COOKIE.**

**Until next time, **

**C YA!**

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><p><strong>Here are the trivia questions and such for ya~<strong>

***LH5W Fan-Questions #5! Do you think that Tasuki will even want to help Aki? Or will he think of her condition as nothing but more trouble to him and focus on his own problems instead?***


	43. Between Flame and Wind

**What up people? =D Srry for the wait . College really does not go easy on anyone ha...ha...  
><strong>

**Time for another installment of LH5W! And its a long one this time folks!  
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**For all those still reading, THANK YOU! And for anyone new who has come along, Thank you as well for being interested and patient with me! Also thank you to those on DA who have been reading X3 You all really are awesome ^_^ *hugs***

**Since I kno you don't wanna hear me talk all day, let's get to it! Initiating Chapter 43!**

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><p><strong>*On the last chapter of <strong>_**Love Hurts 5 Ways, **_**Miaka, Nuriko, and Chichiri set off to find the remaining three Suzaku warriors while Hotohori, Aki, and Shokyoku stayed behind at the palace in Konan. Chichiri and Hotohori, thanks to Aki's direction, had formulated a plan to allow Hotohori to assist his Priestess on her journey, all while still figuring that Aki would be better off at the palace where she both wasn't a burden or a threat. But in light of what Shokyoku said regarding Tasuki's potential ability to heal Aki, Aki decided to include herself in the big switcheroo. In other words, Chichiri took Hotohori's place in the palace by shape-shifting into him, while Aki, Shokyoku, and Hotohori went to join Miaka and Nuriko. **

**In the midst of being reunited, sans Chichiri, the group was attacked by the Mt. Reikaku Bandits, ending up with the four being taken in as hostages (Shokyoku not really because they couldn't see her)—Aki and Shokyoku were willingly captured since Aki recognized the bandits name and recognized it as Tasuki's affiliation. **

**While at the bandit hideout, Miaka realizes that the next Suzaku warrior could be around, so she willingly gets taken to the boss. All the while, Aki sits around, figuring it wasn't her place to point Tasuki out to them, waited patiently for him to appear, since only she and Shokyoku knew of his true identity. Once it was brought to the Suzaku warrior's attention that Miaka was potentially in trouble, they, along with the apathetic Aki who discovered that Tasuki wasn't even around, went to save her from the bandit leader, Eiken. **

**Shortly after rescuing her from being nearly raped, she was taken hostage by none other than Tasuki himself! Recognizing Aki but not acknowledging her, the bandit ran off with the priestess, challenging Eiken for the spot as bandit leader. Aki, standing around confused as to what had happened, realizes how close she is to potentially getting back what she had lost.**

**The story continues to unfold…***

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><p>Behind me were the muffled sounds of action and struggle—even in my peripheral vision, there were some flashes of movement, the details of which were foreign to me due to my mind being a bit distracted. My eyes carefully scanned the environment visible from the open window where Tasuki had escaped with Miaka. But with it being the middle of the evening, what was visible to me with the assistance of the half moon was mostly just a mixture of rocks and boulders and trees. Any detail more than that would have only been possible for those whose eyes were meant for the night.<p>

What did it matter anyway? As long as we stayed around like this, Tasuki could have been getting further and further away.

No…wait…he wouldn't be _that_ far. He's expecting someone to come after him. There would be no benefit to him if no one could locate his whereabouts. Still, the growls and snarls from the phantom wolves produced by Tasuki's talismans continued to mix in with the various frustrated comments and sounds from the two bandits along with my allies. A little less than half of my attention was even focused on them, seeing as how their importance to me was becoming almost non-existent since finding Tasuki. But still, even a fraction of their racket was enough to make it more difficult to concentrate and plan my next move.

"Aki!" Shokyoku's voice called out from behind me. Once I turned around to face her, I ignored the fighting and rolling around from the skirmish that was still ensuing, and only looked onward to the little girl. Her arm was extended outwards with a pointed finger at the end as she twisted her upper body towards the exit. "The blue-haired monkey just ran out!" _Huh? _My eyes quickly brushed over the animated scene in the room, jumping from one person to the other only briefly. She was right: Kouji wasn't even in there anymore. Hmm…but was that really even important to me? Even with me trying to debate with myself of this incidents significance, I found my legs moving on their own towards the exit where she was pointing to, and before I knew it, the both of us were standing in the hallway that had led us to Eiken's room in the first place, noticing the rubble that was left behind when Nuriko blew a hole into the wall.

"I really don't know if this matters to us at all, I mean, he could have just been a coward who wanted to escape from all the commotion," She noted while gazing down the extended corridor. "But…I couldn't help but observe his reactions to when the flame-headed monkey came in." Pausing for a moment, she dug into her short-term memory. "It just seemed a bit suspicious, like he had a hidden agenda or something…" Giving me a curious expression, she asked, "What do you think Aki? What should we do?"

Kouji didn't come off to me as a coward who would just bail when things got rough. No…he was relatively too calm and together about the night's events to seem that way. How he was earlier when he first became known to us…he was in a leader-ship-like role, so of course it wouldn't be too far-fetched to assume that he'd know what was and wasn't going on with his group of bandits. Besides, when I had asked him earlier about a Suzaku Warrior being amongst them, he had this kind of look that gave me the impression that we touched on a familiar topic…even if he didn't outright say it.

There was just an itching at the back of my mind that was urging me to go after him. It was a difficult phenomenon to explain, but enough of me was convinced on this blind hunch to initiate the chase. And so the two of us lightly ran in his supposed direction, not giving another thought to the people we left behind to fend for themselves.

The only familiar part of the bandit's hideout was that one hallway we were striding through as well as the room we were brought to after being captured—everything else was pretty much foreign. Keeping in mind that I didn't have the time to get lost in this place made it all the more important that we managed to catch up to Kouji before he did whatever he was planning on doing.

"Aki, I think I hear someone's movements up ahead," Shokyoku said as we slowed our pace to avoid detection. Keeping close to the wall, I peered around the corner to inspect the situation.

Nothing.

No one was there. Unless I counted the familiar room that was probably now in shambles and littered with the unconscious bandits who tried to prevent us from getting to Miaka earlier. _That_ room was up ahead. And no doubt the activity in there would rise once everyone came to and lost their disorientation.

"Alright guys now hold down the fort until I come back." It was Kouji's voice. _Good, so we haven't lost him. _"Eiken's panties are all tied up in a knot so he might be a bit unbearable to deal with for a while—what with all the commotion surroundin' the hostages as well Genrou makin' his grand appearance—"

"What did'ya say?"

"Genrou's back?" A question that was followed by faint murmurings around the room, most of which were too ambiguous for me to really understand. Apparently some of the men have already woken up, recovered or not, and their interest on current events was making them a bit anxious.

"Well where the hell is he?" One of them asked. My hearing suddenly became more acute for the answer. For a few seconds, Kouji didn't say anything. But instead, he emerged from the door, first taking a cautious glance to the left and right for any unwanted guest that might have been lingering around. That action cued me to snatch my head from its previous observing position to line it up with the rest of my body as it stood up straight and flat against the wall, fairly positive that he didn't see me. It was imperative that he didn't know he was being pursued. If he did, our chances of having him lead us to our desired destination would drop tremendously.

Something was up though…if Kouji honestly believed that no one was following him, we would have continued giving orders to his men. Was our cover blown?

"Kouji! Tell us what the hell is goin' on!"

To this, the blue-haired bandit finally responded, "Look, with any luck, all of this craziness will end tonight. So just keep doin' what'cha normally do so that Eiken doesn't suspect anything's off. And try not ta get burned. I'll be back in a little while." _Try not to get burned? What does he mean by that?_

"I don't know Aki, but he's coming this way!" The first part of her statement made it obvious that Shokyoku telepathically caught my query, but the second part was more of a cause for alarm. There really wasn't anywhere else for me to hide from him. Turned out that I was correct before in thinking that he was aware of us…either that or he was just following his intuition. Whichever way it was, if I couldn't find a way to make myself disappear in the next few seconds, then my life would become more unnecessarily problematic. "Wait, Aki there's a spell I can use!" _A spell? What kind of spell? _She flashed me a smile. "It's a spell that can bend the light around you to make you virtually invisible to anyone who looks your way!" Instead of explaining things to me, what she really should have been doing was initiating the spell. _Do it. _Keeping her arms tucked in close to her body, she raised her palms out and casted, _"Kyokko!" _Just then, the coloring all over my body seemed to dull, as if someone on the outside of existence was turning the knob on my brightness and contrast levels. It wasn't really a big change, honestly I didn't really know what to expect, but as long as the spell did its job, then who was I to really say anything about it?

Before I could even take another breath, standing before me, only about a foot away, was the darker-skinned, blue-haired bandit who, from the very beginning, had had his doubts about me due to the spreading of rumors. If he had known that it was me who was tailing him, then my mission would have not gone smoothly at all. But seeing as how he was looking directly over my head with a puzzled expression and scratching the back of his head, the spell must have been a success. To be safer than sorry, it was probably a good idea to keep my breathing really low and not say anything. Just because he couldn't see me, didn't mean that he couldn't hear me.

He took a step forward, I took a step back on the parallel side.

His head leaned to the side and he frowned. "Nothin', huh?"

"Kouji! You still over there? What're you doin'?"

Shaking his head, Kouji turned around and walked around the corner back towards the room with his comrades. "You guys make sure I'm not followed—somethin' weird is goin' on around here…Got it?!" They all gave collective answers of compliance. And with that, he took to running, which prompted us to do the same thing.

Finally we were getting somewhere.

There was still no guarantee that he was going to lead us to Tasuki, but it was better than nothing.

Once we reached the doors to the outside, I had to make sure to catch it before it closed behind him. Otherwise, if Kouji noticed the doors opening and closing on their own, then he would have been even more suspicious than he already was. And if I were in his shoes, I'd lead my pursuer on a wild goose chase away from my primary destination just to throw them off, and then confront them and order them to reveal themselves. With how sneaky I was being, there was a good chance that if he did confront me, he wouldn't kindly tell me Tasuki's whereabouts just by my asking. So in a swift move, I managed to slip through at the last second before the metal door had its chance to close on me, thus allowing me to avoid detection for at least a little bit longer.

Just as expected, most of the scenery was too covered by the darkness of night to really make out any big details. But with the light that the half moon _was_ allowing us, many of the tops of the rocky mountains were reflecting the glow. Unfortunately, Kouji was headed inside of the more so forested area of Mt. Reikaku, which meant that I'd have to rely more on my ears than my eyes through the dark greenery. I figured, though, that as long as I stayed close to Kouji, then there would be nothing to fret about.

_Let's keep at it Shokyoku. _

The spell continued to hold as we made our way through the mountain, neither Shokyoku or I knowing what to expect at the end, all we could do was keep quiet and avoid any obstacles that would give us away. Because apparently, Kouji was far more perceptive than I gave him credit for. From time to time, he'd even stop and look back at us, completely unaware that he was actually looking _at us._ Something that continued to arouse his curiosity more and more, possibly making him question his sanity which seemed to be off considering his continued hits and misses with locating his pursuers.

Staying directly behind him throughout our trek, I began to notice that my body was actually getting slower and slower the more I forced it to run. The thing about it was how we hadn't even ran very long or very far. But apparently, my lack of any real physical strength still carried on despite the fact that I was unable to feel anything. Was it possible that my body still knew its limits even though I no longer did? I wanted to figure that since I no longer had the sensation of touch mixed with a lack of emotions, things like a weaker body, or anything harmful happening to the body, wouldn't be able to hold me back. What a bother that would be if my hypothesis was not correct. In that case…I'd have to admit something that I was hoping that wasn't worth pointing out…

I guess I'd have to see how far this went before doing such a thing.

Before too long, and past the many shadows of the mountains and trees, the three of us exited the mini forest and arrived at the base of a few flights of steps that had been carved into the mountain, leading up to some isolated one-story building that stood at the top of a small hill. The structure didn't look like much, probably the size of a two or three bedroom house in my world. But by the way that Kouji was staring up at it, the place appeared to house more of a significance. And seeing as how the windows on the front were dimly lit, it was a pretty safe assumption to make that someone was up there.

Once again, I started to suffer another round of vertigo as everything in my mind and visual perception distorted and spun unnaturally, tempting me to fall to my knees again.

"Aki!" Shokyoku shouted in concern while looking up at me with her wide, dual colored eyes. I had to keep myself up—any kind of sound I made would give us away. And I wasn't going to give us away when we had come so far. The last time this had happened to me, Tasuki had showed up and took Miaka. What if…what if this was my way of sensing him? My way of sensing Shadow Maidens had changed with my current condition, so perhaps it was a similar situation but with Tasuki. If this were in fact true, then that raises another question: why would I be sensing him in the first place?

Kouji wasn't aware of what was going on right next to him at all, so he proceeded up the steps in a quick pace. Shokyoku and I just stood in our spots, waiting for the point where he was no longer in sight and we were all clear. Just to be safe, we kept quiet for a few minutes, for the off chance that he was waiting around in our blind spot for us to reveal ourselves to catch us red-handed. We didn't hear or see anything during the while.

Still…

Best to keep the spell going until we reached the top. I took each step very carefully. All it would take would be for me to trip or kick a rock and then if someone _was_ there waiting for us to slip up, they'd have enough proof to be pretty certain about being followed. As carefully as I was being, my steps quickened as the stairway took a slight turn, giving me a better view of the structure at the top. The path from where I was to the door was pretty clear at that point, and I didn't see Kouji hanging around anywhere. Most likely, he was already inside.

In that case…

Bringing her arms in once again, Shokyoku turned her outward spread palms inward, then clenched them into fists as she slowly brought her arms down, making it look as if she was taking hold of an invisibility cloak and then sliding it off. And the second the veil was lifted, my original coloring returned, signifying the completion of the spell.

She panted for a bit, and then finally took a deep sigh. "Stupid…paranoid monkey. If he didn't keep stopping and looking over his shoulder like that, it would have taken a shorter time to get here…" Her grey-scaled form began to attract scattered horizontal lines of interference, similarly to how it did that night when Tamahome left the royal palace. Using a spell for that long, plus running, added to her unstable form probably all meant that she was getting close to her limit. Unlike before, however, the interference ceased and her form became more or less crystal clear again when she relaxed her breathing and centered herself. Temporary moment of weakness? She then gave me a small smile. "Nothing to worry about! Just too much strain all at once kind of gives me a harder time. Lately, I suppose I forget every now and then of how this isn't a true physical form. It really is unfortunate…" She nuzzled up against me. "But regardless of if this form can handle anything or not, I'm willing to give anything a try for you Aki!"

Whatever. _I guess it's not that important._

"Tasuki is in there, isn't he?" I asked.

Groaning as if this were a topic she didn't want to discuss, the small girl said, "Good chance. After all, Yuki's inside."

"How do you know that?" Her eyes suddenly widened as she jumped away and folded her fingers behind her back, deliberately doing her best not to look me in the eye.

"Umm…doesn't really matter…it makes sense though, right? I mean, the monkey went in there, so naturally, th-the others would be in there too!" Her face twisted in distress. If she was really that determined to keep something to herself, then at least she should do a more efficient job at it. Clearing her throat, she brightly smiled while winking at me. "It's a secret!" That's what I thought.

In front of me was a large iron door with bolts lined in rows and columns, and handles in the center which would allow me my access inside. Grabbing hold of them and not even giving a thought to knocking or asking permission, I invested a bit of force to push them open and of course, was met with a little resistance along with a more than obvious scraping sound that accompanied with the metal making contact with the ground as it moved.

Upon entering, I was welcomed to a large, dimly lit room, being illuminated only by a couple candles sitting on a single table. The room itself was actually pretty barren in a matter of materials or furniture, making it pretty clear that this wasn't the type of place where someone would live—at least not long-term.

And sitting in the middle of the room almost in a huddle, were the Priestess of Suzaku, unharmed, along with the two bandits we had been chasing.

Tasuki…he's here.

"ONEE-CHAN!" Miaka sprang up from her spot on the floor and practically flew at me, throwing her arms around my neck, her velocity being too much for me to handle, resulting in us abruptly falling to the ground and her on top of me. The Priestess of course seemed unfazed by the fall seeing as how she was still clinging onto me as if all of life depended on it. "Onee-chan you came for me! I'm so happy! I knew that you still loved me deep down!"

"Hey!" Shokyoku got down to her knees to yell closer into Miaka's ear. "Stop hogging Aki all to yourself as if she belonged to you or something! Hey! I said hands off!"

Looking over Miaka's shoulder, my eyes locked onto Tasuki's amber orbs. And somehow, this brief connection brought out a snicker from him.

"Took ya long enough ta get here Aki—I was beginnin' ta think ya wouldn't show." So he _did_ see me before. Thought so. For some reason his long coat was off, leaving him in his white long-sleeved undershirt. I didn't expect him to find him in such a comfortable state given the night's evens, but whatever.

"Like I was tellin' Kouji before, I would have acknowledged ya, but that probably would have ruined the badass effect I was tryin' ta set. So don't worry, I couldn't forget about'cha even if I tried."

Finally, Miaka brought her head up, her face only a few inches away from mine. Then she peeked back at Tasuki then back at me. "Aki-nee-chan…how exactly do you know Genrou?"

Remembering not to reveal too much to her, I began to say, "Well, I—"

"'Aki-nee-chan'?" Tasuki repeated in mild confusion. "What the hell is up with that? I thought'cha said before that your sis passed away?"

I addressed him. "Kajou _is_ dead…and she is or was my only sibling."

"Aww…" There was a swift flicker of melancholy in her olive eyes, but only for a fraction of a second before placing a large grin on her lips. "I know you say that now Onee-chan, but I know how you really feel!" Miaka turned to him. "We're not biologically related—we're just really good childhood friends! And I respect her so much that she seems to me like a big sister."

"I _knew_ someone was followin' me," Kouji pointed out accusingly, "And I'm not gonna lie, I was kinda hopin' that it wasn't _her_." He then gave Tasuki a look. "Alright Genrou quit with the suspense, how the hell do ya even know this woman?" Kouji sat with his arms crossed and with a mix of concern and intrigue reflecting off of his face. "It's been itchin' me for a while about who she is."

Tasuki tossed a look over to me before giving his friend an answer. "Who, Aki? She's a sorceress I met and traveled with little while ago while searchin' for Hakurou's cure." He then gave a smirk that displayed one of his fangs. "At least now she's dressin' a little more normally. Before she made it a little too obvious that she wasn't from around here. And now," The attention of the room was brought over to the modern school-uniformed Miaka. "This chick comes in wearin' some equally weird clothes. Man, must be _some_ world they come from, eh?"

Somewhere along the lines of Tasuki's explanation, Kouji caught onto a point of interest. "A cure? For the old boss?"

Sighing with exasperation, Tasuki sat back with a noted hint of frustration in his voice. Sitting cross-legged and leaning his cheek into his palm, he complained, "Yeah…ya can't even imagine the crap we went through ta get that damned flower. But now it doesn't even matter since…Hakurou died before I even had a chance ta give it to 'im…" So in the end, I wasted a part of my life for nothing. Of course, whenever it comes to helping people, there is always the chance of running the risk of getting absolutely no benefit in return. Looking back on it, if I were in the same position I was in now, considering the Mt. Reikaku's leader's life had no significance to mine in any way, shape, or form, there was a good chance, that I wouldn't feel obligated in any way to even help Tasuki out. In fact…I couldn't even recall why I had in the first place… "And then what? When I come back I find all my men grovelin' at Eiken's dirty feet as if I never even existed. What the hell ever happened ta loyalty?"

"Nah ya got it all wrong Genrou," Kouji assured. "We're only doin' what he says 'cause of the treasure that the old boss left behind." _Treasure? _"If Eiken didn't have that kind of power, there's no way in Hell that we'd take orders from him. We all know that _you_ are the rightful boss—that's how Hakurou wanted it."

"Hold on." Everyone in the room turned to me as I finally found something worth talking about. "When you say 'treasure', what is it that you mean?" If whatever this was had such a negative effect on people, perhaps I needed to see if it proved to be any kind of threat to me.

"It's a tessen," Kouji told me.

"A…tessen?" Miaka had a puzzled look on her face as she place a finger under her lip while pondering on it.

"A fan," I clarified.

"Ohhhh~" She dropped a fist into the open palm of her opposite hand in understanding. "You guys are afraid of a wimpy fan?"

Their sudden frustrated reactions shown on their facial expressions led me to believe that both guys were a bit insulted by her inquiry. The flame-headed bandit quickly cleared up the misconception. "Look, it's not what'cher thinkin'! This fan is made out of solid iron and it has a special ability."

"Really? Like what?"

Kouji continued, "When you say a certain spell, it shoots out some intense flames that can burn ya to ashes without even a second thought. So you can imagine our difficulty in tryin' ta go against him."

"Is that so?" A fan with that kind of power did seem vaguely interesting. Of course, with my powers over the elements, it was most likely no cause of alarm to me. But at some point, it would be best for him to know his place in the natural order.

"Ya know…somethin' else has been buggin' me." Tasuki scratched the back of his head irritatingly before shooting his sharp eyes at me. "What's up with you? You've been actin' funny ever since ya got here. I mean, where's the attitude? I half expected'ja ta bring a storm in after I took your little sis." He pointed to his head. "I even mentally prepared myself for you whackin' me in the head with that damn hammer o' yours." All of those were the kind of emotionally charged responses I'd usually give…It figures he'd expect something like that from me. He didn't know what had happened to me yet.

"What the?" Kouji gave him a peculiar expression. "Why the heck would she be whackin' you in the head? Exactly what kind of relationship do you two have?"

Tasuki's head immediately snapped at him. "Now don't _you_ go assumin' things either—it's not like that!" _Not like…what exactly? _

"Umm if you're wondering about Aki-nee-chan…" The mention of my name made Tasuki switch his attention towards his priestess (the priestess of which he wasn't even aware of yet). Her face fell, wiping away all signs of her normally cheery nature. "Well…you see…there was an incident…" Noticing her serious expression prompted a similar reaction from Tasuki, who immediately calmed down and adopted an atmosphere of concern.

"None of that matters," I told them as I pushed Miaka away to allow me an easier access to standing up. Once I was on my feet, I slowly made my way over to Tasuki with only one goal in mind. "The only thing that matters is the present…and how the present can benefit my future…"

"What the hell're you talkin' abou—" I dropped to my knees, facing him from less than an arm's length away, a notion that, for some reason, made his words trail off. And I just sat like that with a straight face, ignoring anyone else in the room as I gazed into his amber eyes, still wondering what it was exactly that I was trying to accomplish. My close proximity to him gave me the impression that he was a bit uncomfortable seeing how stiff his body appeared to be, along with his expression that was trying to figure out the meaning for my actions. "What're you _doing_?" In the middle of his question, I reached out and rested his cheek in my hand, an feat that not only earned me a blush as his eyes widened, but Kouji and Miaka both rushing up to us as if we were some amazing side show—both of their mouths gaping open.

"I've been looking for you….I need you…"

"Wait a second…! What the hell?" He did a mini jump in his seat as he tried to scoot away, but something kept him from proceeding any further.

"Genrou? What's goin' on?"

"Omigosh a love confession!" Miaka's fingers were intertwined with each other as her eyes sparkled upon watching the sight. "I always knew that Onee-chan would find someone! Although I sort of question your tastes, I completely support you! The power of love shines through even past her emotionlessness!"

Tasuki only caught onto a few of her words due to his being distracted. "Emotionless? Wait…why would you question her tastes? You sayin' somethin's wrong with me?!"

_He's not paying attention to me. _Taking my hand from his face, I took hold of his hand and held it up into view. _He can do and say what he wants to anyone he wants _after_ he's given me back what I lost. After that, I don't even care if he dies or not. _"Don't pay them any attention. Like I said before, I need you." I leaned in only slightly, allowing my mind to venture back to the time when Shokyoku had told me the reason for coming along with Miaka and the others. Something of mine was missing, and although I didn't know what it was, she informed me that he might be the only one to restore it. There was something that he had to do… "Listen to me very carefully _Genrou_." I still had to remember to keep his identity a secret. "There is something that only you can do for me. I need you to touch me."

For a few moments, everyone in the room, including Shokyoku, gave me blank faces—as if none of them knew what to do with themselves…or as if their brains were temporarily malfunctioning.

Shokyoku was the first to speak. "Aki…I love you but…I really wish you could have said that differently…" _What did I say? Isn't that what I came here for? _She chuckled uneasily. "You don't…quite understand…I guess you wouldn't…"

"WHAAAAAAT?!" And just like that, the others were unfrozen and reacting in an unnecessarily animated manner as the shock of whatever I said finally settled.

"Onee-chan don't you think you're moving a little took quickly?" Miaka frantically asked with a flushed face. Kouji too gave off the impression that he wanted to say something, but he was too wound up in watching Tasuki to observe his next move.

Tasuki jerked his hand away and shifted his body perpendicular to mine, to where it no longer directly faced me. "Aki what the hell has gotten into you?! Stop messin' with me!" In a huff, he crossed his arms and closed his eyes. His blush still ran across his face and had covered his ear as well. Clearly my words had more of an impact than I was intending. It was just a simple request—why were they making such a big deal about it? And that was when a thought entered into my head. _They don't think that I meant in a sexual manner did they? _Shokyoku caught onto my question and nodded. _I don't see why they should assume something like that. _

"You misunderstood me." I continued to stare at Tasuki, trying to get him to comply with my request. The more I thought about it, I could sort of see why they'd come to that kind of conclusion. In a way, it was my fault. I should have elaborated on what I was asking for. Unfortunately, I could not elaborate for I myself was still in the dark about what I should have been expecting. However, given the context of the situation, you'd think that they would be intelligent enough to figure that I wouldn't mean something sexual. They really needed to get their minds out of the gutters.

"Well what else was I supposed ta think when ya say somethin' like—" Once he took a glimpse at me out of the corner of his eye, something told me that he finally got the message of how serious I was about this. Though his cheeks were still kind of pink, his body noticeably relaxed as he started to twist his upper body towards me. Something about my face must have allowed the wires in his mind to connect. "Aki…you…"

Right when I thought that we were making progress, Kouji shoots himself up from the ground and rapidly grabs the back of Tasuki's collar then drags him away muttering, "This is ridiculous! You and I are gonna have a looooong talk about what the heck happened between you two on your journey. Somehow you went from hatin' women to shackin' it up with some girl? I don't believe it."

Tasuki started to flail his arms around. "Hey! It ain't me that's screwy! It's Aki! She's more insane than usual!"

Sliding over to me, Miaka tugged on my sleeve with a tentative expression. "Onee-chan...did you do adult things with this guy while I was away?"

Shokyoku immediately intervened. "There's no way that I'd allow that to happen!"

But naturally, the priestess had no idea of what the grey-scaled girl even said. "Please tell me: are you a woman now?"

From nowhere, Tasuki appeared standing next to Miaka and leaned over a bit to punch her upside the head. "Look _you_. I didn't do anythin' to 'er so stop makin' me out as some kind of horny guy er somethin'!"

Miaka cringed from the punch but proceeded to ask, "So…you _do_ wanna do something with her, right?" She started to nudge him with her elbow as a mischievous smile played on her face. "She _is_ quite the catch!" Again, he whacked her in the head, but this time, he continuously twisted and drove his knuckle in an uncomfortable fashion. Her face twisted in distress. "Owie ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!"

When he figured that she had had enough, he let up from the torture and crossed his arms, throwing his head to the side in frustration. "Alright we're wastin' time here—there's better things we should be doin'."

"Changin' the subject only makes ya look more suspicious," Kouji blatantly pointed out.

At that, Tasuki gave a low growl while clenching his fist. Feverishly turning to me, he asked zealously, "Why the hell are you actin' so damn calm here?! I'm not the only one in this!" Of course all of their emotions raging like that once again lead to a continuous loop of pointless conversation that was leading nowhere. If people didn't put so much emphasis into things, then problems like this wouldn't happen.

"Oh yeah…about that…" Miaka beginning to speak earned her a nasty glare from Tasuki, who thought that she was going to say something that he disapproved of once again. But on the contrary, she referred to his observation of my calm demeanor. "You see that ring around her head? It takes away all of her emotions. So she's most likely to not only not react to much, but she has the habit of being quite blunt, even more so than her usual self who has a little more self-control." _ I have plenty of self-control. Probably even more than I had with my emotions. _She was making it sound as if I was less efficient this way. Well…this only displays more of her flawed reasoning as an emotionally dependent being.

Inspecting the silver ring encircling my head, Tasuki stroked his chin as the new information processed. "So it's all 'cause of that thing, eh?" He reached out for it, leading me to prepare for an evasive maneuver at the intrusive act, or, if necessary, physical retaliation. "Why don't we just take it off then? This Aki is sorta freakin' me out—"

"No Genrou!" Miaka warned, making him pause and look at her. "You can't take it off…something really bad will happen if you do. Because of her Darkness, not only would _we_ get hurt, but," Her eyelids drooped as her previous peppiness drained from her. "She's get hurt worst of all…"

I lifted my eyes up to his. Stella had changed so much about my life in the matter of seconds—left me in a state where I couldn't defend myself, swirling in a hurricane of my own negative emotions fueling the Darkness that taunted me every day for as long as I could remember, and then of course taking away one of my primary senses. All of this in the effort to get me to convert into a Shadow Maiden. Of course she failed given that I was still who I always had been, but somewhere in that whole transaction, something was lost. And its absence to my being had only been affecting me recently. To ensure my survival, even if I must live on in this emotionless state or be cursed to a defenseless existence, I knew that deep down, I had to retrieve what had been taken from me…or else be forever incomplete.

The first step, before anything else on my life's path, had to be to get back what I had lost. And supposedly, Tasuki was potentially the key. So I needed him to cooperate.

"Alright," Kouji strode over to us nonchalantly—his character coming off as all business, shaking away all of the hijinks from before. "I'm sure that what ever happened to ya folks was unfortunate, but Genrou, we can't stay distracted like this. Remember that we're tryin' to do somethin' about Eiken. We can't get involved with other people's problems when we have our own."

"Well yeah…I know you're right…" Even as he said that, he gave me a sideways glance, a move that Miaka happened to catch onto.

"Aki-nee-chan really does need help but…" The priestess extended her arm out and laid her hand on Tasuki's arm in sympathy. She gave him a small smile. "My other friends and I are all working on it so you don't have to worry about her. Thank you so much for caring though!"

Taking his hand, he scraped her hand from his arm in an act of annoyance and mumbled, "I _don't_ care…"

As if someone had flipped a switch, Miaka perked up and clapped her hands once, and made a proclamation to the population of the room with much vigor. "Alright people! Our mission right now is to help Genrou get back to his rightful place as the bandit leader!"

"…what?" Kouji and Tasuki both exchanged an air of disapproval.

"I mean, that guy stole it from you right? So why not we all work together?"

"Hold on a minute!"

"It's not your problem so _you_ stay out of it!"

She ignored any of their protests. "We'll have to sneak back and meet up with Hotohori and Nuriko and tell them what's going on—no doubt that they're worried about us right now. But once we're all together," Her smile widened, "That pig-man Eiken won't even have what it takes to stop all of us at once! Not even with that fire fan of his!"

This had blown too far out of proportion. What was supposed to be a simple operation or exchanged turned into something that I had absolutely no interest to take part in. Honestly, Miaka had no right to bring the rest of us into this. Their bandit problems were of no concern to me. All I needed was for Tasuki to touch me so that I could see if Shokyoku's hypothesis was correct. Because if it wasn't, then I needed to know so that I could move on to find out what the cure really was.

"What a stinkin' minute!" Tasuki erupted. "What the hell're you doin' callin' all the shots? You're supposed ta be _our_ hostage!" _That's right…she was kidnapped, wasn't she? _

Somehow, she still didn't hear him. "I think it's fair that if we help you guys out, then you have to help us find out who Tasuki is—I'd say that's a fair trade, right?"

Tasuki just grinded his teeth in response while Kouji pointed out, "I think she's ignorin' us. And I have a feeling that when she's fired up like this, it's pointless tryin' to get through ta her." The two of them turned their backs to the girl who was still standing tall and deciding the future plans for the group all on her own. They huddled together in an effort for a semi-private meeting, Kouji leaning his elbow on Tasuki's shoulder. "I'm gonna be frank here: I don't wanna bring her along. Hell, I especially don't wanna bring red-eyes over there along either. They are unnecessary baggage and are probably more trouble than they're worth."

Mulling it over in his head, Tasuki just groaned and scratched his head. "Ya know what? This whole mess is just a huge pain in the ass and I really don't wanna have ta focus on two things at once. Our goal is to take Eiken down, and if these girls tag along with their little chums, whatever—we're just waistin' time arguin' about it. If any of them get hurt, then it's all on them." He motioned over to me with his thumb. "Besides, Aki can actually be pretty useful, so it's not the _worst_ idea bringin' _her_ with us—"

"Alright then!" Miaka jumped up and wrapped her arms around both Kouji and Tasuki's necks, bringing the three of them in closer together. "So it's settled! We're all going!" Still leaving them with irritated expressions, Miaka released them and pointed to the door in an overly dramatic fashion. "So let's get a move on!"

Repeating his method of punishment from earlier, Tasuki dropped a heavy fist onto the top of his priestesses head, stopping her in her tracks. "Stop takin' the lead! I'm the boss and _you_ are the hostage! _We_ call all the shots, not some twerp like you!" And just like that, it had been decided that there was a plan to take seize of the Mt. Reikaku bandit's hideout.

I opened my mouth to rebut their choice, seeing as how the situation no longer had anything to do with me or my well-being, but Shokyoku suddenly spoke up. "There's no point now Aki." _No point?_ "His heart isn't in the right place to help you out now. Like the moron he is, his mind is too distracted with his other problems." She sighed. "As much as I'd love to force and torture him to comply with our agenda, it wouldn't work." There were still so many questions about Shokyoku's plan in the first place, and now I was learning that there were conditions for it. "In order for things to play out in such a way that we get positive results, we'll have to time it just right." Scoffing lightly, she rested her small hands on her hips. "I'm pretty sure we would have had him earlier if that blue-haired monkey and useless priestess weren't there to interrupt." _Interrupt what exactly? _No matter how much I asked, it would appear as if I would never get a clear answer. All I could do in my position was just ride out the wave until my opportunity hit.

Whatever it was...

* * *

><p>Being as discreet as we could manage, the five of us crawled through the thick layers of branches and bushes that just so happened to have conveniently grown in a location that made it easy for us to survey the situation going on inside of the bandit's hideout. There was quite a bit of movement going on, enough to where we could see the shadowed silhouettes dashing back and forth in the windows. I was most definitely certain that the men Hotohori, Nuriko, and I had taken out were surely awake by now.<p>

Off to my side, the most noticeable sight was of Tasuki and Shokyoku glaring at one another. Something that I didn't even think was possible until our journey back over here.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Walking along the same dark, mountainous path that Shokyoku and I had followed Kouji down proved to be a lot less of a bother now that we no longer had to sneak around and use up energy to do so. The half-moon had traveled to its newest position in the sky, being almost directly overhead, providing only a smidge more of light that we had to work with before, which at least made the path more visible and the obstacles more avoidable. Still though, it was necessary to watch our backs just in case Eiken had sent out a scout or something to watch out for us and report back. But that guy really didn't come off as someone who would actually give anything very much thought. Which of course probably meant that defeating him wouldn't prove to be much of a problem, even with his bewitched tessen. In any case the faster we got this over with, the faster I could retrieve what was lost to me. <strong>_

_**In the meantime, Tasuki and Kouji were preoccupied and borderline fascinated with my emotionless stat—Tasuki more so since he had known me before while I was more vulnerable to emotions. It was almost as if the two of them couldn't even believe that such a thing could happen to a person. **_

"_**Eh…I don't buy it," Tasuki said while inspecting me up close. "I heard what Miaka was sayin', but I know you. There's no way that ya can't feel **_**anything**_**. I say that **_**especially**_** 'cause it's you."**_

_**Kouji joined in, also tossing me a peculiar countenance. "Yeah…I may not have met this chick before, but if what you're tellin' me is true Genrou, then she really is the woman that those Mt. Kaou chumps were so freaked out about. Someone like that doesn't come off ta me as the type of person who could be detained so easily." Clearly those two didn't understand the complexities of magic, and they underestimated its capabilities. **_

_**Miaka tried to cease their doubt. "It was hard for us to accept either and believe me, we tried getting a reaction out of her…but nothing! And to tell you the truth, she's not that better off without the ring on her head either—Hey, what are you guys doing?!" The two bandits began conducting their own experiments bent on getting some sort of rise out of me—a feat that I was positive that Nuriko had attempted before but of course didn't work. They started making faces, pulling on my cheeks, poking me with a stick—all the things you'd sort of expect a little kid to do in this kind of situation. If anything this gave me a rough estimation of their mental ages. Just as predicted, though, I didn't get mad or sad or…anything really. I just kept walking, allowing them to do what they wanted until they were satisfied. Better to get this out of the way sooner than later. Miaka however didn't think of this as the best idea on their end. "Aki-nee-chan is not going to like you doing that!"**_

"_**I dunno…" Tasuki said while continuously poking my cheek, an action that I would otherwise have been unaware of him doing without my ability to see it in my peripheral. "I'm gettin' the feelin' that she doesn't mind it all that much. If she was gonna do somethin', she woulda done it by now." **_

_**While I didn't necessarily mind the game they were playing as we passed the time, Shokyoku looked as if she was ready to murder someone, what with her right, turquoise-colored eye intently sending daggers at the bandits from its corner as she looked back at us from ahead. Without giving it another thought, she paused and stuck her leg out in from of Tasuki, investing just enough energy to make it solid enough for a normal person to interact with. And just as I'd expect from someone who couldn't see her, the flame-headed Suzaku warrior immediately got his foot caught, making him lose his balance and fall face-first to the rocky ground below. **_

"_**God…dammit…" He muttered.**_

_**Kouji towered over him with crossed arms, looking down at his companion. "Hey Genrou. You know these mountains like the back of your hand, how could ya be so uncoordinated like that?" Shokyoku just snickered. **_

"_**Teaches him right for messing with my Aki like that~"**_

_**Bringing his hands into a fist, in one swift move, he jumped up to his feet and pointed an accusing finger directly towards Shokyoku. "What the hell ya stupid brat?! I've had just about enough of you!" Shokyoku blinked at him, not fully convinced that he was talking to her. **_

_**Miaka held up her palms in a defensive manner. "But that wasn't me!" **_

_**He shook his head at her. "I wasn't talkin' to you Miaka. I'm talkin' to that oddly dressed kid who's grey all over except for her freaky eyes!" This time it was my turn to be surprised. There wasn't any possible way that he could actually have been talking about Shokyoku…right? "I thought I was imaginin' things earlier when I saw her, and no one else seemed to have given her a second look other than me, but this pretty much slices it! I know you're there kid, so stop hidin'!" Extending his arm out, he attempted to grab at her collar in one swift move, but his hand proceeded to phase right through her, causing his eyes to widen as if he had seen a ghost. He even brought his hand up to his face to check if it had happened to catch hold of anything. But as expected, there was nothing. "What?"**_

"_**Umm…Genrou? You feelin' alright?" Kouji gave his friend a look of bewilderment and concern. Miaka's face didn't display any much of a difference. "There isn't anyone there…" **_

_**Tasuki was quickly getting agitated. "I'm tellin' you she's right there!" Shokyoku (nor I) could really grasp onto this new discovery right away. She'd circle around him to see if his eyes would follow her, her own eyes inspecting him closely, and sure enough, he was able to catch onto her exact movements. So it was true...**_

_**He **_**could**_** see her!**_

_**I took a glimpse over to the others who were watching Tasuki watch Shokyoku. But to them, it just appeared as if Tasuki was moving his head and eyes around for no apparent reason. From that alone, it was safe to assume that they still couldn't see her…but **_**he**_** could. **_

"_**Well what do you know…the flame-headed monkey can see me…I can't say that I'm thrilled about this Aki…" Her whole face fell into a sour grimace the more the fact sunk in. I continued to observe him and half-expected him to say something in response to her comment. But he didn't. And if he was able to see her earlier as well, then he would have said something in regards to what she told me about him. But he didn't. Did that mean that he could see her, but not hear her? **_

_**How strange…**_

_**Still the other two gazed upon him as if he were some kind of side show wonder, not quite knowing how to respond in this kind of situation. **_

_**But finally, Miaka managed to mentally dig up a bit of information that she had temporarily forgotten, which had ended up causing her to get caught up in the type of confusion that she shouldn't have been effected by in the first place. **_

"_**Ahhh now I see what's going on here! Silly me!" Holding up her index finger in explanation, she gave Kouji and Tasuki her attention. "I feel kind of stupid now. But I just realized! Genrou must be talking about Shokyoku!" **_

_**The bandits stared at her collectively. "What?" **_

"_**Shokyoku is this invisible girl who hangs around Aki-nee-chan. We don't really know that much about her, only that she really loves her. And that she's been looking out for Onee-chan ever since the incident back in Kutou. Yup~" Miaka laughed and scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "She even possessed my body a few times!" **_

_**Kouji's expression deadpanned. "Should you really be laughin' about that? Seems kind of messed up to me." **_

_**Tasuki repeated out loud part of what she said before coming to a realization. "Loves Aki? Hangs around her?" He then sent me a look. "Wait, does that mean you can see her too?" **_

"_**I was the one who could see her first," I told him. **_

_**Taking a stomp forward, he brought a fist up to my face level. "What the hell Aki! Why didn't ya say anything in the first place?!"**_

"_**Don't blame me for your inept memory. As I can recall, I've mentioned her to you before." That's right…in fact, he was the first one I told about her after meeting her for the first time. Of course then, she was still inside of the Dark Ring, and not walking about as she was now. "And before you doubt me, I have no reason to lie to you." **_

_**Just as if a fire had been extinguished by a bucket of water, the fanged bandit simmered down, running his fingers through his flaming hair as he did an about-face to continue on with our trek. "Whatever. I don't feel like remembering right now or dealin' with that crap. Just keep the brat away from me."**_

_**Grinding her teeth, Shokyoku hissed under her breath, "Call **_**me**_** a brat? That monkey's lucky I don't take advantage of Aki not giving a damn about him right now."**_

_**I continued to watch his back as he walked further and further away, my curiosity still at its peak from everything that had just happened. **_

_**How incredibly strange…**_

* * *

><p>Even now that we've made it to the bandit hideout, I just couldn't shake it. What exactly made that guy so special in my life? First it turned out that he could be the only one to restore what I had lost, and now he was the only human who could see Shokyoku—not even Chichiri could really see her and <em>his<em> senses and abilities were heightened far above Tasuki's. The more I thought about, the more I was able to go back to that memory of when I first informed him about Shokyoku. He had pointed out first that he was able to see the Dark Ring before I had even told him anything about it—that he had always been able to see it. He obviously was _just_ a human, not what Shokyoku, Stella, and I were. And visually speaking, he wasn't anything extraordinary. Nothing really stood out as unique from others.

So…why?

A voice from inside of the structure tore me away from my thoughts. "I want Genrou found! He's out there somewhere and I'm not gonna let him get the jump on us. Keep your guards up and don't go easy on him once he shows!" This was followed by a band of acquiescent cheering. Turned out that Eiken was still hell-bent on finding Tasuki and had already figured that he'd come back to the scene of the crime. His shadow showed that he was waving something around in his hand. Was that the oh-so-feared tessen?

Miaka threw a fist in the air, and proceeded to step through the bushes, "Alright let's go get him!" Tasuki and Kouji put a hand on her shoulders and forced her back down to keep her out of sight and from blowing our cover.

"Do ya wanna be burnt to a crisp or somethin'? Then stay back until we come up with a plan."

She only pouted for a second before taking notice of the item in the faux leader's hand. "Hey, is that the scary fan that's got you all so worked up?"

Tasuki nodded as he kept peered over the bushes, making sure that he was hidden enough. "Yup. And all we have ta do is get it away from him and he'll lose all of his power. Too bad that sounds simpler than it is." To recap, this guy, Eiken, not only had a fan that could spew fire, but also a hoard of thugs ready to snap anyone in half when given the order. All in all, it didn't seem too bad, but having to rely on Shokyoku for magic was beginning to be a bit inefficient, especially if Darkness was the only element that was available. Sure, I wasn't as helpless in comparison with the alternative, but if I was able to use my full palette of powers, not having to be cautious of what Stella may have done to me, then this could have ended a lot quicker and a lot cleaner. With any luck, perhaps part of what Tasuki could do for me includes getting back free access to my power.

Reaching inside of his black coat, Tasuki took out the talismans he used earlier to summon those wolves. Miaka took notice and snatched them from his hand with wide, curious eyes mixed with amazement. "Aren't these those paper things you used before? How do they even work?"

Instead of getting annoyed with her taking his property, Tasuki kept an eye of what was going on inside and replied, "They're talismans that I got from a monk some time ago while I was traveling. When you write what ya want to appear onto them and say the spell, then they'll show up as an illusion to screw up your enemies."

"Oh wow, really?" Miaka sounded impressed. "So all you have to do is write what you wanna see, huh?"

"A 'monk' gave them to him?" Shokyoku chimed in with her input on the matter as Miaka continued to fondle over her new toys. "Aki, do you think it's possible that that fox-faced monkey swung back around to flame-head here after you left for Konan and gave him those things?"

Without looking at her, I said, "We are in an ancient Chinese-like world. It's not that uncommon for more than one monk to be walking around."

Her eyes sharpened as they glared at Tasuki out of their corner. "Yeah…I don't know…for some reason, I can't help but wonder…"

Feeling her eyes on him, he finally tore his away from the scene going on inside and returned a similar glare mixed with mild irritation. Didn't take too long, though, for him to break it and go back to scouting.

"Must be weird, huh?" Kouji asked Tasuki.

"What?"

"Seein' a girl that only you and Aki can see—must be some pretty weird stuff."

"Meh," He shrugged while grinning slightly. "More annoying than anything else. Whenever Aki's involved, I can almost count on my world turnin' upside down _somehow_. Just didn't expect that this time it would include some invisible twerp who has a beef with me."

Kouji chuckled in response. "Yeah, you're still gonna tell me what happened on that journey o' yours, but until then," Shifting a bit, he proceeded to crawl off in another direction, making sure to keep low to avoid detection, "I'm gonna go around and look for a way inside." Tasuki nodded in acknowledgment as he watched him disappear in the thick greenery covered by the shade of night.

That was when he realized that Miaka still had his talismans, of which she had spent more than enough time with, and swiped them back from her. "These aren't toys! Stop playin' with 'em—" From the depths of the bushes came a short rustle before there emerged a long blade that aligned itself with Tasuki's neck, only a few inches away from cutting out his throat. Being aware of his predicament, he lifted his chin up and carefully glanced over to the side to his supposed assassin. Using my eyes to follow the line of the sword, I caught sight of a familiar set of hazel eyes. It wasn't until the man inched out of his hiding spot that I could see him better, holding up his royal weapon as if ready to make the fatal blow when necessary.

"Tell me where Miaka is or else I will not hesitate in slowly cutting out your throat!" Hotohori demanded. Tasuki warily looked down at the sword and then to the emperor, being very careful about his next move. He brought the sword even closer, the sharp part of the blade just barely touching the bandit's skin. "I said speak!" Lifting myself up a bit more from the camouflage, I was successfully able to catch his attention enough to make him lower his weapon. "Akimoto?"

"What? Aki's over there?" Peeking over the emperor's shoulder, I saw Nuriko grabbing hold of Kouji's collar, effortlessly rising him up in the air in a threatening manner to minimize chances of escape.

Hotohori still held his sword up, but with less intensity than before. "Akimoto, what are you doing here with them? Where have you been and where's Miaka?"

"Here I am!" The young priestess popped her head up like a Daisy, beaming with a smile on her face. "Hi you guys! I've been wondering where you were~"

Shokyoku groaned. "Great…now everyone's here and accounted for. Too many monkeys around if you ask me…Now suddenly I'm in the middle of a zoo."

Nuriko went on with physically tormenting Kouji as he joined in on the reunion. "Miaka! You're okay! I didn't know what to think after that guy took you." Once he focused back onto me, he lowered the disoriented Kouji and dragged him over with one hand as he used the other to rest on his hip as he gave me a look of disapproval. "As for _you_. Where the heck did you go? You just up and left us to defend for ourselves with those wolves attacking us!"

My eyes nonchalantly trailed over to his. "Relax. You're still alive, aren't you? So no harm done."

His pink irises flared angrily. "You know what? I'm getting sick and tired of your apathetic, blasé answers like that! The real Aki was at least a smidge more considerate to other people's feelings."

"Nuriko!" Hotohori scolded, only to lighten up a bit. "Your frustrations are understandable, but poorly distributed. We can't get angry for every little thing we disapprove of while she's like this. It doesn't get through to her anyway." Nuriko's shoulder's fell as he let go of the tension that was building up inside, allowing him to relax enough to let Kouji go. "Besides, we must now be thankful that our beloved friends are safe and sound, and that we're all together again."

The purple-haired Suzaku warrior sighed in submission. "You're right Sire..."

Seizing his opportunity, Tasuki lifted up his hand to carefully push the bladed threat away from his person. Seeing as how we were all okay and how neither Miaka nor I were really even in any danger, Hotohori allowed this, but maintained a careful eye on the rightful bandit leader. "Now that we're done with all this sappy stuff, can we get on with this operation already?"

At that rhetorical request, Hotohori and Nuriko exchanged glances.

"What kind of operation?"

* * *

><p>All the while Miaka was debriefing the two newcomers, the seven of us managed to make our way into the hideout seemingly without detection. There still wasn't really any clear-cut plan we were working with, only that we had to get Eiken to lose the tessen somehow. Other than that, it was mostly just make it up as you go along—definitely not the most professional route to go. But I supposed since they managed to actually make their way in, perhaps they weren't completely incompetent.<p>

"And so, I feel that it's our duty to help Genrou out!" Miaka explained as we searched the corridor for any other sign of life. "'Cause when you think about it, it really isn't fair what happened to him. Plus he's really not that bad a guy when you give him a chance!"

"Tch," was Tasuki's only response to that.

"And I'm positive that Tasuki is here somewhere and it would just be a great help if we could all just help each other, right? And then everyone's happy!"

Hotohori smiled at her gently. "I'm not too sure about assisting bandits, but I trust your judgment Miaka. Your kindness and optimism make it nearly impossible to do otherwise."

"Yay! Thanks Hotohori!"

"That's good and all," Nuriko said while taking a cautious look around. "But we saw the kind of power that that tessen has. Where would we even begin in trying to get around it?"

"You don't."

The five humans jumped with surprise at the unexpected visitor. Kouji cursed. "Damn, they spotted us!" Eiken appeared holding the tessen firmly as he stood in front of a fairly large group of bandits.

"The intruders have been found!" Bellowed a nameless grunt. With that alarm being set off, more of them began to spawn in a similar fashion to cockroaches. And very soon, we were surrounded. Figures. In a place like that, I wouldn't have been surprised if they had their ways of having their eyes on practically every square inch of the structure. For all we knew, there was a spy in the ceiling somewhere who had been tailing us since we made it inside.

But Tasuki was unfazed by the ambush. In fact, he reached inside his coat again and revealed his talisman, prepared to make use of them once again. "Leave these guys ta me! _Genjutsu Shinzarou!" _Upon being released from his hand, the talismans flew out, only this time, the unexpected happened. Instead of turning into a pack of black illusionary wolves, a bunch of desert foods like cakes, and puddings, and cookies poofed into existence. Tasuki looked dumbfounded. "What the?" He tried again, "_Genjutsu Shinzarou!" _But just like a few seconds before, more deserts emerged and fell to the floor, creating a nauseous and disturbed expression on Genrou's features, followed by the rest of our allies falling to the ground in a supposed comical manner. "What the hell happened to all my talismans? What's with all the food?!" Almost as rapid as lightning, Miaka rushed over to the pile of food and scooped up an bunch, only to return to her previous spot where she crouched down to eat her prize.

Nuriko stood behind her with his arms crossed while tapping his foot on the ground as he stared down at her contemptuously. "Miaka…what did you do?"

The priestess just chuckled nervously while avoiding his condemning gaze. "Well…you see…I kinda had a craving for something sweet…and when Genrou told me what those paper things could do, I guess I let my stomach take control…"

Tasuki yelled back at her, "YOU IDIOT!"

From not too far away, Eiken snickered in mischievous delight as he witnessed his prey's predicament. "Poor Genrou…you honestly thought that you could just make your way back here without suffering the consequences? Such an arrogant brat you are—and apparently the universe must be on my side since it took your sad tricks away." His grin widened as his grip on the tessen intensified. "Prepare yourself!"

Nuriko took a step forward with clenched fists, but Hotohori held him back. "We can't risk it Nuriko, if Tasuki is in there we can't afford to hurt him." _Now I can't help but wonder how this whole thing would turn out if I were to just tell them. Whatever. _Probably wouldn't need their help anyway. Considering how I knew the truth, I wouldn't have a problem attacking and I wouldn't have to hold back since I knew that I wouldn't be hurting any Suzaku Warrior. Besides, it was best to make the first move before that guy had a chance to unleash the power that that fan possessed.

"Shokyoku." She nodded without even looking at me. Making her way to the front of the group she stood ready for my command. "_Hell Blas—" _Almost immediately, I held back on my casting, for Miaka suddenly shot herself up from her spot and sprinted directly towards Eiken without even considering the consequences. She had absolutely no means of protecting herself. Why would she do something like that?

"Miaka!" Hotohori and Nuriko shouted out. Reaching out her hands, the girl tried to grab at the tessen using her strength alone, thinking that she alone might actually be able to do something. But before she could even get a good grasp on it, Eiken shifted around her advances and hooked his arm around her neck, leaving her only option to take hold of his arm with both hands to attempt to pry him off of her. But it was futile, putting her in a position where she could either suffocate, or where he could potentially break her neck or have an easy fire target, either way, things did not look good for her.

There was no way that she actually thought that she could make a difference here. Face it, she's too tiny and scrawny compared to those thugs—it was no wonder why she needed seven guys to protect her.

Miaka was never that good at thinking things through.

"Miaka!"

"What on earth was that crazy girl thinkin'?" Tasuki thought out loud. Noticing her extreme discomfort prompted an emotional response out of him, causing him to grind his teeth and growl, "That's pretty low Eiken—takin' a little girl hostage even when you know that she's not a real threat ta you…You really are a bastard." It kind of went without saying that he sort of did the same thing not too many hours ago. But, then again, it wasn't really a sincere kidnapping.

"Sticks and stones Genrou!" The pig-faced leader tightened his grip around her neck. "Besides, I'm the one holding all the cards here—I've got the power _and_ the girl. Perhaps I'll use one to destroy the other. I'll let _you_ decide which one does what."

Nuriko's face twisted with increasing anger. "Why that creep…if he didn't have Miaka right now I'd…!"

Still pressing his luck, Eiken continued his taunt. "Just give it up, boy! You don't have what it takes to be the leader, so just surrender now before you embarrass yourself." I knew Tasuki, he was the kind of guy to jump into any situation even if it meant risking his life. And he'd press on an on until the job was done, whether or not the added effort was even necessary. So I couldn't help but wonder what was holding him back now. Was he that afraid of the tessen? Or was he afraid for Miaka's life? If he really wanted his leadership position back, he'd just accept the sacrifice of one girl's life and just go for it. His emotions were acting as a heavy anchor holding him back…

How weak…

"Well, it looks like Konan is about to lose their priestess~" Shokyoku said without a lick of sympathy.

'_Akimoto…'_

_What?_

'_Akimoto Tsubaki…"_

_Huh? _I blinked and searched the crevices of my mind for the mysterious voice I just heard. _What was that? Who's there? _It wasn't Shokyoku…no, this was a male's voice. And it was very faint.

'_You must protect her…'_

_Protect…her?_

'_Protect the Priestess of Suzaku. Protect Miaka'_

Just then, my body reacted on its own to the mental intruder, standing erect and stiff, no longer in my control as it had me directly face my line of enemies—the ones putting Miaka in danger.

Sensing a disturbance, Shokyoku slowly turned around to face me. "Aki? What's wrong?"

My mouth and voice both worked against me as they responded in a whisper, "I have to keep Miaka safe…" Then a little louder, "She's my…little sister and…I won't let anything bad happen to her…" _What am I saying? _Finally, my voice erupted, "LET HER GO!" The hallways and all of its inhabitants suddenly fell victim to a fierce wind with speeds and forces extending far past those of a typhoon. Absolutely everyone, even Shokyoku was forced to brace themselves and grab onto anything that they hoped would prevent them from being either blown away, or caught in the current and slammed into a wall in beyond survivable speeds.

"Aki! Calm down!"

"Where is all this even coming from?!" I could only faintly hear sentences…the rest of them, if there were any, were lost to the vortex which made it nearly impossible for anyone to hear anybody…the sounds simply got sucked in…similarly to how black holes could absorb light. Round and round the gusts zipped by, taking with it a plethora of debris, from bits and pieces of the building's structure, like parts of the window, from various hats and other possessions that used to be on an individual's person. Nothing could escape my power. _My_ power. No one could stand up against me, no one could get in my way. I could not see or hear anyone or anything…my reality was only my Wind, and my heart…My heart…Even in the middle of the high volume gusts, I could hear it…

Ba-dum…

Ba-dum…

I could _feel_ it…

Ba-dum…

Ba-dum…

Like I was finally awake after a long sleep. It had been locked up inside of me for so long and now it could blow freely…

My heart, _was_ the Wind.

And then, an interruption.

From my bottom peripheral vision, I saw a tiny body grabbing onto my leg. It looked up at me with an orange eye and a turquoise eye, the only message they read was that of concern. Her mouth moved, but her voiced was lost in my creation. So she invaded my thoughts.

'_Aki! Stop using your powers! It's too dangerous! Think about what could happen to you!'_

A quick flash left my mind hanging on a single memory: My body lifted up without my control, an outstretched hand of a shadow buried deep in my chest, squeezing my very core…I couldn't breathe…I felt cold…and my heart…was shattering as a fast-spreading virus of Darkness continued to spread and consume me…

The Wind began to die down, maintaining a more manageable, yet more than steady breeze allowing everyone a sigh of relief now that it was possible to stand without being swept away.

But still, my body stood still, unmovable under no circumstances as my power persisted in slipping though.

Taking her chance, Miaka forced herself away from the distracted Eiken, running back towards us only to lose her balance and fall to the ground half way in between her allies and those wishing to harm her.

She was okay…

After what seemed like forever, I blinked hard, snapping me out of the trance—the forces holding my body down relieved themselves of my company and I could move freely again, my control allowing the Wind to cease completely. Unfortunately, my breaking the rules wouldn't be overlooked. Within a second after taking a single breath, my body was consumed by surges of blackish-purple lightning. And once again, I was constricted, unable to break free of the trap's binding

"Aki!" Shokyoku shouted out as she jumped away.

Miaka looked up and her face morphed into that of concern. "Aki-nee-chan!"

Like the calm in a storm, it ceased just like that. But without warning, I let out a violent cough, bringing my hands up as a reflex, but not before a splash of deep red liquid had its chance to escape and drip past my approaching fingers.

_So this is it… There _was_ a consequence to using my powers—they'd been tainted and I allowed myself to use them…_

My grasp on my body's weight diminished, allowing gravity to take control of me as I fell backwards, half-expecting to hit the ground, still staring at my blood-stained hands up until I no longer had the ability to hold them up either.

"I've gotcha Aki."

…I didn't hit the ground. In fact, I was still on my feet. With my arms fallen limply to my side, I looked behind to see what obstructed my fall. Turned out to be a _who_.

The world sped up again and I became aware of there being more people in the vicinity.

Tasuki was holding me up in his arms, being my support seeing as how I couldn't do it myself.

"Jeez…" Nuriko let out a deep sigh that seemed would end in him toppling over. "That damn near brought the whole building down. I really wish she would stop spontaneously doing things like that—I don't think my heart can take anymore. And I am much too young and good-looking for a heart-attack."

"Is Akimoto alright?" Hotohori rushed up to Tasuki and I, his eyes widening from the sight. "Blood…you coughed up blood…" An authoritative tone was added to his voice. "Chichiri told you to not use your powers." I didn't even know why I did it. After hearing that man's voice, whoever he was, I malfunctioned…_again_. And this time, it cost me.

There was a mixture of murmuring from the group of bandits, followed by Eiken, who was still a little shaky from the experience, roar out in a mixture of confusion and anger. "What the hell was that Genrou?! Was that some secret weapon? Well," He stroked the tessen up and down greedily, "it didn't work and I'm still in control!" Bringing the fan backwards, he swung ferociously and shouted, _"Rekka Shinen!" _With the spell cast, a violent torrent of fire spewed out towards us, and even more alarming, Miaka, who was still relatively close to the singeing flames.

Too close…

Kouji took a few steps forward in an effort to save her before stopping himself. "It's no use, I won't reach her in time!

"Miaka!"

She looked backwards towards her scorching fate, resolving to tearfully bury her head in her arms as she helplessly lied there fully aware that there was no way she could escape.

…

"_Seoshi." _The familiar dome of nearly translucent energy surrounded not only the priestess, but all who happened to be in the line of danger. If I was going to go out of my way to further my internal destruction by protecting one person, might as well do the rational thing and keep as few fatalities as possible.

"Aki, no!" But Shokyoku's warning was all for naught. The intense flames impacted the barrier head on, leading everyone inside to observe the attack in amazement and reprieve, but in no way did it have the ability to break through. And soon enough, ended up dying down.

As anticipated, once the barrier dissolved, the purplish-black electricity coursed through me, ending with yet another cough that sent blood trickling down past my lips.

"Onee-chan!" Shuffling up to her feet, Miaka ran over to me as I remained motionless in Tasuki's care. With tears running down her cheeks, she scolded me, "You shouldn't have used your powers! Just stop it...you have to stop before it kills you!"

Yes, I knew that if I _could_ feel it, my insides would be crying as I insisted on putting them through this torture, fully aware that using my powers was only putting me in a worse state, but I had to face facts: I couldn't just rely on Shokyoku's powers. Darkness alone wouldn't get the job done. It was inefficient. The downside to not heeding Chichiri's warning? My life may have just been put on a timer—and a shorter one than desired.

No turning back from my first mistake…

As long as I had enough life energy to help me survive until I get back what I had lost, then it was just enough…

"Huh, so that woman won't be able to pull that off again?" Eiken prepared for another go. "Lucky me."

"Aki…" Tasuki only looked down at me with a pained expression for a second before squeezing my arms, visually noticeable to me, and sending the faux bandit leader a sharp glare that could pierce almost anything. "Damn that Eiken…things have gone too far now."

"What're we gonna do?" Kouji never lifted his wary eyes from Eiken either. "He'll scorch us before we can even get close!"

A glimmer of determination displayed in Miaka's olive eyes, prompting her to run towards the bandits once again. However this time, she stopped before she reached a dangerous proximity. Looking to her left and right, she addressed all those who opposed us from both sides. "Why are you all just standing around? You all can't really believe that this is right, can you? You know that Genrou is your true leader, so do the right thing here!" They all exchanged glances with mixed reactions. "Don't be afraid to take a chance! So what if this fake leader has a fan that can shoot fire? Stand up for yourselves! We're strangers and so what if that fan intimidates us? We still won't let fear separate us from our morals!" Her voice strained. "Can you all honestly look at yourselves in the mirror every day, knowing that you're allowing this to happen? Please…"

For a moment, there was silence as the bandits mulled over her words.

And then…

"It's sad to think that you all consider yourselves men—pathetic." That voice…_There's no way he should be here. _"If what it takes is to beat some sense into you, then so be it!" Manifesting from places unknown, the form of a young man with long, dark teal hair in a ponytail and deep purple eyes suddenly appeared—a glowing red Kanji symbol revealing on his forehead, identifying him as only one possible person…

"Tamahome…" Miaka uttered in barely a whisper as she stared off in disbelief and awe of her significant other.

_He's supposed to be in Kutou…how and when did he…?_

Without even really acknowledging the rest of us, the first discovered Suzaku warrior leapt and viciously punched the nearest bandit in the face, sending the guy backwards as blood spurted from his nose. And then he moved onto the next one, kneeing him in the stomach full force without very much resistance. The immediate threat managed to finally budge the bandits who were all standing by, each of them charging towards Tamahome in a nearly useless effort to take him down and regain their dignity. Regardless of their numbers, none of them had what it took to take on a human blessed with extraordinary fighting ability given to him by a god.

One by one, they opposed him. And one by one, they fell.

"How is Tamahome even here?" Nuriko asked, both him and Hotohori watching the spectacle from the side. "I mean, that _is_ Tamahome right?" There were just so many questions about this that didn't seem to make very much sense. Something about it just seemed a bit off to me.

"Woah…who the hell is guy? And where did he come from?" By the somewhat uplifted tone of Tasuki's voice, I could sort of tell that he was a bit impressed.

Kouji gave the impression that he shared similar sentiments. "I dunno, but he's sure makin' our lives a hell of a lot easier. Look!" Tamahome made a swift move, dodging a plethora of threatening advances towards him, which resulted in him throwing himself in the air, directly above Eiken who was at a loss of what to do amongst all the chaos. The Suzaku warrior singlehandedly managed to break the order than Eiken had established, something that easily made the pig-man panic and freeze up, unable to avoid his attacker knocking him directly to the ground, face first, via drop kick. During the impact, he lost grip of the tessen, which fell a few inches out of his grasp.

Using one of his arms to support me, Tasuki, who had a confident smile, used the other to pump his fist in triumph. "Alright! Now we're talkin'!" Quickly remembering what his first priority was, he leaned me up against a wall, forcing me to gather up enough energy to hold myself up. His face turned somewhat serious again. "You'll be fine if I leave ya here, right?"

"Do what you have to," I told him in monotone. And he did, making sure that he didn't lose his chance to get his old leader's treasure back before Eiken had the energy to.

Sprawled out on the ground where Tamahome left him, Eiken struggled to make his beat-up body move—to make his arm stretch up far enough to reclaim his one and only key to power. But all hope came crashing down for him the moment Tasuki reached down, finally allowing the tessen to be placed in the hands of its rightful owner. And he humbly accepted the trophy, grasping onto its handle tightly while placing the folded part on his shoulder, smiling in victory down to his defeated opponent. Kouji stood loyally behind him with crossed arms, reveling in the night's success.

"So Eiken," The pig-faced bandit cringed uncomfortably as he looked up with a look of malice and a splash of fear in his eye at the new fanged leader. "Hope your phony ass enjoyed your little time in the spotlight, but it's over now. The fan is all mine and so is the gang."

"You just better be happy that you're gettin' off so easily," Kouji commented once the volley was sent his way, observing the obvious pain that Tamahome left him in.

The whole ordeal was finally over. The thing that was distracting Tasuki so much as to make him useless to me was quickly resolving, and once again, I was being presented with a supposed opportunity to get back what I had lost.

To think…I was for a second delusional to believe that there would be a time when I could rest easy and have events work out smoothly…

Shokyoku's head quickly snapped to me as she warned with an alarming tone, "Aki!" She didn't need to really say anything, I already knew. Unknown to anyone else but me and her, the atmosphere of our location had shifted to a darker state. Through my vision, the world bent and distorted as a single crash of purple lightning stroke across, signaling the presence of an intruder.

Shadow Maiden.

As if by a force of habit, my eyes jumped all over the place, trying to locate the shadowed anomaly, preparing for it to appear anywhere and to react accordingly.

"Is it Stella?" I had to ask. The answer made all the difference to the severity of the situation.

Shokyoku shook her head as she too tried to spot them. "It's not, I'm fairly positive of that. The presence actually isn't that strong, but it's definitely there." Nothing was showing up or phasing in from any direction. What reason had they to hide? What were they playing at?

An unexpected event took place following our investigation as the pion bandits suddenly yelled out indistinguishable phrases in inappropriately placed rage—their complexions draining to almost white, although with an ominous dark tint to their overall forms, as their irises became the deepest black. It was at this cue, that the unaffected others, Kouji, Eiken, Miaka, and the Suzaku warriors, took notice of the peculiar occurrence, forcing them to abandon the past circumstance and focus on the new one at hand.

"What's up with them?" Nuriko asked as he took a defensive stance.

Even the ones that Tamahome dealt with rose up suspiciously unshaken by their wounds, caring only for the bloodlust they now possessed. In an inexplicable frenzy they charged in at us from all directions, violently grabbing onto anyone they could get a hold of and exploiting their anger in a matter of clawing, punching, or any other means that would cause harm.

As big of a group as they were, they managed in no time to herd us all into one big mush of people, where they trapped us in a large, crowded mush making it difficult to escape.

"Genrou! Control your men!" Hotohori demanded. He and Nuriko were still too paranoid in thinking that one of the others could be their fellow Suzaku warrior, so refrained from fighting back in fear that they might seriously harm in. And so with no other alternative they were forced into defense, doing their best not to let the spontaneous swarm consume them.

Unsurprisingly, Tasuki was having a similarly difficult time. "I have no idea what's gotten into them! They've never acted this crazy before!" One of the bandits suddenly reached out and grabbed one of Miaka's hair tendrils as tightly as he could, making a loud yelp to escape her lips, attempting to pull her closer towards him. Quickly catching sight of this, Hotohori abandoned his self-proclaimed rule and armed himself with his still-sheathed sword, whacking anyone in his way with an intense vigor in an attempt to close the gap between him and his priestess. But his efforts were all in vain. No matter how much he or Tasuki or Kouji or anyone hurt them, they remained unfazed and pressed on…as if they were zombies or something, all muttering maliciously under their breaths.

_This seems familiar…_

They seemed so calm once the Eiken situation was dealt with, but for some reason, they were acting up as if they were a herd of mindless wildebeest that had just been spooked by something—just attacking and raging blindly without any care to collateral damage.

Quickly the curiosity of this situation drained from me.

Levitating above me to avoid from making any kind of contact with our attackers, Shokyoku pondered until she came to the same epiphany I had. "Aki, do you suppose that they've been…?" I nodded.

They were Shadow Kissed—something that happened when a Shadow Maiden took advantage of the Darkness in a human's heart, twist it in a deranged way, and use it to cloud the human's sense of judgment and cause them to act as single-minded drones.

_That_ would explain the slight presence Shokyoku and I felt earlier. Shadow Maidens _had_ been there, but they left the moment they left their mark on these humans.

Alright, so I knew what was going on. But…how was it that I was supposed to deal with them? I think I was able to do so in the past…So why couldn't I remember?

"I've had just about enough of this crap!" Tasuki announced. Giving one hard swing, he sent back one of his men crashing into a group behind him, only to get back up and fling himself at his leader again. Taking firm hold of the tessen, he prepared to swing. His possessed men followed his abrupt movement with their eyes, most of them changing their previous agenda quickly just to hone in and attack him all at once, making it difficult for him to land an exact shot. "Let's see if a little bit of fireworks'll snap ya out of it! _Rekka Shinen!" _The fan spontaneously glowed as it ignited to life, wildly shooting out flames in nearly all directions as his control was a bit skewed from the tugging and fidgeting that influenced his primary intention. Like sewer rats fleeing from the sight of immediate bright light, the Shadow Kissed bandits scurried away as quick as they could, some purposely dropping to the ground for cover. A stream of flames rushed past me as I stood undaunted, certain that it would miss me as I judged its path beforehand. Before it even had a chance to impact Miaka, Hotohori didn't hesitate to lead forward and embrace her as he fell for cover, Nuriko reacting similarly as he crouched down just in time.

Metaphorically putting the lid on his power, Tasuki ceased the release of flames without any trouble. And then, as he retracted it into a more comfortable position, he scanned the area to see the outcome of his actions.

"So! Have you all snapped out of it?" He asked in a commanding tone. "Or do I actually have ta char one of you to get some results?" As everyone began to relax and recover from the scare, I couldn't help but notice how the heaviness in the room's atmosphere had been relieved without my noticing. The bandits, whose normal coloring had returned and their irises back to normal, held their heads in confusion, inspecting the wounds that had been dealt to them in their trance. All while looking around and talking low amongst each other as they proceeded to internally gather themselves away from the fading negative influence.

Kouji was the first to address them. "What the heck happened to you guys back there? Why'dja suddenly go crazy on us?" A collection of baffled expressions rose up from the question, each one of them looking to the other for an answer. Clearly there was none—none they could understand anyway.

"We have no idea what came over us!"

"…I just remember feelin' really angry all of a sudden, my insides burned like hell! It's just that I wanted to crush anything and everything for no reason."

"I don't think I've ever been that furious a day in my life—it was so weird!"

"Yeah, we didn't mean to do what we did. Hell, I barely even remember!"

"Me neither!"

"Really sorry, we just couldn't control ourselves."

_They've actually regained their normal selves? _It shouldn't have been that easy. Power or no power, a human like Tasuki, or any human in that matter, didn't possess the ability to reverse what a Shadow Maiden could do.

Nuriko shot up from his spot and complained. "What's the big idea flame-brain?! You could have seriously hurt someone with that!"

Turning to the side, Tasuki grinned, unaffected by Nuriko's threatening tone. "It worked, didn't it? And everyone's fine. In fact, you should be thankin' me."

"Thanking you?! That was just plain reckless! Honestly…" Dusting off his sleeve with an irritated look on his face, let out a swift, exasperated exhale. "I get enough of this with just having the emotionless Aki around, but at least _she_ has an excuse for not giving a damn about the safety of those around her. Try planning things out next time before reacting to the first thing that pops into your mind."

Instead of getting downright angry, Tasuki just waved off Nuriko's comment. "Whatever—I saved the day so I think that that should earn a little appreciation~ Just give me a bottle of sake and we'll be even!"

Nuriko's expression turned stern. "You'll get nothing and like it." That was when he remembered his other companions and turned to them in concern. "Sire, Miaka! Are you two alright? Where's Tamahome?" Hotohori proceeded to help Miaka up as she seemed to be clenching on tightly to a wrinkled piece of paper that looked like one of Tasuki's talismans.

"He was never here…" Miaka said in a low, melancholy voice. "I just really wanted to see him…so I thought…maybe…" Her shaky grip creased the paper's center even more with her increased abuse to it. Hotohori and Nuriko, not knowing how to console her, only sent her sympathetic gazes. _That paper…Oh, I get it. _Tasuki said that whatever you wrote on the talismans would end up showing up once he said the spell to release them. So I guess other than food, she also wrote Tamahome's name, and in all the confusion, forgot that it was just an illusion spell, nothing more. She allowed her emotions to not only fool her, but give her false hope—both dangerous vulnerabilities in the long run. It was just so absurd to me why anyone would want emotions if they caused too much trouble…they were inefficient and just complicated things. But I supposed that asking them to share my opinions was too much.

"Aki," Shokyoku landed back down to the ground as she patted her dress to straighten it out. "The Shadow Kissed influence that was on them before suddenly disappeared right before that monkey even used his fire spell—like a split second before." _Huh? How could that happen? _"I think that whoever did that to them just up and reversed it…Although," She crossed her arms and tilted her head in thought. "I just don't understand why they'd do that." That was pretty odd. What was the point of going through the trouble to Shadow Kiss them, if they were just going to take it back? It was just plain counterproductive and illogical. The little girl finally took her visual focus off of her dress and onto me, which was when her eyes widened with panic. She brought both hands over her mouth in shock as she cried, "Aki! Omigosh!"

"What?" I asked.

Hearing my voice made Nuriko turn to me, and his alarmed reaction to whatever the problem was, was similar to Shokyoku's, automatically sending him into a protective state. "Aki, your arm!" With that proclamation, the room's attention suddenly fell on me, accompanied by an assortment of gasps.

"Onee-chan! Are you alright?"

Still, I didn't know what everyone was getting worked up about. "My arm?" Looking down to my right arm which was most exposed to the outside, as opposed to my left which was leaning against a wall, I discovered a large tear in the material of my hanfu, and even on the highest part of my long black gloves underneath. The edges of the tears were coarse-looking in texture, but clean-cut and asymmetrical, and were a deep, charred black which then faded into a deep brown as the damage moved further away from the edge, not returning into the natural color of the clothes for at least a few centimeters in.

_Wait…_

My clothes weren't cut…they were _singed_. I tried to move my arm, but it took increasing effort in concentration, more effort than was usually necessary. I already could not feel my arm, so I had no idea how much I would have to try in order to get it to cooperate with me in this case. It _was_ moving…or at least, it was trying to—which was obvious by how it would twitch and vibrate the more I tried to move it. So instead of attempting to get it to do what I wanted in one big, swift move, I gave it the message to twist slowly, so that I could inspect the center of where my clothes got damaged.

Once I twisted it as far as it could go, I saw the problem. A large area of my arm in between my elbow and shoulder, more than half a foot long and a few inches wide, had uneven patches of charred, bloodied skin that had been severely blistered and was now puffed up from inflammation.

_I've been burned, _I thought calmly as I continued to inspect the injury, _and by the looks of it, it's more serious than a first degree…maybe even a second degree…but I can't say for sure…But when did…?_

My eyes snapped up to Tasuki's, who's face had gone a little pale as she stared at me. _Oh that's right…he used that tessen while the others were Shadow Kissed. _It was pretty safe to conclude that when I had thought that I dodged that blast of fire that past me, I actually hadn't.

_Well that explains why I can't really move my arm at all. _

Shokyoku's eyes flared with anger as she stomped up to the frozen Tasuki, her tiny form suddenly overcome by weak swirls of black energy. "_**You**__ did this!" _Her shoulder's shook almost as if she were trying to contain her rage. "You were just like a child playing with his new toy…too stupid to tell when would be the appropriate time to use it…You weren't thinking! How could you hit her?! Don't you know how to use that thing—"

"Shokyoku." She stopped mid-sentence to peer back at me. "It wasn't his fault. It was the Shadow Maidens' hijinks that messed up his accuracy." _Think about it._ Though she was still mad, the energy she was producing began to simmer down. _Besides, it wouldn't make much sense to make someone the leader, if they didn't know what they were doing. That goes without saying. It wasn't Tasuki's fault. _If anything other than Shadow Maidens, I underestimated that fire. More and more mistakes I continue to produce…more malfunctions that had to be fixed. Or like a domino effect, things would only get worse.

"Aki…I'm…" Tasuki tried to say something, but was soon interrupted by Nuriko and Miaka, who had dropped the talisman in her hand mid-run, rushing over to me.

Nuriko ground his teeth nervously. "That burn looks really bad…"

Miaka brought her arms up and advanced towards my burnt one, her hands trying to figure out what to do with themselves as she was unsure how to handle the situation. "I…uh…I don't know what to do!" It almost sounded like she was about to cry. "Onee-chan, what do I do? I want to help, but I don't know if I'll just make it worse or if I'll hurt you!"

"It doesn't hurt," I assure her. "I can't feel it at all, remember?"

"Yeah, but…"

Poking up his head from my wound, Nuriko raised the volume of his voice to capture the attention of all the bandits. "Are you bums blind or something? Make yourselves useful and get me some bandages and cold water! And if you have any kind of medicine, bring that too!" They all just stared at him. "Did I stutter?! Get a move on!" With that sudden uproar, the bandits scrambled around like chickens without heads as they dispersed from the hallway to go get the provisions that Nuriko demanded. He turned back to me. "You might not feel it, and you might not care now, but this is a really bad burn. It has to be treated at least a little before it gets worse. Too bad we don't have a doctor around…that would be a huge help…But we'll make do with what we have for now."

"Genrou!" Tasuki jumped and snapped out of his daze once Hotohori's austere voice called to him. "If you're going to be the user of that fan, then I suggest using it more intelligently and taking responsibility for your actions!"

In response, the flame-headed Suzaku warrior shook his head and placed on his stubborn and hardened demeanor, turning his back to the Emperor as he strode up to Eiken, who was still getting up from the place where Tamahome left him. "Dammit... As if I don't feel bad enough about it…But it wasn't my fault!" Within a few seconds, he ended up towering over Eiken, glaring down at him in resentment. Bringing his leg back, he put his strength into a strong enough kick into his side to bring the pig-man back down.

"Ahhh! What the hell Genrou?!" Eiken rolled around on the ground holding the area that was impacted by his leader.

He kicked him again…and again, not caring how much pain he was inflicting to his subordinate. "Aki got hurt because of you! If ya hadn't taken Hakurou's tessen, then none of this would have happened!"

From behind, Kouji placed a hand on Tasuki's shoulder after watching the violent display for a few moments. "Lay off Genrou, I think you got your point across." Tasuki looked back at his friend, taking hold of the silent message that was being exchanged between them. Then he sighed and closed his eyes, holding back on his displaced frustration and ceasing the abuse.

* * *

><p><strong>3rd POV~<strong>

On the very tip of mountaintop not too far away from the events that were taking place in the Mt. Reikaku bandit hideout, a lone figure sat cackling like a hyena sporting her Cheshire-cat-like grin under the inadequate lighting of the half-moon. Her black form appeared to be only another shadow in the night while her glowing, almond shaped eyes peered down in amusement towards her prey's direction.

Her laughing persisted, even as she spoke through her Southern-bell accent. "Oh my! Never did I think that my little bit of fun would turn out even better than I anticipated! Not only did I get to torment some humans, but as an added bonus, my little cousin got a little boo boo! Not intentional, but entertainin' all the same!" Thinking about it even more just tickled her up until she exploded again in a hearty laugh that almost pushed her from her spot.

Sitting in seclusion away from any other form of life put the Shadow Maiden into a false sense of security, allowing her to lower her guard. As if she was ever really completely alone…

'_Stella!'_

The thunderous voice inside her head not only put an immediate end to her laughter, but stiffened her body up so tightly that even a brick wall would be impressed.

"Y-Your Highness!" She flipped through the depths of her mind of a good enough excuse to tell the Princess, thinking how stupid she was for convincing herself that what she had done was a good idea. "I was just—"

'_I know __**exactly**__ what you were doing! You deliberately went against my orders! I told you to __**not **__interfere with Aki and to __**only**__ act on my command!' _With every word that left the Princesses mouth, Stella cringed as she waited for the inevitable. If anything good came out of her being there at that moment, it was that she didn't have the displeasure of being scorned by the Princess face to face—or worse, being scorned by the Princess face to face and talking about Akimoto Tsubaki. As if she didn't hear enough of that girl. Eighty percent of the time it was "Aki this" or "Aki that", if Stella didn't go out most of the time to cause _some_ sort of mayhem or benefit from her own personal therapy of torturing those that she despised (like humans and _**Aki**_), then no doubt she would have gone insane, or would rather have been one of the typical Shadow Maidens who didn't have enough of their humanity or will to even give a damn about the Princess and her stupid obsession.

Stella tried to slither her way out of punishment. "If I may say, Your Majesty, I didn't do anythin' to Aki directly. And _technically_, you never said that I couldn't give her and her little group of humans a bad day~" She shouldn't have said that. It wasn't until she uttered that last word when she realized the flaw in what she had said…and it was going to cost her. Fear consumed her from the bottom up, even creating a nauseous feeling in the pit of the stomach she didn't even have anymore.

She hated taking orders from the Princess of Darkness for various reasons really. But to her chagrin, there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. The Shadow Maiden's arm suddenly rose involuntarily—the fear intensified. And in a rapid motion, her hand gave a loud, painful crack as it was forced to bend completely backwards, making contact with her wrist. An excruciating scream escaped past the narrow openings in between her perfectly crafted, razor sharp teeth. The agony only intensified as her whole arm was manipulated into curling in on itself in such a way that was beyond capable human standards. Normally, without her old human form, there was no problem for her to do the impossible and defy the limits of human restraint—doing things like shape shifting and twisting her body in any form or size that was convenient for her was a breeze on a normal basis. But whenever the Princess took control, whenever she got really, _really_ pissed, she temporarily took away Stella's inhuman ability, making her body nearly as vulnerable as a human's. Only nearly because she could still take a lot more than a human could. That didn't mean that it didn't hurt like hell though.

Much to Stella's horror, the core of her body was the next target, even while her arm was still incapacitated. As if wires were holding her up by her pigtails, she lifted into the air without consent, feeling the worst kind of torture as her waist was stretched to its limit, ready to rip apart at any moment. And then, like the wrapper on a piece of candy, she was rolled and twisted ever so slowly, just so that she could experience every aching snap and tear that was no doubt going on inside.

Just as quickly as it had begun, the entity reverted her to back to normal and violently threw her down to her spot on the mountain tip. Once she found that she was in control of her own actions again, she instinctively felt around her body, although she already knew that nothing was broken or damaged. Still, old habits died hard.

The Princesses livid voice came through as before, her message getting through loud and clear. _'If you __**ever**__ twist my words into a technicality ever again, I'll do much, __**much**__ worse. Do you understand me?!'_

She struggled to speak through her pain and terror. "Y-Y-Yes…Ma'am…"

'_Remember, Aki is __**my**__ property—so only __**I**__ can decide what happens to her! Don't forget that.'_

_There_ was that girl's name again and Stella cringed in anger from the sound of it. But no matter what the Shadow Maiden's nefarious desires were, they'd have to be put on hold since she was the Princesses dog after all, and at all times, the Princesses superior abilities served practically as an invisible shock collar, always there to make sure that she stayed in line. The hierarchy of power was kind to no one.

* * *

><p><strong>Aki's 1st POV~<strong>

It took at little more time than I would have liked, but the necessary act of mending my arm had finally been completed. After the process of cleaning it and spreading over it what medicine they could find, although Nuriko wasn't exactly sure how effective it would be or not, he proceeded to wrap my arm in a white bandage for the time being until we could get a qualified someone to take a closer look at it. Even with it being mediocrely taken care of, there was only increasing difficulty on my part to get it to function to its full potential…or even half its potential.

So I supposed that the theory I had earlier was proving to be more correct than I would have preferred. Without my sense of touch, I may have been able to remain calm in situations and not react to pain that would otherwise leave someone unconscious, but it also meant that I wasn't completely aware of my limits. I wasn't invincible now that I couldn't feel it, I was actually vulnerable. Pain was a natural process for everyone and it alarms someone to any danger that their body might be facing. Without it, one might not know if they were in danger or not, and would just keep going on fighting in ignorance until the moment when the body would decide for itself when it could no longer go on. If I had just felt the heat of the fire as it was passing me, most likely I would have reacted instinctively and moved it out of the way before the burn could get to as bad as a state as it had.

It was now imperative that I retrieved what I had lost as quickly as possible.

After everything was said and done, all Mt. Reikaku bandits as well as the Suzaku warriors, Miaka, Shokyoku, and I grouped together in a large room within the hideout, reflecting on the night's events as well as preparing for the road ahead.

"Everything that happened tonight was completely crazy." The bandits, except Kouji and Tasuki, sat and obediently presented themselves before us on their knees while the rest of us stood at the front of the room looking down on them. Tasuki, their rightful leader who had finally been able to claim his post, searched the faces of each one of his subordinates as he spoke. "An emotionless woman, an invisible kid, the Priestess of Suzaku, and my men turned into a bunch o' lunatics for no reason—somethin' that apparently no one can even tell me what the hell happened."

"Sorry about that boss," They all said simultaneously, though some said it almost painfully as if they didn't like to admit their mistake.

Their fanged leader closed his eyes and sighed in frustration. "Yeah, yeah. I got that. Just if any of you start to remember who the sorry bastard was who did that to ya, point me to him so I can kick his ass for givin' all of us a hard time. And speakin' of a hard time," He quickly looked at me out of the corner of his eye while I stood next to him opposite Kouji before addressing his men again. "Whoever messed you all up musta got to me too somehow and threw off my aim—but I'm makin' a promise that that kind of mistake will never happen again."

In the second row of bandits facing the front, Eiken brought his head up and pointed a finger at Tasuki. "What?! You're admitting your mistake? That means that you know _you_ hurt that girl, not me! Why the hell was I blamed and beat up for what you did—" Leaving his post next to his leader, Kouji discreetly made his way to the in between area behind Eiken, and stroke the big-mouth hard upside the head, shutting him up instantly.

"Shut'cher trap." He ordered in a calm, yet irritated tone.

Without turning to Tasuki, I told him, "It wasn't a bit deal—I didn't feel anything, so there is no need to be sorry about it."

His tone temporarily lost some of its edge as he noted my comment. "Aki…"

"Hey, if there's anything worth pointing out," Kouji had on an amused smile as he walked back up to where the rest of us were, "it's how sincere I've noticed Genrou being towards that girl Aki." This made Tasuki jump a bit at the accusation, his face turning a slight shade of red. "Never thought I'd live to see the day when he'd actually give a damn about somethin' he couldn't stand"

Tasuki took a hard step forward, putting his whole body into it as he held up a fist and threated his friend. "You don't know what the hell you're talkin' about, so just shut it!" Just as he said that, Kouji's words resonated more with the rest of the bandits than Tasuki's, so they all began to snicker silently amongst one another. Catching the sight of this, Tasuki zealously continued to make his case. "I still can't stand women, so don't any of you go gettin' any bright ideas. And if any of you give me any grief about this, then I'll burn you all for real next time, got it?!" With his intimidation working, the lesser bandits, hushed up rather quickly in fear that he might live up to his words.

"Umm, Genrou?" Miaka leaned down to get a better look at him from her spot.

"What is it?"

"I was wondering, now that we've helped you get your job back, you can help us!" Bringing herself back up, she spoke to all bandits in the room with a smile. "So do any of you know who Tasuki is? Or where we can find him? We know he's somewhere around here and it would be a big help if you could help locate him for us."

Since Eiken was the first one before to mention Tasuki's name to her, he was the one who admitted, "I actually don't know who he is—I thought it was just a rumor that he was here somewhere. But I can honestly say that I can't place a face to him…"

Miaka's hopes died down a bit. "Oh…is that so...?" I couldn't see why Tasuki didn't just tell Miaka and the others who he was. Not that it was of any concern to me, but he was a citizen of Konan as well, meaning he was just as much in danger of Kutou and their god Seiryuu just as the rest of Konan was. So it would make sense for him to reveal himself and just make the whole process a lot smoother.

No matter how he wanted to play it out though, it wasn't my place to interfere, nothing regarding Suzaku or that country had anything to do with me, so I would keep the secret to myself.

"I know who Tasuki is," Tasuki himself said, making me think that he was actually going to tell them. "But you're not gonna like what I tell ya. You see, Tasuki was our old boss, and well…he's dead now." And the lie continues.

"What?!" Miaka gasped.

"Tasuki's dead?" Nuriko turned to Hotohori. "Sire, how are we going to summon Suzaku without all seven warriors?"

Hotohori closed his eyes in defeat. "We cannot. It's impossible."

Miaka looked down to her feet with a look of hopelessness in her eye. "It just can't be true…" As much as I tried to understand, it was just too difficult for me to fathom why keeping the secret was so essential. Was Tasuki really that against being part of the Suzaku 7? Or was it something else?

* * *

><p>Only a short few hours later, the sun had just made its way over the horizon and was giving light to the world and to the peaks of Mt. Reikaku. The morning had brought with it a light sheet of fog that covered the mountainous valley, only to burn off slowly as the great star proceeded with its daily journey across the sky.<p>

A brief walk away from the hideout and down a forest path, a group of bandits along with their leader and Kouji lead us visitors to a small, dome-shaped windowless structure made of cement-like bricks, which served as the tomb for the late leader of the bandits.

Inside, there was only a little light being provided by a few candles that were hanging on the wall. Upon entering, we all circled around the closed brown casket in the middle that held the old leader's decaying body.

Tasuki gazed upon the coffin in lament. "He really was a good, strong man. Too bad that sickness got the best of him…" Back when Tasuki and I first met and after we had met Chichiri, he told us about his leader who was suffering from some serious illness. In fact, the reason he left Mt. Reikaku in the first place was to look for some cure. And somewhere along the way, he and I ran into each other and ended up doing just that. Leading up to us going through a universe formulated maze which Chichiri had enlightened us about, all so that we could obtain the Sacred Blood Lily which was a magical flower that only bloomed ever thousand years and had the ability to cure any illness, poison, etc. And after many trials and tribulation through the time acceleration of three months, we obtained the flower, all supposedly believing that Tasuki's leader would end up being saved. But it appeared as if we were too late.

"He tried to fight it out as long as he could Genrou—he gave a good fight up until the very end," Kouji said.

"Weak human," Shokyoku tossed her hair back superficially with an irritated countenance. "How dare he not only put my Aki in danger by requiring her services to put her life on the line to get him that flower but then he had the nerve to fall prey to that sickness and die. Aki went through all that trouble for nothing!" She scoffed. "He wasn't worthy of living."

"So it's true…" Miaka wasn't able to take her eyes off of the circumstance that had been put before her—failure. "How can we summon Suzaku or get Tamahome back now without Tasuki?"

For a few moments, everyone just stood in there, all wondering, or pretending to care about wondering, about how to get around this unforeseen obstacle. Just then, one of the pion bandits had an epiphany and spoke up.

"Hey boss?"

Tasuki acknowledged him, "What is it?"

"I don't know if this will really be any help, but I heard that in the north in a village called Choko, there is someone there who has the ability to raise the dead."

Miaka immediately jumped in optimism with sparkles in her eyes as she turned to that bandit. "Really? There's actually someone like that?"

Feeling uncomfortable to the situation, he meekly added, "…well that's what I heard…"

"Someone who could raise the dead…imagine that," Nuriko contemplated in awe and curiousness. "Hmm…might be useful, but it sounds kind of suspicious to me."

"But it's the only lead we've got!" The Priestess of Suzaku turned to her comrades. "We can't afford to give up now when we've come so far! Especially since Tamahome is doing all he can to help us out—we can't let him down. Konan and everyone in it is relying on us to summon Suzaku, so even if it's just a rumor or even just a small chance of this person being in Choko, then we have to take it!"

Her speech automatically got the approval of the emperor. "Well, if you're so determined, then we're with you all the way Miaka. And you're right, we have to do all we can and explore all options before we could even consider giving up."

Nuriko let out a sigh in defeat, but then gave his priestess a reassuring look. "Well, if we've been through all we have up until now, I don't see the harm in checking this place out."

She smiled at him. "Hotohori, Nuriko…Yes! Let's keep doing our best and bring Tasuki back!"

I for one had absolutely no desire to go along with them—there was really no reason to. There was only one reason why I went along with them in the first place. During the time while those hours went by, I came to discover an unfavorable characteristic of my current condition. At first I was lead to believe that using my own powers resulted in my coughing up blood only when I insisted on using them. But the truth of it was how even if I didn't use my powers again after that incident with Miaka being in danger, my body would still experience the few moments of constriction as that ominous purplish-black electricity conflicted me, resulting in my dispelling even more blood from my body. The malfunctions have sped up now, and my time was ticking away.

Those Suzaku people could go on a wild goose chase as much as they wanted, but I only needed Tasuki, the _real_ Tasuki, who was already with me. And if he was going to pretend not to be who he was, then fine, but I needed to stay with him and do whatever needed to be done in order to get back what I had lost…before it was too late.

* * *

><p>Another couple of hours went by and the bandits offered food to us while returning the items of ours they stole—most of them apologizing for all the trouble that they had put us through the day before. Miaka, Nuriko, and Hotohori felt little to no hostility and accepted their kindness. Shokyoku and I on the other hand, didn't require any such service and watched as the whole thing took place.<p>

Once two horses were loaded up for the journey ahead, Nuriko hopped onto one and Hotohori and Miaka on the other while Shokyoku, who was using her large black parasol to protect her skin from the sun, and I stood with the bandits in front of the hideout's gate.

Nuriko noticing my stillness, called out to me, "Aki, what're you waiting for? Hop on so we can get going!"

"I'm not going with you. I'm staying here"

…

…

…!

Taking advantage of their silence, I explained simply by saying, "The reason is of no concern to any of you."

Nearly everyone had their own version of shock from my words—those on the horses looking at me with questioning eyes, and the bandits in back of me all gasping and complaining in some fashion.

"What the hell?! We're not gonna let some girl stay with us! Especially not this freaky broad." I couldn't help but think that some of them had some sort of animosity or uneasiness towards me. Wonder why that could be…

"We're not accepting any new members girlie, so run along with your friends."

"This chick must be some kind of delusional, maybe she got burned in the brain without realizing it—" And at that, Tasuki sent them a deathly glare that caused them to keep their opinions to themselves.

Now it was the Suzaku people's turn to try to convince me.

"Akimoto, what are you saying? Why on earth would you want to stay here with them?" Hotohori asked.

Sending me a distraught signal, Miaka pleaded, "We can't leave you here Onee-chan! You're one of us!" _No, I'm not. _"And I don't want to have to go through any of this without you! And plus…you're condition…we promised to help you—"

"My life and decisions should be of no concern to you like I said before. Go along and do what is necessary for you Miaka, and I shall do the same."

"Onee-chan, but…!"

Nuriko turned to Hotohori, "What should we do Your Majesty? We can't really just leave her here." Gazing up at me, Hotohori locked eyes with mine, trying to search for an answer that he most likely wouldn't find. It was pointless for them to try and get me to change my mind—they needed to understand that. And if anyone, maybe Hotohori could comprehend at least that much.

Tugging on the reins, the horse that the emperor and the priestess sat upon spun around to face the road to Choko. Nuriko tried to interject. "Sire!"

"I don't like the idea of leaving her behind either Nuriko, but we have no choice but to do just that."

"Hotohori, why?"

Taking a glimpse into his distraught priestess's eyes, he smiled gently at her. "No matter what state she is in, emotionless or not, when Akimoto takes a stand, she stays there, and it's usually for a good reason. Maybe we don't understand, but she does and I trust her. There isn't any point in standing around all day trying to make her listen to us." _At least one of them is learning_. He paused for a second before continuing. "You even said earlier that we have to do what we can to summon Suzaku, right?"

"Yeah! But—"

"Miaka, if we do end up finding that person in Choko, then we'll end up coming back anyway to resurrect Tasuki. And when we do, we'll come for Akimoto as well." They could do what they wanted, but there was really no guarantee that I'd even need them anymore. So it would have been best for them not to get used to the idea of me not being with them.

Miaka wanted to protest more, but knew that nothing she would have to say would beat out the emperor's logic. As the horse they were on ensued with treading down the path, the priestess twisted her upper body back towards me as she called out, "Aki-nee-chan! We'll definitely come back for you! So just sit tight!"

Although it took a few seconds, Nuriko finally submitted to the reality of my staying behind, leading his horse in the same direction as his emperor and priestess. But not before he made a similar motion as Miaka and spoke out to me. "You're welcomed to join us at any time Aki just in case you feel like changing your mind halfway. Just make sure you don't do anything too crazy while you're away from us, alright?" I didn't know what could constitute as "crazy" to him.

Moments passed as we watched the road they were traveling on up until they weren't visible anymore. None of the bandits said anything to me seeing as how they couldn't wrap their minds around the predicament I had put them in—all of them, except Tasuki, just stared at me as if I was an extraterrestrial or some other species they had never seen before. But really, this had nothing to do with them either.

Shokyoku had enough of them standing around, so she began to say, "Aki, tell them to leave so that you can—" But was stopped just as the poisonous electricity infected me again, something to which the pion bandits winced in astonishment. Wrapping herself around my good arm, Shokyoku looked up at me with extreme worry, under the impression that her interference would actually make a difference in my condition. Knowing what would come next, I pushed her away, quickly bringing my hand up to my mouth as I coughed.

Tasuki protectively brought up his arms to support me, but didn't even get close to contact the second he saw the blood in my hand. I couldn't help but wonder exactly how much damage was happening to my insides the more Stella's trap persisted. Clenching my fist with the blood, I calmly showed him a knowing look, hoping he knew what I was expecting to come next.

Straightening his body, Tasuki dropped his hands to his sides and indirectly spoke in a stern tone to the others. "Get back inside, all of you. I can handle what's goin' on out here."

Some of them tried to speak back to him, "But boss, she—!"

But he wouldn't take any of it. Sending them an intense glare, his amber eyes glowing a bit golden as the sun reflected off his irises. "I said I can handle it. Just go find somethin' else ta do." They jumped back in response to his coercion. Seeing their reaction, he held back and grinned wide, allowing one of his fangs to show. "We can celebrate my officially becomin' the leader later on. Go make sure we have enough sake ta go around~" Once they believed his carefree changes in attitude, they thought it as nothing and broke into chatter mixed with a bit of laughter as they retreated back into the hideout, leaving me alone with Tasuki and Kouji. I didn't exactly expect the latter one to stick around, but whatever—him hanging around wouldn't be that big of a deal as long as he didn't interfere.

" Hey Genrou, you don't mind if I stick around, do ya? This girl still has me kind of curious," Kouji asked. Then he baited him on with an impish smile, "Unless you'd rather the two of you be left alone~"

"Stay if you really wanna!" Tasuki answered rapidly, which was actually a pretty impressive reaction. "I don't care!" And so the air around us finally settled onto that of a serious one—no more joking and no more interruption. Calming down and looking at me straight on, he asked, "You have my full attention now Aki. What's been goin' on with you? What happened after you flew off that day?"

After closing my eyes for a second, they snapped open to him. "I know who you really are…_Tasuki_." The two of them sent an exchange of surprise between each other, and catching the drift of my no-joke attitude, they lost any motivation to try and tell me otherwise. By how calm Kouji was, I guessed that he already knew this bit of information the whole time—which would make the getting my point across a lot quicker by avoiding the questioning stage. "Like I said before, I need your help. And as you can see," Bringing my blood-soaked glove up to my teeth, since I couldn't use my other arm, I bit onto the material, slowly sliding it off. And then threw it onto the ground, noticing how some of the blood that hadn't soaked in dripped onto the dirt. "I am not well."

He glanced down at the glove before back up at me. What I didn't expect was for him to smirk. "Well, whatever it is, we're pals, right? Don't think I've forgotten about that. And by now you've helped me twice. If this keeps up, I'll never be able to pay you back. So what do I have ta do?"

"Touch me."

His eye twitched while jumping backwards, almost bumping into Kouji who was behind him and shared a quite similar shocked expression to his companion.

"This chick really doesn't quit, does she?" Kouji asked in disbelief.

"Would'ja stop sayin' that?!" Tasuki exploded with reddened cheeks at me before holding back a bit and crossing his arms. "Ask me to do anything else, but not somethin' like that…"

Again with the misunderstandings. "Listen to me," I told him, "I lost something very important…and I don't have any idea what it was…but its loss from my body, among other things that are connected to a similar incident are causing me to malfunction." The blush from his cheeks soon disappeared as he took in the significance of my words. "I don't know why, but Shokyoku told me that you touching me might help me be restored. She said that you had to feel something though. I'm not sure what that means, but I was counting on you knowing for me." My eyes narrowed a bit. "Please…"

Eyeing me from head to toe, his expression turned troubled. Then he fixated on my injured, bandaged arm. And with his face twisting in guilt, he brought his eyes back up to mine, hanging on as he searched through his thoughts. _I think…he knows what Shokyoku is talking about. In that case…_

_I just have to leave it up to him._

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><p><strong>Well, that was the chapter, how did you like it?<strong>

**PLEASE REVIEW! ****Tell me your opinions, predictions, hopes, anything that spiked ur interest during the chapter—anything! For every new review I get, I'm less likely to be visited by a Poltergeist and have my face melt away X3 (*hint hint* movie reference ^_~)**

**Please continue to check out my Deviant Art account for more pix regarding the story as well as other news and updates ^_^ If anyone ever wants to contact me, it's best to do it there ;)**

**Until next time, **

**C YA!**

**No questions and trivia and stuff for ya this time folks on account of I couldn't think of any lol Srry~ Feel free to come up with ur own questions and I'd just love to hear ur thoughts! =D**

**Thanx for reading!**


	44. The Healing Factor, Part 1

**What up people? =D**

**Time for another installment of LH5W! **

**I am now on my summer break—I've successfully finished my 2nd year of college! *throws confetti* And now I get to rest for 3 months b4 the next semester. **

…

…

…

**Pft…**

**Pftthahahahahahahahaha**

**Yeah…right.**

**I wish. But I do have to work too. Blah…So because of that, I cant do all the fun stuff that I'd like. But! Regardless of this reality, I am determined to finish Season 2 by summer's end. There are 6 more chapters left before the season ends. That's right! God has made the placement of this story quite convenient for me. What do I mean by that? Well, Season 2 will end on Chapter 50. And so with that, LH5W will be halfway over. I already knew from the beginning that this story might span to 100 chapters. I just really like knowing that I have a clean halfway point ^0^ I mean, it works out so perfectly!**

**SO ya. With any luck, I can finish a chapter like every other week or something like that. Lord willing. So please bear with me!**

**Well anyway, what did I want to say…Oh!**

**HAPPY 2nd ANNIVERSARY LOVE HURTS 5 WAYS! I first published this story on June 8th in the summer of 2011~  
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**As always, I thank those of you who are still interested in this long winded story. I thank you for your patience and hope you all are enjoying the journey so far. More fun to come!**

**Enough talk! Here's chapter 44!**

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><p><strong>Btw, I hope it's okay that I give these little recaps before the chapter starts. I only do this because the times in between my updates are long and this is so that you don't have to go back to the previous chapter to check what happened. Hopefully these do actually help. And if not, feel free to skip straight to the chapter X3<strong>

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><p><strong>*On the last chapter of <strong>_**Love Hurts 5 Ways, **_**Aki and Shokyoku follow Kouji straight towards Tasuki's hideout where he had kidnapped Miaka to, allowing Aki to finally have her reunion with the fanged Suzaku Warrior. But instead of receiving the opportunity to use him to get back what she had lost, she and Shokyoku were pulled into Tasuki's dilemma of not having his rightful place as the Mt. Reikaku bandit leader. Miaka was more than happy to help him out in exchange for information regarding the next Suzaku Warrior (neither she, Nuriko, or Hotohori knew that they had already found him). Aki on the other hand would have rather gotten what she wanted and then let them be. But Shokyoku informed her that Tasuki was not in the right emotional or sympathetic state enough to really be of much assistance to her, so she had no choice but to help him before he could help her. **

**We also learn that Tasuki has the odd ability to see Shokyoku although he is unable to hear anything she is saying. **

**After recruiting Nuriko and Hotohori back at the bandit hideout, the seven of them sneak inside, only to be confronted by the faux bandit leader Eiken, wielding the bewitched tessen which had the ability to throw fire, along with the rest of the bandits who posed a threat. Just as Aki was about to have Shokyoku attack them, Miaka threw herself out into the frontlines and ended up as a hostage (again). This caused something to stir inside of Aki, as a male voice from within speaks to her, appealing towards her dormant compassion for her little sister-like friend as well as to her also dormant sense of justice—two things she lost due to the incident with Stella as well as the ring around her head. This dove Aki into a peculiar trance which prompted her to unconsciously use her powers over Wind. Doing so helped free Miaka, but ended up doing just what Chichiri feared: causing internal damage to Aki due to Stella's contamination. Now Aki frequently gets constricted by peculiar purple electricity, which results in her coughing up blood. **

**Miaka tried to appeal to the bandit's sense of righteousness, but when that failed, Tamahome mysteriously appeared and beat them up. In the middle of all the chaos, Tasuki takes the opportunity to retrieve the tessen from Eiken, thus establishing himself as the true leader of the Mt. Reikaku bandits. **

**Just when all seems to be resolving, the majority of the bandits become Shadow Kissed and start attacking our heroes. When Tasuki feels that using the fire from his tessen would snap them out of it, the plan oddly seemed to work, but in all the craziness, Tasuki lost control of the fire and accidentally burned part of Aki's upper right arm. Of course she wasn't aware of it given she can't feel anything, but that didn't make the injury any less serious. Aki discovers how impractical it is to not have the sense of touch. **

**On another note, Tamahome wasn't really there, Miaka had just written his name on one of Tasuki's talisman and "Tamahome" was just an illusion. **

**On a mountaintop not too far away, we find out that Stella went behind her superior's orders and decided to mess with Aki and her friends by causing a frenzy at the hideout. The Princess of Darkness wasn't too happy about Stella's actions, especially since Aki got hurt for no reason, so the Shadow Maiden was punished. **

**After Aki's arm got mended as best as it could get, Miaka proceeded on with her priestess duties, asking for Tasuki. The real Tasuki lies to Miaka and the others that "Tasuki" was actually the old bandit leader that just died. Miaka is upset by this, but finds new hope when she discovers that in a village called Choko was someone who could potentially raise the dead. **

**When she, Nuriko, and Hotohori set out for said village, Aki tells them that she's staying at the bandit hideout. Eventually figuring that there was no point in trying to convince her otherwise, the others hesitantly leave her behind, trusting her decision and promising to come back for her when they're done. **

**Aki, being left alone with Shokyoku, Kouji, and most importantly, Tasuki, proceeds with her mission. She tells Tasuki that she knows who he really is and that she needs his help. Though taken back a bit by her boldness, Tasuki ultimately agrees to help her, not exactly knowing what to do, but willing to do it because of the pact they made in the past and because she'd helped him out twice by now.**

**The story continues to unfold…***

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><p><strong>*Tasuki's 3rd POV* <strong>

Aki looked up at Tasuki with those stoic red eyes of hers—those eyes that always looked weird and oddly deep, going on forever like the sky. But this time, her gaze was blank and unfeeling. And even though they still didn't reflect any light, there was just a quality about them now that seemed so drab.

_**"You see that ring around her head? It takes away all of her emotions. So she's most likely to not only not react to much, but she has the habit of being quite blunt, even more so than her usual self who has a little more self-control."**_

_Yup, that's what Miaka said. _And that was really the only explanation to how any of what was happening could honestly have been going on. It was kind of weird and awkward being around Aki now, not to mention sort of frustrating. And those other guys who came along with her had to deal with her like this for _how_ long? Tasuki didn't even have the full story, barely even a fraction of it, but he figured that some sort of messed up stuff must have went down in order to bring Aki to him in that sorry state. At some point, he'd make sure that he found out who was responsible for all this and just how he'd be able to kick the bastard's sorry ass for messing with one of his friends.

Still Aki stared at him without a word as she waited for him to make a move. Standing next to her at nearly half her height was that weird little grey girl who had the freakiest eyes Tasuki had ever seen. She stared him down too, although there was a bit more malice in her intent, big surprise there, as she crossed her arms expectantly, daring him to make the correct move. The two of them wanted something out of him. And while part of him sort of knew what they were waiting for, ever since Aki mentioned that it was important that he "felt" something when he did it, the revelation hadn't quite surfaced yet on his consciousness.

What exactly was it that he was supposed to do?

_**"There is something that only you can do for me. I need you to touch me."**_

Just remembering her saying that to him caused his cheeks to mildly heat up again. _Even if she tells me ta do somethin' like the that, it really isn't much for me to work with. Not to mention…_As if the situation couldn't get any more uncomfortable, the two of them had more of an audience than he really wanted. Tasuki managed to get rid of the majority of his crew, but, not knowing what to expect out of Aki, allowed Kouji to stay and back him up. So now he and that brat Shokyo-whatever, who was for some reason holding up a black umbrella large enough to produce a shadow that covered her whole body, was there watching as Tasuki and Aki were going to supposedly perform something a tad more private. Those two's presence was just making the bandit leader even more embarrassed, as if Aki's request wasn't embarrassing enough. Would Aki even ask for something like that if she wasn't under the influence of that ring? Probably not. What was he thinking? Hell no—of course she wouldn't! She would have been just as awkward if not more so. Their predicament back at that hot springs when they were stuck together sort of proved that.

But…

_**As soon as Chichiri released their heads, the two of them sat back down in their seats with their arms crossed, refusing to look at one another.**_

_**"Stubborn," Tasuki spouted out.**_

_**Aki scoffed. "Impossible."**_

_**Chichiri let out a heavy sigh followed by a sweat drop—arms dangling down in hopelessness. "I thought you two were friends, ya know?"**_

_**Almost instantly, the both of them snapped their heads towards him and responded with a loud and confident, "We are!"**_

At the end of the day, she _was_ his friend—his pal.

As embarrassing as it was, it was clear that he had to do something for her. She came all that way just to find him. Somewhere deep down, she was counting on him, even if she herself wasn't aware of it. Tasuki clenched his fists as he fought through his anxieties. There was no way in Hell that he'd let her down.

Now that his resolve had been established, how exactly was Tasuki supposed to go about this? An incredible temptation pounded at him the longer he kept his eyes fixated on that mysterious knotted silver ring around her head. Miaka said that it would have been a bad idea to take it off. Okay, he got that. But what the perky girl forgot to mention was exactly _why_ it would have been a bad idea. Well, maybe she _did_ say _something_ about it, but Tasuki was much too focused on other matters to really pay it as much attention as he should have.

Hmm…

The outcome couldn't possibly be that bad, right? He was tough. He was sure that he could probably handle whatever it was. After all, taking that ring off of her head, might be to Aki's benefit.

And then there was Miaka's warning again.

Tasuki groaned. _Damn priestess. Doesn't she know that telling me not to do it just makes me wanna take it off even more?_

He shook his head to throw away the thought. _Alright, focus! I'll go with Aki's plan first before taking things into my own hands. _

_And speaking of hands…_

"_**Touch me."**_

_Dammit! Why did she have to go and say something like that?! _In what way was he supposed to touch her? Almost instinctively, his amber eyes wandered about the woman's body. Avoiding her bandaged arm out of residual guilt, he couldn't stop his eyes from going to the most obvious sensual places: her neck, her covered breasts, and even…briefly glancing at the forbidden area only to snap his eyes back up out of fear for being called out on being a perv. Just when he thought he had himself under control, his face proceeded with heating up once again at the possibly scenario of what he'd have to do.

That was when a montage of memories flashed in his mind, of the times when he and Aki touched each other for some reason or another and something weird happened: an electrical spark of some kind was exchanged between them. And it only happened with _her_. Hell, if it didn't happen, they probably wouldn't have even gotten to know each other.

Alright, so this spark happened to them a few times—usually when they felt something strong—

Wait.

Was that what Aki meant when she said that he needed to "feel" something while touching her? It had to be. Yeah…now that he thought about it, it made sense! The flame haired Suzaku Warrior let out a sigh of incredible relief. _Thank God that it wasn't somethin' else. _But now he was faced with a new set of problems: how the heck was he supposed to even make that spark happen? He didn't even know why they happened in the first place.

Damn this was difficult.

The little girl began tapping her foot impatiently while her face twisted more into irritation. Giving up her moment of silence, she released her arms and tugged on Aki's sleeve. The sorceress finally tore her eyes away from Tasuki's as she gave her attention to the pipsqueak. Opening her mouth to speak, she said something to Aki to which Aki seemed to have acknowledged. Because she seemed sketchy in the first place, Tasuki was even more suspicious of the little girl since he couldn't hear a thing she was saying. By the way she had been shooting daggers at him with her eyes, he didn't put it past her to be planning his doom or trying to pull a prank on him or something stupid like that.

"Hey Genrou." Kouji's voice off on the side broke Tasuki away from the plotting females before him. "What is it that you plan on doin' here? Do you even know what's goin' on?"

Momentarily tossing him a glance, Tasuki tried to play it off as if he was confident that he'd get something accomplished. "Just give me a few more moments—I'll have it figured out soon." He didn't know if he said this for his sake of making sure it looked like he had the situation under control, or for Aki's sake so that she could have faith in him and not lose hope.

Just as he was about to retreat back into the confines of his mind to think on it some more, Aki brought herself away from the brat and approached Tasuki, not stopping until her body was just inches away from his. Startled by the close proximity, he didn't quite know how to react to her invading his personal space in such an awkward fashion. She was just standing there, staring at him as she tilted her head up to meet him. Not very much different than before when she was a few feet away, only that a lot more pressure suddenly pressed down on him now that he really couldn't avoid her hollow gaze even if he tried.

And then, without any warning whatsoever, she lifted herself up slightly on her toes, closing her eyes as she introduced her lips to his in one fluid motion. In an appropriate response, Tasuki's eyes widened in pure shock as his body went rigid.

Even Kouji jumped letting out a startled, "What the?!" As he looked upon his chum getting kissed for no apparent reason by some girl. Well, yeah, it wasn't just "some girl" to Tasuki, but it was pretty shocking all the same.

His body finally relaxed a bit after a few moments went by, but no doubt it would take a while before his brain could fully comprehend what was happening…Aki was _kissing_ him! _Aki_…was kissing _him_! Why the hell now out of all times? The blush from before now ran across his face with a vengeance the longer he realized the situation that Aki had put him in.

This was the girl who, before, seemed like she had trouble with intimacy of _any_ kind and now she was lip-locking with him!

Then again…

This wasn't necessarily the real Aki…was it?

The shock finally began to dissolve as reality kicked in. But even under this weird circumstance, Tasuki couldn't bring himself to push her away even if he had no idea as to why she was doing what she was. It was their first…kiss. But this…he never imagined it would be like…He had only mused the idea once or twice in the past, not exactly taking it seriously—you know what sake can do to a person. But now that it was actually happening, nothing felt right about it. Even as he told himself that, on the outside it looked as if he was perfectly calm, but he was unable to do anything about his more than obvious heartbeat which would continue to thump hard and fast as long as their lips stay connected.

She was doing this for some reason—a reason that had nothing to do with her feelings for him. In fact, she didn't have feelings for him, or anyone. So…why?

Thinking back to his past epiphany regarding the spark, something else came to Tasuki's attention: something was wrong…well, more wrong than an emotionless woman kissing him. He was almost positive that if this had happened under normal circumstances, he'd feel something coming from her (at least he _thought_ that he'd feel something from her considering the act they were doing and considering that this was the first time they were doing it). A spark would have definitely happened then…there was no doubt in his mind.

And it was his job to find it. That's what she wanted from him.

Ignoring the outside world and all other distractions, Tasuki decided to invest more of himself into Aki's efforts, mentally preparing himself to dig deep find something that was lacking between them. Slowly sliding his hands upwards on Aki's arms, he stopped them midway just above her elbows and grabbed them lightly to keep her held down in place. Allowing his eyelids to fall to a close in order to aid in the concentration, he gave more of himself into the kiss, taking the initiative to bask in it for all it was worth in thinking that it would get him closer to their goal. For the first time during the interaction, he actually _felt_ her lips. They were soft, just as they looked any other day, but lacked any passion or life to them—no zing at all. They weren't as sweet as he'd pondered them to be. Instead, they were lifeless and detached, with Aki not even contributing any emotion whatsoever. This whole thing was just another meaningless action to her. In fact, the longer this kept on, the less sensual the experience was becoming.

There was something that he could taste, however, and that was the salty, metallic taste of the blood she'd chronically cough up.

_**"Like I said before, I need your help. And as you can see," Bringing her blood-soaked glove up to her teeth, since she couldn't use her other arm, Aki bit onto the material, slowly sliding it off. And then threw it onto the ground, noticing how some of the blood that hadn't soaked in dripped onto the dirt. "I am not well."**_

_She wasn't like this before. When Aki left, hell, she was even doin' a bit better than I was! Of course a hangover was sorta killin' me…but still…She was okay then! And now…_He squeezed her arms a bit tighter, forgetting to keep in mind the wound she had on her right arm. _I'm gonna get you out of this! But c'mon Aki! You have'ta help me out here! Give me _something_! _As he thought that, the world around him, the trees, the sky, the ground, the building, the brat, Kouji, Aki—everything washed away into nonexistence as Tasuki found himself standing alone in pitch-black void which went on till forever in every direction. The only thing he could hear was the sound of his breathing and his voice, and the only thing to be seen was his own form standing on solid nothing.

This…seemed a little too real to be a dream.

"What the? Where the hell am I?!" Tasuki asked out loud to no one in particular as he spun in every unidentifiable direction trying to get an answer. For a while, he just strode around, calling out, waiting for anyone else to respond, as well as looking around for any other life or means of escape. Why exactly was he even there? Rattling his head trying to remember the last thing he was doing, the memory didn't take very long to return. "If kissin' Aki gives a guy this kind of trip it's no wonder it doesn't happen often," he mumbled. Then instantly, he stood still mid-walk and tensed his body, bracing himself for some sort of impact he was expecting which never came. Further remembering current events, he stood erect again, feeling somewhat stupid for the conditioned reflex. "Oh yeah…that's right…Aki can't get mad right now." He crossed his arms as he pondered a bit. "Hmm…it takes a big man to admit this, but it's kind of depressing not getting' whacked by that hammer of hers…" Taking a few moments to simmer in what he had just said, he inhaled deeply before letting out a big sigh and scratching the back of his head. "Yup, that sounded a lot better in my head. It's not that I miss bein' hit by that stupid thing, I ain't some type of weirdo. It's just Aki. Seein' her like this is the depressin' part…" The silence from all around unnerved him a little so it helped to speak his thoughts. For some reason, having a conversation with himself made him feel a bit better about being alone in that blank space, but not all that much better since he didn't know if he was even capable of helping his friend out or not. With added frustration in his voice, he shouted out, "And now I get thrown into this crappy place! If this is a joke, I ain't laughin' at it!" Stomping a foot forward, Tasuki held up a fist into the direction he perceived to be as up, cursing some omniscient observer that may or may not have been there. "Come out you jerk! You got me here so come out and face me like a man!"

A blink later, the Suzaku Warrior's eyes caught onto a dimly glowing figure in the distance. Letting his arm down, Tasuki curiously addressed the visitor, trying to grab their attention. "Hey! You!" No response…no acknowledgement whatsoever really. So he tried again as he progressed closer to the being. "Can you even hear me? I'm talkin' to you! Hey!" Keeping his eyes fixated on the only other being in that existence, he was still too far away from them to identify any real defining features. Only that whoever this was, they were illuminated, although very poorly, as if they were a flame that was about to go out.

Another blink, and the figure was gone.

He cocked his eyebrow in confusion. "But…how? They were just right there—"

"Who are you?" A feminine voice manifested behind Tasuki and on protective impulse, he swiftly turned around to face the intruder, giving a short gasp the moment he caught sight of the woman who gave off a soft, faint glow, while levitating just inches off of the ground. Her thick, burnt brown hair fell a bit past her shoulders and curled up at the ends, the bangs in front noticeably long as they covered over her eyes. But a few gaps in between strands made it easy to note the red irises that peeked though. She crossed her arms across her upper body, each hand resting on the opposite shoulder as if she were trying to cover up something that she wanted hidden. Not a shred of real clothes to cover her up, her fair, bare skin lay exposed as the only thing that maintained modesty were the several black ribbons that entangled her, just barely covering up her more discreet areas. As for the rest, even though she gave off dim glow, her colors were somehow dulled, giving her a sort of dull, melancholic feel—almost as if she were the personification of a dreary day.

Tasuki gawked at her almost in awe, not knowing how to properly react to her appearance. "…Aki?"

"Who are you?" She asked the odd question again. "I've…I've never…" Tasuki's eyes widened as he finally noticed her tears. A stream of silent tears continuously ran down her cheeks, dripping onto the ground below, almost like a gentle waterfall. There seemed to be no end to them, no letting up whatsoever. And yet, her voice sounded steady as always, not the usual strain you'd expect from someone who had been crying. "I've never seen you here before."

Still Tasuki's confusion never left his face, although once the switch flipped in his brain, he blushed a bit, forcing himself to turn his head enough to the side to where he wasn't gaping at her nearly naked self. The fact that she was crying had him concerned, but even more so that she didn't seem to recognize him. "What're you talkin' about? It's me, Tasuki! Quit playin' Aki…"

"'Aki', huh?" She fell silent for only a few seconds before asking, "How can you address me so casually? As if we're anything more than acquaintances." _What the hell is she talkin' about? She really doesn't recognize me?_ "I'm not a very likeable person…people don't like being around me. All I do is make people suffer and feel bad. Who would want to be around someone who makes them sad or angry? It's only natural that they'd alienate me. Heck, if I were anyone other than myself, I'd probably hate me as well." Tasuki looked at her out of the corner of his eye as she spoke. "But if I were someone other than who I am, then I wouldn't be here. Would that be so bad? I used to think about it and think that it was a perfectly reasonable dream…to be someone who wasn't me. But then I would realize that if I didn't have this burden, then someone else would. I already feel bad enough that my presence is enough to upset someone, but being so cruel as to give them my fate? It'd be just as fair as me having this fate." She finally turned her head to address her guest, smiling bitterly only for a split second as she noted his troubled expression. "That's right, it's not fair at all. But I guess that I was just born into an unfortunate existence. Pain evermore…This is a curse I must face alone—a burden that only I can carry. This is my reality and my destiny."

"That sounds like total crap Aki," Tasuki blurted, causing her to blink at him past her tears in astonishment. "Since when were you ever one to sound so defeated? It's not like you at all." Finally he's able to communicate with her while she has emotions. Only now she sounded as if she had never discovered the words "happy" or "friends" or "fun". Really, what the heck was going on?

Her eyes flashed in anger at his inference. "You doubt what I say, huh? You claim that this isn't like me? Typical. You're like so many others who could never fully understand my predicament. Who are you to say what I'm like? I don't even know you, and yet you sound like you're so high and mighty that you've somehow figured me out." In an instant, she somehow teleported directly in front of him—her levitation making it possible for the two to stare each other down at the same height. _She's quick! _Tasuki thought, still trying to figure out this particular version of her. From this close, it was easier to see the river of tears and how they had reddened her cheeks, making him sincerely wonder what was going on with her. "Did you know that I have three curses on me?"

"What?"

"Two of them are legitimate, the third technically isn't a curse, but is more like an extension or an effect of the first two…and that's loneliness." Closing her eyes, she bit her bottom lip and lowered her head enough to where Tasuki couldn't even see her eyes anymore. "Do you know how painful loneliness can be?" Without even allowing him to answer, she continued in a lowered, patient voice. "Most people underestimate it. Most brush it off, saying that 'it's not that big of a deal' or thinking that a lonely person is just acting 'overdramatically'. But they don't know. People like you who've lived lives where you can honestly say you're loved could never know. It all boils down to this: there are desires that we all have in life—many of them are innate and necessary for living. If one of those desires is not met, then there could be either psychological and/or physical damage to the one being deprived. One of those desires is the one where people want to be around other people—they want to be involved and feel as if they're wanted. If this desire is not met, even in the most basic way, then it could have serious consequences." Her next words shifted in audio texture, sounded as hard as stone, "Loneliness. Hurts." No…this didn't sound like Aki at all. But if this really was her…or a part of her, then was this really how she was feeling? As much as Tasuki hated to admit it, something about this Aki seemed quite genuine. And that made him a bit sad…mainly for her. Just on the ground below him, he noticed a puddle of tears reflecting her glow as every drop that curved from her cheeks and dripped off her chin reunited as they hit the floor.

"As I've come to learn, sometimes, you can't always do something about the situation you're in—such as in cases like mine. And because of that, the emptiness in your soul piles up more and more…until the pain comes to surpass that of being stabbed in the heart…" Dropping her arms to her sides for the first time, she reveals the ribbon just barely covering her breasts. But in between them, was a long scar that seemed to have closed up what might have been a very ugly wound. "I should know…"

_That scar…Where have I…? _Tasuki knew he had seen that scar of hers before, but couldn't place an exact moment…He had only seen it once before, probably, which was why it was so damn difficult to remember when. Well, it didn't really matter in the end. What did matter was that he was seeing it _now_. And judging by the sensitive topic, he knew that this wasn't usually something that Aki went broadcasting around the world about—or really to anyone for that matter. She was someone who was mostly private about her feelings and didn't favor anything that made her look weak. Tasuki could definitely relate to that. But even he had to let loose sometimes. But not Aki. Nope, she had her defenses up the vast majority of the time—it took effort to get her to have fun. So what made him so special? In fact, why was he even there? This place obviously belonged to Aki in some way, and yet he had been allowed in.

Once the seriousness of Aki's state completely dawned on him, all of those questions about his being there just dissolved away. Her expression was just so dark and…with a lack of a better word, downright miserable. It was actually sort of painful seeing her like this—even more so than seeing her without her emotions. Tasuki's heart couldn't help but twist uncomfortably as their empathetic link began working its magic as it had done so in the past. Something had to be done about this.

"Aki…what…what the heck happened to you?" There lies the question that had honestly been bothering him since realizing some time ago that something was definitely up with this woman. If this Aki had no trouble in revealing her deepest feelings, then Tasuki figured that he might as well take advantage of it.

Their eyes then met for what felt like hours while she formulated an answer. With any luck, whatever she tells him will somehow be useful to him in finding some way in helping her back in the real world. Then there'd be the issue with finding a way _back_ to the real world, but that was an issue to be tackled later.

At the height of the serious tension between them, Tasuki's peripheral vision kicked in, allowing his eyes to witness Aki's body as a whole…her nearly naked…body. Breaking their intertwined gazes, he tossed his head to the side once more in embarrassment, completely flushed in the face and mentally doing everything humanly possible to keep his hormones in check. Somehow, he'd have to get through the rest of this encounter without looking directly at her. But…even if he did that…There was no way he'd be able to get the image of her out of his head! He'd just never looked at her in that way before—never thought about it since she always had clothes on and really hadn't crossed his mind. Well, now he couldn't get it out of his mind…especially those smooth curves…and soft looking skin—

He shook his head feverishly. _Dammit focus! Why the hell am I thinkin' about that?! This is hardly the time! _Feeling the blush burning his ears, Tasuki secretly hoped that by the time he was out of there, he'd stop having such weird thoughts of someone who was supposed to be his pal—his partner in battle—someone he could brawl with, who was tough in more ways than one—one of the guys…someone he had a hard time equating with cliché feminine qualities.

Only…

This Aki was making it real hard to think of her as anything else than a woman who had feelings. Or rather, a woman who had been hurt.

"If only I knew why…" She told him, not even acknowledging his sudden facing away from her. "It had always been this way…always…as long as I could remember. This scar," He saw movement from her in his peripheral, which was probably her bringing her hand up to her chest. "even if it was the result of some stupid mistake, it only makes me hate myself more. All I can see when I look at it is a symbol of how weak I am—too weak to be able to obtain anything better for myself. And…and…" Her voice began to crack as she struggled to get her next words out. And then, nearly silent, high-pitched whimpers could be heard coming from her, sounding as if she was a wounded puppy. The difference lied in her inability to allow herself to really cry, the whole time she whimpered and hiccupped in short bursts, doing everything in her power to hold it in. But by the look of her now reddened face and eyes clamped shut with tears falling even faster than before, Tasuki, who had given up in trying to not look at her, could only watch, not knowing the right thing to say in that moment. At that moment, again, his heart twisted at the sight. "It's just…impossible! It's impossible for me to escape! No matter how horrible it makes me feel, I can never do a single thing about it! Damn…damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, damn, _damn_! Just dammit all!" Grabbing her head in frustration, she dropped to the ground suddenly in a crouching position, keeping her head tucked in and lowered. She spoke through her tears. "Even if I die…it'll be the most miserable death…because I'll be all alone. I'm afraid…I'm really afraid…"

"You? Afraid?" Tasuki couldn't help but blurt out. Never had he ever even gotten the impression that Aki was scared of anything. Hell, she'd actually go out of her way to prove that she wasn't afraid of anything. But now, it was like she was just throwing everything out there no matter how it made her look. She was being so honest…allowing herself to be vulnerable. This gave Tasuki even more of a reason to not want to believe that this was really Aki—it was just so out of character for her.

She didn't look up at him, but she answered, "Yes…_I_ fear things too…It terrifies me to be alone. Just because…Just because I'm used to it, doesn't mean that it affects me any less…it hurts. It makes me want to just roll into a ball and cry. I know that I can take being hit or being insulted or any other form of abuse, but…I…if I end up dying all alone…my soul will just be consumed by Darkness…" Her body then shook as she yelled, "And I'm just supposed to accept this as my eternal fate! It's a scary thought—a _really_ scary thought, of course I'm afraid!" Under her breath she muttered, "but what can I do?"

Admitting her fears like that… definitely not like Aki. And yet…he never could completely shake how his heart was reacting to all this—how he couldn't wipe away how utterly miserable he felt the longer he was with her. The thing was it wasn't even his own misery that he was feeling—it was her sadness being projected into him…through the bond of empathy that only he and Aki shared. This _was_ Aki, just…another side of her. He didn't know how he came to be introduced to this new side, but one thing was for sure…

He was filled with an incredible urge to help her.

"Well, if that's how it is," And if he was going to help her, he'd have to show her that he was capable of doing just that. Starting with a promise. Despite the feelings that she was sharing with him, he gave her a wide grin, displaying assurance and confidence. "Then how about you let me take the load off for ya?" Her shaking noticeably halted after he said that, yet she still didn't look up to face him. "Not only will I help ya out of this mess, but I'm guaranteed to make you smile!"

A few seconds passed as he allowed her to come up with a response. Finally she settled with, "It's impossible."

"No it's not so stop thinkin' that way. Maybe you tried to do it on your own a few times and it didn't work. But that sure as hell doesn't mean that you've tried every way possible. It ain't over till it's over!"

To that, she slowly stood back up, but kept her head somewhat lowered, avoiding eye-contact with him as she looked down and to the side—tears still flowing down her reddened cheeks. Her expression displayed a bit of malice as she replied, "Everything that could be tried has been. Nothing you or anyone does can make a difference in my life…" Finally, her eyes honed in onto his. "You're really cruel, you know that? Dangling this thing called freedom in my face when it's too far out of my reach to grasp…"

"Then stop tryin' to get it on your own!" Tasuki exclaimed, earning him an astonished reaction from her. She straightened up to hear what he had to say. Keeping his grin, he pointed back at himself with his thumb and said, "Look, I owe you for havin' you get involved with my problems. So now it's time for me to put up or shut up. And a real man never goes back on his word or lets down a friend." The essence of her emotions still gave off mostly negative vibes, containing bits of hatred and hopelessness, proving that it really was not going to be easy to sway her. Tasuki didn't honestly believe it would be considering these curses had her _very _well trained. But underneath it all, was a tiny hint of Light, almost like a speck of dust, making the storm of her Darkness seem almost like a tunnel in which the Light at the end was the goal. However it did go without saying that it was a very dark and extremely _long_ tunnel. "I'm in this whether or not you want me to be. Deal with it." Somehow though, Tasuki would have to find a way to push her towards it.

Appearing as if his words hadn't gotten to her at all, she told him her same answer as before. "It's impossible." Only this time, the tears rushed out in even more urgency as she clenched her fists and cried out, "Please help me! I can't keep living this way, I don't want to experience this pain anymore—I don't want to always be afraid." If there was anything he could say about this Aki, something that he sort of appreciated, was how honest she was, with him and herself. Even with her proper emotions in check, the real Aki would have been much tougher to crack. At least this way, he knew her true feelings despite anything she'd say in the future. "Help me…please. Don't you…" She tried to say something else and Tasuki urged her on, only to realize that her physical form was dissolving away back into the blackness.

"What?"

She demanded once she was nearly gone, her voice remaining its volume even without a body to support it, "Don't you dare give up on me! Even if it is impossible—"

…

And then he was returned to pitch darkness, however unlike before unable to see his hands in front of him. Feeling himself holding something, Tasuki's eyes quickly peeled open to the scenery of Mt. Reikaku, immediately taking notice of the pine-fresh mountain air and the many colorful details nature had to offer.

To his surprise, falling from his cheeks, he felt the wetness of tears streaming from his eyes, but couldn't for the life of him explain why the heck he was crying. In front of him stood his answer looking up at him with emotionless red eyes as he kept his hands firmly grasping her arms: a fully clothed and very real Aki.

Deep down, she had so little faith in him, so little faith that she'd be able to fight her way past this. Every doubt and fear he felt pierce through his own heart, sharing the constant aching that she claimed had tormented her for as long as she could remember. Her life must have really sucked this whole time, huh? And she sure had one hell of a tough face that she showed the rest of the world on the outside. No one would have been able to really guess what was going on unless they pried it out of her. In fact, Tasuki didn't really even believe that the truth could have ever been pried out of her during normal circumstances.

But now, he was back in the real world. Aki still had that ring around her head for a reason that was _still_ left unexplained—the ring that took away her emotions.

Speaking of, now that he was back on the outside, he wasn't able to make an empathetic connection with her anymore. It was immediately severed once that other place disappeared. So then…was he crying because she couldn't right now? Maybe he couldn't feel her at that moment, but the intense feelings he was getting from her before, those would be difficult to forget. Tasuki couldn't believe that they had gotten to him so much that he was crying too.

"Hey Genrou!" Tasuki snapped out of his trance as reality became an issue again. The voice of his pal Kouji coming through in a rather concerned tone prompted the bandit leader to look over at him in surprise. It was only then he noticed that Kouji's hand was on his shoulder.

"Huh?"

"I've been shakin' you and ya didn't respond. I didn't mean to interrupt you two, but…what the hell happened to ya?" So Kouji was shaking him…maybe that's why he was kicked out of that black place. _Didn't want to interrupt us? But what—_

He suddenly remembered her lips meeting his.

As if on cue, his blush returned with the memory. _Oh yeah…that did happen…_

Still feeling a bit embarrassed, Tasuki looked over Aki's shoulder to the little grey girl with the asymmetrical eye colors, standing there with an intense expression of controlled loathing as she glared at him patiently from her spot. Normally, that'd just tempt him to give her a nasty look in return, but it was her all-business atmosphere that made him recall his epiphany about that kiss: it meant nothing, but it did a heck of a lot of something, mostly unintentionally.

Taking his hands away from Aki, who has thus far said nothing in response to their kiss, he wiped away his tears and address Kouji. "I'd love to explain it to ya, but…I still think that _I'm_ tryin' to figure it out." Even with all his new knowledge about her, Tasuki was unable to retrieve the thing that he was initially looking for: the spark. Maybe that was what he saw in the middle of that whirlpool of Darkness—that small bit of Light. Whether it was or not, he was unable to reach it.

He made such a big fuss to her in that other dimension, pretty much telling her that the situation was under control. But…how the hell _was_ he supposed to help her? The answer wasn't clear.

* * *

><p><strong>*Aki's 1st POV*<strong>

_Did it work?_

I stared at Tasuki as he interacted with his friend, wondering if I was supposed to have known if anything happened or not. Before, Shokyoku had told me to kiss him, saying that if I did that, he'd have the necessary feelings it took to fix my condition. The evidence for such reasoning was out of my understanding, but at this point, I really didn't care what I needed to do, only that whatever I did had a purpose behind it and gave results. So I walked up to him and kissed him like she told me to. And for a few moments, I just stood there with my eyes closed…waiting for _something_. As always, with having my eyes closed in this state along with the inability to feel anything physically, I was returned to the blackest world behind my eyelids, acting as a soul trapped inside this hollow, unfeeling body…just floating along, not knowing what to expect and yet expecting it anyway. I'd just stay like that until there was any sign of improvement.

When Kouji started to stir Tasuki out of his concentration, I was the first to open my eyes, although not the first to break the kiss. My eyes had opened only slightly, to observe the man in front of me, and I found something rather odd: he was crying while his eyes were closed.

Why?

Had I done something to make him sad? The more peculiar part was that he wasn't really sobbing, tears were just flowing out as if it were nothing—like someone had turned on a faucet in his tear ducts on the lowest setting and just let the tears run down his cheeks despite his emotional state. Once he opened his eyes, his voice had no hint of sorrow or anything and for a second, it even looked like he was wondering himself why he was crying. But as easily as they came, Tasuki just wiped them away, turning off the faucet as he addressed Kouji.

From what I could tell based on their conversation, the results of our efforts were still unclear. I didn't really expect my emotions to come back, it was the ring on my head that managed those, but that wasn't really my goal in the first place. It was…the other issue…

"Aki? What happened? Did it work?" Shokyoku's voice emerged behind me filled with concerned curiosity. Almost as if there was some cosmic force that was listening in on her inquiry, an answer was delivered upon the immediate constraint of my body by the resurgence of the purplish-black electricity. And just as expected, the ending of that first wave brought in the second symptom of my condition: the expulsion of my blood from my body. Unable to stop it, a few violent coughs into my palm brought Tasuki and Kouji's attention back to me, only to have them find trickles of red liquid dripping from my hand to the ground.

"Hey, are you gonna be okay?" Kouji asked, taking a step towards me in concern. "Maybe it wouldn't be that bad of an idea for you to go see a doctor…"

Shokyoku scoffed at the idea. "Foolish and naïve human, thinking that one of their normal doctors has the ability to help our kind—if only it were that simple…" Indeed. If something like that were really an option, we would have taken the initiative already without him having to point it out. Stella and the Shadow Maidens just would not be that big of a threat if one could simply "go to the doctor" to undo whatever damage they cause.

No…

They couldn't help me. And neither could Tasuki.

The flame-headed Suzaku Warrior reached out for me as I regained my composure, and to that I told him, "Stop." His arm stopped midway before his hand could reach me, with him carrying an expression of surprise.

"But Aki, you—"

"Thank you," I interrupted him as I turned around and walked towards Shokyoku, showing him my back as I spoke. "Thank you for your assistance in all this—I appreciate the time you took out for this experiment…even if it didn't end with the preferred outcome." I only thanked him because it was common courtesy—it wasn't like I actually felt any real gratitude. Besides, we were just working with a theory to begin with. Shokyoku even said that she wasn't completely sure that it would work. But like I said before, I was willing to try anything. And so, we tried it and it didn't work. Tasuki was useless to me now.

Without giving either of the bandits another look, I continued walking, even past Shokyoku and, for some reason, towards the direction that Miaka and the others went…although that was mainly coincidental.

Tasuki called out to me using a somewhat irritated tone, "Hey! Wait a second!" But I just kept walking for there was no longer a reason for me to stay with him. Eventually, Shokyoku got the message, and I could hear her light steps trying to catch up with me along the dirt road. I thought I heard Tasuki calling out to me again, his voice tapering off as Shokyoku and I walked further and further away. But I wasn't sure considering I was no longer focused on him. My thoughts were somewhere else as I contemplated my fate.

* * *

><p>We kept walking along the path at our own no-reason-to-rush pace, without exchanging any words between one another, passing the scenery and terrain of the mountains as well as every other bit of nature along the way. I'll have to be honest, though. I wasn't really paying much attention to where we were going or if we were even going anywhere—did we pass anyone along the way? And somewhere along the way, I lost track of time. Perhaps it was around the afternoon? The sun had already traveled directly overhead and past that, and our, or my, shadow was changing as the day went on…that was about the only thing that did manage to catch my eye. It didn't really matter though…being lost in my own thoughts allowed me to begin to see that nothing really mattered…not to me anyway. I was just riding along in this body like a passenger, not able to really experience anything, but just there as a spectator. Maybe…I'd just keep walking and walking for day and night until my body finally gives out and dies.<p>

After all, I couldn't protect this body anymore and I had nowhere to go.

Yes…things were clear to me now…

Shokyoku quietly strode next to me without saying anything, but every now and then, tilted the edge of her parasol enough so that she may glance up at me sadly out of the corner of her eye before lowering it down again to put her focus back in front of her. It was more than obvious that she wanted to say something, but didn't—far be it from me to pry something out of her if she didn't really want to. Who knows how many times she did this especially since I only caught her doing it a few times in between my zoning in and out.

But at some point, with her free hand she bunched up the hem of her dress that she had been fidgeting with for a while and brought herself to a halt in the middle of the road, leaving me to continue walking ahead of her. Finally, she began to speak, but in a rather meek manner. "Umm…Aki…I, uh…"

"Shokyoku." Stopping in my tracks several yards in front of her, I decided as well that I had something to say as well. This was as good a time as ever I supposed… And just as I expected, she respected me more to allow me to talk before her. "It's come to my attention that I no longer have a reason to exist—there's nothing for me to do and there's nothing out there for me."

"What?" She genuinely sounded shocked by this. Although I hardly believed that the thought hadn't crossed her mind as well. "But Aki, what about Stella? You wanted to get revenge on her for taking away what you lost, remember?"

Tossing my head back so that I could see her, I admitted, "I can't defeat her. There's no way that I could with how my condition is now." Her expression turned ever more distraught, but I remained unfazed. "So when you think about it, there really isn't any point in me trying—it'd be a waste of time and effort, and I would only end up looking like a fool. The rational thing to do," I paused for a second as I reviewed everything I had thought about for the past while, then I concluded with, "is just give up. No point in fighting a battle that I know I can't win." Predicting just what she was about to say—something about how I shouldn't give up and how Stella needs to be stopped and shouldn't be allowed to get away with what she did. But in all honesty, I didn't care.

"Besides, I…hold no malice towards Stella." She gave me a puzzled look. I pointed to my face, my emotionless expression. "Remember? No emotions. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I only began this quest of vengeance because you convinced me to—told me that it was something I _had_ to do. And I think after a while, somewhere along the way I was beginning to think that that was truly what was meant for me." For some reason, after the whole incident with Stella occurred, I couldn't remember any of my motivations or goals, if I even had any. So yeah…that way of thinking that Shokyoku had me in fooled and distracted me for a while, what with everything that was going on, but now that things were in perspective once again, I could see how my reality really worked. I guess you could say that the failure with Tasuki somehow shocked me back into my place. "If anything, my only purpose was to keep myself alive—I don't know where that specific urge came from, but it was there…But now that I went against Chichiri's warning and used my powers, it's only a matter of time before this body becomes weak from blood loss, or by whatever contamination Stella left, and expires…"

Once those words left my mouth, Shokyoku managed to make her legs move, making her break out into a small run towards me, making the parasol made of shadows disperse into nothingness as she used her energy to make her body solid enough for her to take hold of my good, left arm and wrap herself around it, thus making this the first time that she had voluntarily exposed herself to sunlight. She didn't seem to care. Throwing her head up to face me, she started to cry. "You can't just think like that! You can't!" Allowing her emotions to take over, she kept forcibly tugging on my arm in response to her disapproval of my decision. My body jerked around to her movements without very much resistance. "We can still do _something_! I won't ever give up!"

"Shokyoku…we can't do anything—you'll feel better if you just learn to accept it." Seeing as how she still wouldn't listen to me, closing her eyes as tightly as she could to block me out, I tried to reason with her on another route. _You even said before…_Her eyes shot open as she caught onto my thoughts. _Tasuki really was not only our best hope, but our only hope. Also, Stella herself is incapable of reversing what's already been done. _

'_Just because I said that doesn't mean—'_

_Think about it. Don't you think that it's better that I die rather than turn into a Shadow Maiden? _Without that ring on my head, there was no doubt at all that I would have fallen right into Stella's plans. Even now, I could still remember the pathetic state I was left in right after Stella got to me. Those emotions…no doubt would have destroyed me. Taiitsukun was playing it both safe and smart in creating this enchanted item. Maybe I had no personal preference of my own, but there were simple facts. And one of the facts was that Shadow Maidens provided no benefit towards the grand scheme of the universe. By becoming one wouldn't have been a proper usage of my abilities.

So death it is.

The only thing I could really do was wait for my life to run its course as I stay out of the way of everyone else's fates.

_I accept my death, so it's fine. _"After all, you don't see me being upset about it, so you shouldn't either."

To that, she immediately let go of my arm and shot her arms down to her sides, her hands balled up into a fist and her lifted on her toes as she shouted with evermore tears, "Of course you aren't upset about it! You have that stupid ring on your head!" _That might be true, but I really don't see why you're so worked up about this… _Seeing my indifference towards the whole situation made her eyes grow wide for a second in disbelief before calming down and lowering herself back down to the flat of her feet, unclenching her fists in the process. She lowered her head and shook a bit as she continued to sob. "Aki…I love you but…I really don't know how else I can help you…I want to encourage you and tell you everything is okay but…" She sniffed. "I…I-I'm so sorry…I'm so sorry Aki! I'm sorry that I can't do anything more to help you! I'm sorry that I don't have what it takes! I-I'm just so sorry…" Lifting her arms up, she brought the back of her hands over her eyes as she threw her head back and just cried out without holding back. "I'm sorry! Please-Please forgive me!"

She was making such a big deal about this, it's not like it was her fault. _I don't blame you for anything. _I wasn't completely sure if she even caught onto that message seeing as how she was pretty much an emotional wreck right about now. Was this really something to cry over? Well I guess it was customary for someone to cry over someone's dying. But if that were even the case, I wasn't dead yet. So I rattled my brain for why Shokyoku would possibly be so upset about this. And that was when something occurred to me. "If I die, does that mean that you die too?" I asked.

Taking her hands away from her eyes, she hiccupped through her words. "P-P-P—" she took a deep breath and tried again. "P-Probably. W-W-We are c-connected after all…"

_Well, at least now it makes sense. _"You're upset that your life is coming to an end as well."

"W-What?" Using her sleeve to whip away her tears, she tried to stop her weeping. "I can't-I-I can't believe you'd think that! It's not t-true! I'm sad for you not me!"

I didn't know who she was trying to fool. "I'll admit, when coming to this conclusion, I only thought that I'd be the only fatality. It didn't occur to me that you'd be affected as well. I apologize for the inconvenience."

Shokyoku shook her head. "No no no! You're not getting it Aki—" She stopped her sentence midway when she peered past me and kept her eyes locked onto something. When I turned around to see what she was staring at, I found myself standing before the blue-haired monk with the fox-faced mask.

Chichiri.

_What's he doing here? _

To him, it only appeared as if I was with by myself, talking to myself. Fortunately he knew the true story even if he couldn't see it. Unlike normal humans, this one had a bunch of tricks tucked away in his sleeves, not to mention he was much cleverer than he led on. With his knowledge of magic and the works, he really would have been the only one who could approach us so stealthily that neither Shokyoku nor I would notice until a certain point. _How long has he been standing there?_

I spoke up first. "So, how much did you hear? Anything need to be repeated?"

Instead of answering the question directly, he replied with a rather troubled expression. "I guess you guys weren't successful, huh? I was really rooting for you guys on that, ya know? After all, it did sound like a good idea…"

"Shouldn't you be at the palace masquerading as Hotohori? You'll mess up your priestess's journey if you're found out."

His signature smile, or shall I say, the _masks_ smile, returned in response to my comment. "Oh, that's not really something worth worrying about, ya know? Even the advisors at the palace should think that the emperor needs to be alone every now and then, away from all the stress. So I'm just taking a break!" Fortunately for Konan, he's only a temporary ruler.

For the most part, I didn't believe that was really his reason for being here. Taiitsukun must have tipped him off or something. Either that or he was spying on all of us the entire time and just now felt that it was the time to intervene. He made a playful frown and said, "'Spying' sounds so intrusive—it'd be best to say that I was checking up on you, ya know? No harm in that~" Apparently, even given the state of current events, reading my mind was still a thing.

"As if my day couldn't get any worse, this guy shows up," Shokyoku bitterly hissed under her breath. Not even a second later, she gasped and slapped a hand over her eyes after seeing something. "And again, I was wrong…" Her loathing towards how this situation was progressing along somehow reminded her of how she was standing directly in the sun's rays. She winced at its intensity on her, not even realizing how her whole issue with the sun was purely psychological. Bringing her arm up with her hand towards her shoulder and curled in such a way that it looked as if she were holding something, scattered shadows suddenly manifested into her grasp, merging together as they molded their fused form into the shape of a parasol. Then she placed her free hand on her hip with a sour expression.

Chichiri brought his head up and raised his eyebrows in reaction to whatever Shokyoku was loathly remarking about. Then he smiled again and said, "Hey! I was wondering why you weren't already here, ya know?" Again, I turned around so that I may understand what everyone was referring to.

…

Make that a _who_.

"Aki! I'm comin' along with ya!" He announced. The flame-headed Mt. Reikaku Bandit leader presented himself before me, his magic tessen fastened onto his back with a harness—a look of complete assurance on his face. "And I ain't takin' no for an answer. You nagged me when we met to bring you along with me, so!~ Now, I'm payin' ya back!" He scratched his head. "Of course now you're not really puttin' up a fight…but…" Walking up to me and completely shoving Shokyoku out of the way, to which she gave him a nasty glare since it was most likely intentional, he patted my shoulder a few times and gave a wide smile that displayed his fangs. "I'm sure you'll give me hell later on when we get you fixed up!" Somehow he was still stuck in the delusion of an idealistic future. Why was he even here? His path was with Miaka or with the bandits, but for some reason, he stopped for me. When he stopped patting me, he brought his arms in to be crossed casually. "You don't have to worry about the gang. I left Kouji in charge until I got back. Everyone seemed fine with that and I'm sure that the old boss would have been too." After he had a few moments to drink in his surroundings, Tasuki finally took notice of the fourth person in the party who had been so patiently standing directly behind me. "What the! Chichiri! How long have you been standing there?"

I adjusted my position so that I may easier converse with the two. Chichiri scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Took you long enough to notice, ya know? As always you're not very observant. If I were you, I'd have that checked out~"

Tasuki's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Was that supposed to be some kind of crack, monk?"

To implore diplomacy and diffuse any misunderstanding, Chichiri excitedly waved the hand not holding his golden staff. "Of course not! Well anyway~" He looked over at me and then back to Tasuki, realizing that we have formed a circle of some sort. "It seems like its been a while since it was just the three of us, ya know? Even though we know that it wasn't that long ago."

"Three of us?" Tasuki motioned back towards Shokyoku who was still shooting daggers at him with her eyes. "So I'm guessin' that you can't see the brat there either, right?"

"Nope!" Chichiri cheerily admitted. "I can feel her presence, and I can see her parasol, but I'm afraid that I can't see _her_, ya know? Although I'm not all that surprised that you can—you and Aki do have a bond after all~"

I blinked in surprise at the new bit of information. _Wait a second…we have a bond?_ Blushing a bit, Tasuki scratched his cheek and looked away. "Yeah…I guess that would explain it…Though it's not all that great since that little girl is nothin' more than a pain in the ass."

"How dare you call me such a thing you good-for-nothing monkey!" Shokyoku stomped over to the circle and pointed an accusing finger at her insulter—an anger vein appearing at her temple. "You have no right to talk about me when you couldn't do your job right and help Aki! You had one job. One! And you couldn't even do that! Just like a stupid monkey."

As I ignored their banter, my mind was still wrapping itself around this concept set before me. A bond? What kind of bond could it have possibly been to allow him to be able to see Shokyoku? A bond…I couldn't help but wonder if this was the bond that was supposed to make it possible for Tasuki to heal me—why it specifically _had_ to be him. Well, if that were the case, then the bond that we have must have been pretty useless since my condition was no better. Assuming I was correct, then there was no point in thinking about it any further.

Then again…

Chichiri and Tasuki were talking about it so casually in front of me, as if the both of them expected me to already have this information. If that was true, then how come I couldn't remember?

"Hey Chichiri, why the heck are you here anyway?" Tasuki asked his fellow Suzaku Warrior. "Not that I'm complainin', I just didn't expect for you to be around."

The monk tossed him a knowing smile. "I'm pretty much here for the same reason you are, ya know? I was worried about Aki and wanted to assist!"

Still Tasuki's cheeks remained flushed a bit, but he tried to play it off as nothing. "You know that she and I are pals, of course I'd come and help her out. But you should know that I came along for another reason as well. It's not _all_ about her."

Chichiri nodded at him. "I didn't think it would be just that—you are a Suzaku Warrior after all."

"How did?!" Completely shocked, Tasuki threw his arms out to further animate his surprise. "How the hell did you know that?" He snapped his head over to me. "Did you tell him?" I shook my head. That's right…when we traveled together before, it hadn't been exchanged between us that the two of them were Suzaku warriors. They both kept it to themselves and I was in the dark most of the time. Chichiri was the one who was most informed about everyone, knowing pretty much what I was all about as well as "Genrou's" true identity despite the fact that the monk kept us guessing the entire time. I found out about Tasuki when he got drunk and let it slip that one night. And it wasn't until Miaka came into the picture that Chichiri made the truth known…to me and the others anyway. So today was finally the point in which Tasuki became the last to know. Better late than never I guess. "So what…Aki knows, Chichiri knows…did that girl Miaka know and she was just playin' dumb before?"

Chuckling at his comrade's reaction, Chichiri told him, "I doubt that Miaka would have left you here without a fight if she'd known about you, ya know? Actually, I knew who you were when we met—before that really."

"That's a...kinda creepy Chichiri." Inching away from the monk due to discomfort, Tasuki quickly jumped to conclusions. "You sure you're not some kind of a stalker or somethin'? I always knew you were a creep—I told you guys I don't swing that way!" Hmmm…no, that's not worth thinking about.

Chichiri sweat-dropped. "You've really missed the mark that time Tasuki. No, you got it all wrong, ya know? See, I'm a Suzaku Warrior as well!" He put his free hand on his hip, tilting his head to the side with a slight disapproving frown upon his mask. "If you knew anything about the constellations of Suzaku, it should have been obvious the moment I introduced myself before. It's not like I made any efforts in disguising myself or anything."

Upon being accused of being uneducated, Tasuki was left not knowing how to respond (which sort of confirmed that he really didn't have much knowledge about the legend). "Uhh…well…" Considering the circumstance, normally I'd think it was a bit pathetic that he didn't even know something as important as this about his own country. But if memory served right, Tamahome didn't know very much about the whole thing either. This either meant that the legend was only provided to the privileged, or that Tamahome and Tasuki were just incompetent. I guess it's just up to viewer's interpretation.

"I guess the important part is that you know about it now, ya know? It's good to officially have you on board now." Then, almost as if a switch had been flipped, Chichiri turned to me harboring a more serious countenance (as serious as that mask could possibly get anyway). "Alright, now back to business. You really couldn't find what you were looking for, huh?" _Why ask? You already know the answer. _Upon hearing my accusation of him in his head, Chichiri automatically went on the offensive, albeit with a calm tone."I just received the information about your being here—I really _wasn't_ spying on you. So I don't really know all the details, ya know? But I guess I was wrong to expect too much. Under normal circumstances where you were…well, more like you, then I have no doubt that Tasuki would have been the solution." In offense, the bandit's attention quickly snapped towards Chichiri. "I should have anticipated that more factors would more likely have to have been involved." Chichiri then let out a sigh in disappointment.

"Why're you makin' it sound like her bein' this way is my fault?"

"I didn't say it was _your fault_, ya know? Only that you just weren't the exact solution that we're looking for. It's not like this is something you have control over." When you examine it a bit, Chichiri's statement almost made it sound as if Tasuki was incapable of getting the job done. In actuality though, there was no "almost" about it. Tasuki didn't have what it took to help me. This wasn't an insult, it was just fact.

"Well what the hell was I supposed to even do?! No one explained anything to me." If he was so willing to cooperate like he said he was, then the details really shouldn't have been all that important. What good what it have done to tell him everything anyway? It wasn't like he could actually make a difference in anything. "The whole time, you people have just been givin' me vague answers and that ain't good enough! And then out of nowhere, Aki comes up and just kisses me—" At the realization of his admitting that last part, and failing to cut it as short as he would have liked, Tasuki held back from explaining the rest and retreated his argument as his cheeks reddened a little.

Chichiri raised an eyebrow. "You guys kissed? Huh." Tilting his head only slightly, he pondered as he spoke. "I guess if you were going to take advantage of her in this emotionless state, I guess that would be an effective way to do it, ya know?"

To that Tasuki immediately exploded. "What the hell are you thinkin' you damn monk?! I said that SHE kissed ME—not the other way around! What kind of guy do you take me for?!"

Showing him a somewhat nervous smile, Chichiri replied, "I was just teasing you, ya know? I know you'd never do something like that so calm down." Once Chichiri's word's got through to a still somewhat unconvinced Tasuki, who looked like he was suffering through a flushed, annoyed face, giving Chichiri a silent warning with his fierce eye contact, the masked Suzaku warrior peered over towards me. "I have a feeling that this would be a lot more fun if you still had a sense of humor Aki~" Fun? I wasn't aware that this was a situation meant for one to enjoy themselves. How would being humorous benefit anyone?

Bringing a fist up to Chichiri's view, Tasuki ordered, "Alright Chichiri, quit your dancin' around the bush already and tell me what the hell has been goin' on since we all separated. Why is Aki all messed up now?"

Chichiri finally gave him a straight face and didn't hesitate any further on giving him the answer. "You remember when we helped that one village out a while back? Ya know, the place where all of the people had disappeared into the forest but it turned out they were all just being possessed by something?" He was referring to the day that Tasuki and I met Chichiri. For some reason or another, we all investigated a supposed ghost town whose community seemed to have just gone up and left. The village still looked as if it was still being inhabited, but everyone was just…gone. Long story short, the women of the town had been Shadow Kissed and by using their negative emotions, used their siren-like abilities to turn all of the males into compliant, living zombies. However…for some reason…I couldn't remember how we got out of that or if we ended up saving them or not…Did we? How was it that my memory was so crystal clear up until it got to the resolution of that crisis? At that point…it's just blank…

That's…peculiar…

Maybe I blacked out or something?

"Yeah, what about it?" Tasuki pushed further.

"Those women were being possessed by a much more alarming threat—beings called Shadow Maidens. I'll spare you the details on what they are exactly, but these creatures have been determined for a long time to get Aki to become one of them, ya know." Tasuki opened his mouth to speak, but Chichiri anticipated his question. "And before you ask, yes, Aki does have the capability of becoming one. On their side is a very intelligent and distinguishable Shadow Maiden whose powers easily tower over the rest of her kind. During a search and rescue mission into our enemy country Kutou's royal palace, that Shadow Maiden, Stella, was somehow able to overpower Aki. Me and the others don't really know everything that happened during that time, only that Stella was in the process of Turning Aki into one of them. If Shokyoku and I hadn't intervened, the unthinkable would have happened, ya know? Unfortunately…I had arrived too late to get her out of there…and that Shadow Maiden had already left a serious imprint on Aki, leading to unfavorable effects. Aki…" His head lowered a bit as his tone became a tad more melancholy. "…lost something's precious to her, two of them being her sense of touch and her ability to move. The others…well…" He gave me a quick glance before continuing. "…I can't say for certain. However now I can see that her condition has gotten worse." Turning to me again, he asked. "Did you by any chance use your powers recently even though I strictly advised against it?"

I nodded without reluctance. "Something strange came over me when Miaka was in danger. I had no control over myself and ended up fighting with my own abilities instead of with Shokyoku which was initially planned. How can you tell?"

"Ever since I gave you that ring to put around your head, your aura has shrunk and become incredibly dull, ya know? By using the same ability I use to see auras, I noticed how now you have a smoky black cloud cloaking your whole body—this wasn't there when you left the palace in Konan." He crossed his arms in concern. "Your life force is also fluctuating very unnaturally and it's got me kind of worried, ya know?"

Hmm…I haven't really given much thought to my aura or how it was affected by all of this. Guess it made sense. If there was any visual way to display that I had been given a lethal curse, then I guess that a black cloud might have been appropriate. Might as well tell him the full diagnosis. "Because I used my powers, I am chronically stricken with a surge of purple electricity which makes it nearly impossible for me to move. And then, I end up coughing up blood." Chichiri looked alarmed. "This kind of thing used to only happen when I had used up too much of my energy, sans the electricity. But now, it goes to that point all on its own, even without me using my powers. It only took one time for this trap to activate."

"Damn…that really isn't good at all," Chichiri bit the side of his lip in frustration.

After what seemed like a while, Tasuki brought himself back into the conversation in a forceful tenor. "Alright, some messed up shit has gone down, but what does that ring on her head have anything to do with anything?"

"The state that Stella left Aki in proved to be troublesome for a few reasons," His fellow warrior answered. "One, Aki couldn't move herself which made her vulnerable to any attack. Two, Aki couldn't, or should I say, wasn't supposed to use her powers. And in doing so also left her vulnerable. And three, Aki's Darkness had grown exponentially and uncontrollably. Because of that, it made it difficult for any of us to come into contact with her ya know? It was too dangerous. Not only that, but with all that Darkness wrapping itself around her, it would only be a matter of time before that force alone did the job that Stella couldn't and turn her into a Shadow Maiden."

"So…what, you're sayin' that there is more than one way to Turn Aki or anyone that comes long?"

"Umm…yes, there is more than one way to Turn Aki into one, but the ability to Turn is only reserved for certain people," Chichiri assured. "Don't worry, you're not one of them, ya know?"

"I wasn't worried!"

Chichiri gave him a small smile. "I can tell. Well anyway, my teacher crafted that ring and put a spell on it—it's an item meant only for Aki, allowing her to walk and move around even though she can't feel _and_ it takes away what's left of her emotions so that her Darkness could stay in check. Of course, it's meant to really only a temporary fix ya know? And…judging by that black cloud and what Aki told me, time is not on our side anymore."

Placing a hand on his side, Tasuki took a peek at the decorated hoop around my head. "_Now_ Miaka's warning is makin' more sense. Jeez…All that crap went on in such a little time…" He scowled as he closed his eyes, allowing all of this new information to sink in. When he opened his eyes a few moments later, he asked rather zealously, "Where do I come in in all this? Not that I mind helpin' her out or anything, just…why me?" Finally a point of interest. Since Shokyoku omitted that information from me, perhaps Chichiri could help spread a little light.

"Well, you already know about your bond, right? There's a lot more to it than just your aura's connecting and turning gold under the right circumstances, ya know? One of them is your ability to create, exchange, or amplify the element Light. Even when Aki had her emotions and everything was fine, you two haven't matured this power yet, so it might manifest as what seem like tiny electric jolts or something that you share. Am I right?" How was I not aware that something like that even existed between us? That…must have been something I already knew. And yet…it's sounding a lot more like new information to me. If it was so important, you'd think that I would already know about it.

"Hey…yeah!" Tasuki thought it over for a few seconds before confirming. "So that's what that whole spark thing is about. But what's the point of it?"

Chichiri rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly—earning him raised eyebrows from Tasuki who was expecting an answer. "That answer…is a bit more complicated, ya know? Besides, it's not my place to tell you that~"

"Eh?" Tasuki have him a puzzled look. "What'ddya mean it's not—"

"If I could just answer your previous question…if you and Aki could use your bond to create Light, then most likely, the contamination that Stella left inside of her would have been dispelled…in theory anyway. However I have a feeling that no such thing happened, did it?"

The flame-headed Suzaku warrior dropped his shoulders and looked to the ground in a rather defeated fashion. "No…it didn't…" So by what they were saying, some type of spark was supposed to be exchanged between Tasuki and I and that was supposed to give me back what I had lost. But for some reason, that didn't happen. Chichiri still didn't explain how the spark was even produced. By the way he avoided Tasuki's similar question, I could tell that Chichiri wasn't really up for giving us the answer. Either that, or he also didn't know why that happened. Bet I know who does though: Taiitsukun. If knowing that information was actually helpful, I was pretty sure that Taiitsukun wouldn't have kept it to herself, not if she was as determined on taking down Stella like everyone else was. Must not have been that important.

Bringing his hand up and lightly grabbing his chin, Chichiri frowned as he tried to think things out. "This is a problem…I was hoping that this wasn't the case, but Stella must have done more damage than I thought. Or…maybe…" He looked over at me and I knew exactly what he was insinuating.

"Or maybe I doomed myself once I used my powers. It did make things worse after all…"

When he stepped a bit closer to me, he put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a smile. "It's not your fault Aki. When you look at the big picture, Stella is ultimately to blame, ya know?" His face became sterner. "Your powers are a part of who you are. I feel bad for even having to tell you that you couldn't use them. It must have been difficult to go without them for so long."

"No difficulty at all. Like I told you before, something just came over me and I used them." Seeing Miaka in danger for some reason woke up something inside of me…something that took over my body. I couldn't help but wonder if I'd ever know what that was all about. "It all happened too fast for me to really prevent. And now…I've taken myself past the point of healing…all of my options have been exhausted…"

Shokyoku peaked up from under her parasol to stare at me woefully. "Aki…"

"Aki, we don't know how your core got damaged or when, so stop saying that you're the one who did it. And there is a solution out there, ya know? It's just a _bit_ more complex than what we thought, but it _is_ out there."

"Dammit all!" Tasuki shouted, clenching his fist so much that it was vibrated from the stress. "I couldn't do anything to help her…If what we did before didn't work, then what is it that we _can_ do? I refuse to just stand around and be useless in all this—"

"You both are wasting your time," I told them abruptly, not caring a bit for their opinions or wishes on an idealistic outcome. "What do you think you're doing? Going out of your way for me… Even Shokyoku understands by now that there isn't any point in investing any more time on me. It would be more logical for you to put the time and energy needed to perform the tasks given to you without my existence serving as interference. My time's almost up, so don't go running after a lost cause when you could be doing something more productive." Bringing my hand up, I slid Chichiri's hand off of my shoulder as politely as I could, then, upon deciding that I no longer needed to be in their company, started on walking again down the path, expecting Shokyoku to follow momentarily, and for the Suzaku Warriors to just sit there and listen to the rest of my words as I left. "Your purpose is to protect your country and priestess, not to get involved with an unrelated cause. Tasuki, you need to catch up to Miaka and the others. Chichiri, go back to the palace before you blow Hotohori's cover. Forget about me—" All of a sudden, I found myself unable to move forward and my body losing its balance as my vision progressed upwards upon my falling back. As a reflex, my legs worked to awkwardly correct the problem. In my attempt to stand up straight, I found that my good arm had been tugged hard enough by Tasuki at my wrist to keep me from going on any further.

"You must be pretty stupid to think that I'd just let you walk away like that again. I made a promise to you and I'm gonna keep it." Letting go of my wrist as I turned to face him, he reached back to grab the handle of his tessen, preparing himself. "If you wanna fight about it, then fine. But you ain't gettin' rid of me that easily."

I blinked at him, lingering on the words he said at the beginning of his proclamation. "Promise? What promise?"

Chichiri met up with us while walking in from behind. "He's just saying that we're your friends, ya know? And not just us, Hotohori, Nuriko, Tamahome, and especially Miaka all care about you. So no matter what you say, we'll _make_ time for you." But…why? Them doing that doesn't make any sense at all. Where's the logic behind it? How would it help them? Their enemies in Kutou were probably doing everything they could to make sure they were always one step ahead of Konan, and yet these guys were wasting their time on me.

I just didn't understand.

At that moment, the atmosphere in that area suddenly shifted, bringing along with it a force that inflicted my vision with a single purple and black lightning strike. _Just one? That's…odd…_If it was a Shadow Maiden, there would be more…Could this be something different?

Chichiri's reaction soon followed not a second later as he grasped his staff with both hands and stood at attention, keeping alert to the impending danger. "Who's out there?! Show yourself!"

Shokyoku, in contrast, stood rather still and calm as she scanned the environment. "This seems…familiar…It couldn't be…" She gasped, her eyes growing wide in horror. Barely a whisper escaped her lips as her body feverishly shivered. "Oh no…"

"H-Hey, you guys, what's with the ground?!" Following Tasuki's gaze, the three of us snapped our heads down to find that we were standing in the middle of a large black blob which was, although flattened along the terrain, seemed to be alive as it curled, waved, and shifted on its own. And then, an indistinguishable woman's voice ran past my ears in an almost barely noticeable volume. Thinking it wiser to move out of the pit of dander, I attempted to move, but found that my body wouldn't budge—I was frozen in place. _What? _At first, I wasn't that alarmed since this was the sort of thing that had been happening to me lately. The part that made it odd was how I expected that constricting electricity to be the doing of my incapacitation. But the longer I waited, the more I began to realize that this was something different. I couldn't even move my head to see what was going on with me.

From his palm, Chichiri released a light blue, oblong energy ball towards the black blob and for a split second, a big tear was left in that spot. But it was all for naught when that area was replaced with more of the black mass.

"Alright, I'll take care of this," Tasuki announced as he reached for his tessen. But before he had a chance to do anything, the black blob spread outwards and up over our heads, blocking the light from the sun as it covered us like a blanket. Did this stop Tasuki's plan to burn a hole out of there? "_Rekka Shinen!_" Apparently not. A roaring flame escaped from the fan as he waved it, racing out towards a specific spot on the black walls that confined us. Much to our surprise the flame just kept going until it burned out—not hitting anything at all. "What the?! I was sure that I got it!"

This place…we weren't in pitch darkness as originally perceived, not to mention that we could all see one another clearly, so this wasn't a case of someone turning out the lights. I knew this place…or something like it…but where…? By some means of escaping the laws of physics, this place, wherever we were, didn't appear to have walls at all—not really anyway, unless you consider the visible blackened layer that surrounded us, which had in it dark metallic colors as it seemed to flow like magma. Hard to consider that a wall, though. If my hypothesis about this place being like an abyss was correct anyway. It was its own space altogether. Hmm…Strange how I could think that matter-of-factly. Or maybe…not so strange…I was positive that I had been there before…or at least somewhere like it.

In my mind flashed an image of Shokyoku lounging around on a large throne.

That's it. This place closely resembled the inside of Shokyoku's ring…I went inside there once. That was when I met Shokyoku.

But…why would we be in a place like that? And this time…it was as if we were _actually_ there. What _was_ that thing that swallowed us? A means of getting here wasn't as…interactive before…

"Umm…Aki?" Shokyoku's voice came from behind me, but I was unable to face her.

"Whose voice was that?" Tasuki asked off to my side. _Huh? _He swirled around in the direction where Shokyoku stood. "Whoa…the brat. She's not grey anymore!" _What? _Not only did he face Shokyoku when she spoke, but he said she's not grey anymore?

"Is that…Shokyoku?" Chichiri asked. _He can see her now?_

Before I even knew it, Tasuki, Chichiri, and Shokyoku, who was indeed in her normal colors again, were all swiftly rushing past me as my frozen body was being dragged against my will.

"Aki!" Taking their focus off of Shokyoku's appearance, my teammates turned towards my direction in urgency but then, I suddenly came to a halt.

A menacing giggle manifested without a source, jumping from ear to ear and echoing all around.

After that, a quick swish created by a shadow swept across my vision and then…

Everything faded away into blackness.

* * *

><p><strong>*Tasuki's 3rd POV*<strong>

Even while being trapped in that freaky place, something that should have had more of an effect on him, hearing that little girl's voice threw Tasuki off a bit more than anything else at that moment. The whole time, she had been mute, as far as he could tell, and then out of the blue, she actually spoke—and he heard it! And he knew he wasn't crazy since even Chichiri was a bit shocked to have finally heard her. Not only that, but it was as if the plain shades of grey which made up her whole complexion, except her weird dual colored eyes which were still her most prominent feature, were suddenly painted over with actual colors—noticing mostly her dark plum hair and the lightest creamy colored skin. Something like this didn't seem as if it would be that big of a deal, but now that he could actually hear her and see her in all her entirety, she just seemed a lot more real and not just some bratty shadow that followed Aki around everywhere. And that was made possible, most likely, to wherever they were.

Speaking of which…

While Tasuki should have been a tad more alarmed about their whereabouts, his adventure into Aki's subconscious earlier, or…wherever the hell he was, sort of made whatever this new place was lose its luster a bit. This didn't however mean that he was any less prepared for what ugly monster might show its face. It was just…that place gave off a whole different vibe than in the place he was before…this felt more cold…sinister…the energy in the air more than the place itself was enough to send a shiver down his spine. _Somethin' ain't right here…_

Upon looking around to see any potential threats, Tasuki's internal alarm went off as he witnessed Aki, posed as erect as a statue, being effortlessly dragged away from our group by a pair of shadowy hands which had wrapped around her.

"Aki!" Now was the time to react. Just as the flame-headed Suzaku warrior took a few steps towards her direction in pursuit, the hands ceased their kidnapping, and stood a peculiarly consenting Aki upright. Figuring that that display wasn't the end of it, Tasuki and Chichiri readied themselves for whatever storm was coming. But what they didn't expect was for an arm risen above her to swiftly wave its hand over Aki's eyes, and the moment it did, a drowsy expression crossed her face before her eyelids immediately fell…and stayed closed. Aki's head soon followed, limply dropping to where her chin almost touched her chest.

"Aki!" Tasuki called out to her. No response…and no budging either. He and Chichiri rushed up to her standing, unmoving body, being cautious of those suspicious shadowy arms returning anytime soon. "Aki! C'mon, wake up!" None of his shouts seemed to be reaching her. The blood began to wash away from his face as his eyes grew wide as the worst case scenario entered his mind. "She isn't…?"

"No, she's fine," Chichiri assured him. "I can still feel her life force, ya know? I think she's just under some kind of spell that put her to sleep or something..."

Although relieved, Tasuki briefly made eye contact with Chichiri before focusing on the slumbering Aki with curiosity mixed with a sense of urgency. "A spell? What's the point of that?" Maybe they set off some kind of trap when they were out on the road. Yeah…that's what it was. Now they were stuck in someone's sick idea for a cage and Aki was their prime target. Sort of dirty and underhanded to render her helpless by putting her to sleep like that without even giving her the chance to fight. Well unfortunately for the sorry bastard…or bitch…who put them in there, they didn't do a thing about the three people who would have a chance at taking them down. He put his hand on Aki's shoulders and shook her, trying to get her to snap out of it. "Hey Aki! Wake up! Snap out of it!" Progressively, he shook her more enthusiastically, thinking in the somewhere in the back of his mind that this method would actually work.

But before he even got a chance to even see if his shaking would render her conscious again, a long, pitch-black tentacle-like extension shot out like lightning from the side, serving as a divider to separate Tasuki and Chichiri from Aki. From the depths of the darkness came an unfamiliar woman's voice, angered by her captive's actions. "Get your filthy hands off of her!" Then without any warning at all, the solid shadow appendage used its unbelievable strength to forcefully swipe them away from Aki, hitting them into the air until they roughly landed near Shokyoku about seven to ten or so yards away. As the men winced from the pain of the impact, they strove to recover and stand up again against this new unseen enemy. The same woman's voice echoed all around in a much more civil and rather mocking tone as it appeared again. "I do apologize for my rudeness. Where are my manners? Perhaps I should have told you from the start that I need Aki to be unconscious for this little visit. That'll make things less…complicated~"

_Who the hell?! _As if Tasuki would let some bitch get the best of him. Even if this was her turf, he'd never take that kind of hit sitting down, especially not from some no-good woman. Skillfully jumping up onto his feet, the Suzaku warrior of speed dashed towards his at the moment helpless friend Aki at high hopes of accomplishing something this time around. "Why you!" Unfortunately, he didn't quite seem to get the message the last time. Another shadowed extension shot out at him, this time from a different angle, and caught him mid-run. Using some type of heavy energy, Tasuki's body was rapidly launched directly towards his starting point, the sheer force of the attack hindered his ability to cancel it on his own. Before he was shot too far away, Chichiri intervened, blocking Tasuki's path with his own body and reinforcing it using magic to serve as an obstacle capable of stopping the progression. The plan worked, both grunting on impact as they were knocked backwards, Chichiri receiving most of the weight as Tasuki landed on him.

Fueled mostly by anger now, Tasuki struggled up, grasping his tessen with full vigor, bearing his teeth, ready for another round. "Hey! Why don't you come out before I roast you out?!" He proceeded to go forward until Chichiri reached out and grabbed his shoulder, holding him back a bit.

"Think Tasuki. That isn't going to work. We'll have to be smart if we're going to figure this out." The impact from Tasuki violently knocking into him had knocked Chichiri's mask off, revealing the intense scar that permanently closed his left eye, a detail of which was not of great importance to the monk at that moment. His fierce reddish brown eye stared Tasuki down, sending out a message to force his subordinate to stay calm.

The woman's voice came in again, sounding rather amused. "No please, let him keep going. I enjoy it when humans further prove their inferiority. If I'm lucky, he'll keep at it until he's dead." By using pretty much the majority of his willpower, Tasuki held back, heeding Chichiri's advice. Where was that bitch's voice even coming from? What the hell did she want?

Suddenly recalling the answers that Chichiri had given him earlier, a light lit up in Tasuki's mind. "Hey Chichiri…Is this that Shadow Maiden or whatever you were tellin' me about earlier? The one who messed up Aki?"

"No…" For the first time for what seemed like a while, the two-colored-eyed brat slowly and uneasily stepped out of the spot she had been stationary in for a while. As if she were moving against her will, she reluctantly brought herself closer to Aki, but being careful as to not get too close to where the shadows would attack her too. A large grimace spread across her face, her complexion turning almost a sickly green as she took a long glance at the sleeping Aki. "It's much…_much_ worse." Chichiri and Tasuki turned to her in alarm. Without even facing them, she felt their questioned-filled eyes. "The… Princess of Darkness…"

From the darkest depths of the abyss behind Aki came forth an attractive young woman with long, layered, flaming red hair that classily twisted at the ends, and with parted bangs—her hair being a very similar color to Tasuki's. And her sharp, cunning cat-like eyes were a deep amber…also a similar color to Tasuki's…weird...Even her skin had a similar tan to his. From anyone on the outside looking in, it would appear as if the two could be siblings, but upon further investigation, the air about them couldn't be more different than night and day, with her being the only one harboring dense negative energy that practically oozed from her being.

She wore a long black sleeveless one-piece dress which fanned out at the bottom and split down the center in the front of her upper body, strings connecting one side with the other as she shamelessly revealed her cleavage. A menacing smile spread across her painted lips as she tenderly wrapped her arms around Aki's neck, embracing her while shooting a deathly glare at the Suzaku Warriors.

"Aww…looks like the secret is out~" She said coolly, referring to Shokyoku's introduction. _Princess of Darkness? Sounds like a bunch of crap to me. _That title seemed a little ridiculous, but there was no doubt at all that she was the one making that place feel so damn off. Something about her presence was just wrong…

And she was much too close to Aki.

The woman lifted Aki's seemingly lifeless head a bit so that she may rub her cheek up against hers, but still keeping her gaze fixated on her enemies. "Oh Akimoto…my darling Aki…I've missed you so much and now I have you back." Her smile grew ever darker, her eyes staying in direct contact with Tasuki's. "Have the bad people been treating you poorly? I _did_ warn you about them…"

_What the hell is with that look she's givin' me?_ It was almost like she was issuing some kind of silent challenge or something, just waiting for him to take the bait. Even while guessing her intention, he was damn close to taking the bait anyway just to show her what he's made of.

"What is it that you want with us?" Chichiri asked in a demanding voice.

She tore her glare away from Tasuki and gave Chichiri her chilling attention. "On any other day, nothing… and on any other day, I would have just sent Stella instead of coming out here myself. But~" She continued cuddling Aki, an act to which prompted Tasuki to grind his teeth in resentment. "I just didn't want to pass up the opportunity to be with my love Aki again!"

Tasuki's eyes widened with a lifted eyebrow at her strange comment. "Her…love? What the hell is that broad goin' on about?"

She levitated herself from the ground a bit and hugged Aki's head, cradling it up against her bust. "Just as I said. Because you should know right now…" Her voice then reached its ultimate chilling point, setting Chichiri and Tasuki into a state of unease. "…she _does_ belong to me. I. Own. Her."

"That's bullshit!" Tasuki shouted out, mostly wondering what kind of place this whack-job dropped out of. Saying she owned Aki. "Don't be so full of yourself—if Aki was herself, she'd—"

"But she's not, is she?" Bringing Aki out of the hug, the Princess of Darkness slowly traced her finger around the silver ring encircling the sleeping girl's head. "What a foolish idea of Taiitsukun's…that old hag…messing with what nature intended by using this ridiculous ornament. And you all went along with it, thinking you know what's best for Aki when in fact…you don't."

While gathering himself onto his feet, Chichiri, who was unconvinced by her declaration, told her, "You're insane. You claim that you care for Aki so how can you even think for a second that turning her into a Shadow Maiden is best?"

She shook her head in contempt. "You naïve little specimen. Even with what Taiitsukun taught you, you'll never know everything. You can stay in your own little world and believe that you do, but you would just be merely stuck in a delusion." Bringing Aki in close again, the woman began to repeatedly pet her and stroke her hair, making sure to keep her eyes on the men. "For you to honestly believe that you've got the whole picture—ha! Don't make me laugh. You're just insulting yourselves. But most importantly~ You humans will never come to understand Aki the way I do. Her hopes, her dreams, her fears, her secrets—all of them are shared between us. _And so much more_." Tilting her hostage's head up towards her and taking a firm hold of her jaw and parting her mouth a little, the mysterious woman forcefully planted her lips onto Aki's, kissing her deeply, earning a gasp from her spectators. Deep down in Tasuki's gut and even clouding his mind, for some unexplainable reason, an intense rage boiled and swirled within him, his face completely flushed with anger. From the very beginning of this, from the moment he laid his eyes on that bitch, the Suzaku warrior already knew that he couldn't stand her—she was conceited and spelled all kinds of trouble, leaving an unsettling feeling in his gut. But now at that very moment while he stood there watching her kissing a helpless Aki, making it seem as if she was _branding_ her with her lips, he wouldn't mind seeing that _princess_ dead and burning in Hell.

Seeing that slimy woman doing _anything_ to _any_ of his friends gave him enough of a reason to deal the blow himself. Preparing to take a swing with his tessen, Tasuki casted, "_Rekka Shin—" _But at that moment, Chichiri used his staff to strike Tasuki's arm, deflecting the flames which were already forming towards another direction in the space, soon dying out as they failed to hit a target. Tasuki sent his comrade a threatening glance. "What the hell?!" The Princess of Darkness calmly opened her eyes halfway, looking at the spectacle out of the corner of her eyes while continuing her lip-lock with Aki.

"Look Tasuki, I don't like what that woman is doing either, but we can't just attack her! Aki is standing right there too, remember? Do you really want to risk her getting caught in the fire?"

Staring down to the ground in disdain, Tasuki struggled with the idea of not being able to do anything at that moment. But then the image of the burn on Aki's arm came to mind. Even if she couldn't feel it, that didn't take away the damage…or the guilt he still had about it. He lowered his tessen. Speaking through gritted teeth, he asked, "What do we do then?"

Finally the sketchy woman brought her lips away from Aki's, who's head dropped back down towards her chest while she slept. Keeping an arm around Aki's waist, the woman said, "You'll do nothing and listen. I suggest you stop trying to 'help' Aki. You don't know the help she needs and because you don't understand her or our kind, you'll only end up doing more harm than good." _Their kind? What the hell is that supposed to mean? _ She flipped her flaming orange hair. "But since I know you all will insist on doing the exact opposite of what I say, I won't bring an end to it...yet. Everything you do will just end up delaying the inevitable. So really, try all you'd like with her to 'heal' her, get it out of your system, and when you ultimately fail, my point will only be proven and Aki will be mine for good." To add even more insult to injury, she brought the arm up that wasn't around Aki's waist and gently slid the back of her palm down Aki's cheek and uttered, "Body, mind, and soul." She spoke with such assurance and calmness in her voice, showing off her façade of sophistication. But Tasuki wasn't buying into any of that crap. This bitch was just toying with them, so confident that they couldn't do a thing to change the situation. And that made him despise her even more.

He had made a promise to Aki…well, sort of a different Aki in a way…but Aki nonetheless! So there was no way he'd let some chick who shared some of his physical characteristics to come along and talk all that mess. _What about that girl? _Quickly taking a glance just several feet away from him, he witnessed that little girl with the ridiculously long hair and dual-colored eyes just standing there, frozen in place as she couldn't take her eyes off of the Princess of Darkness coddling Aki. Her whole body was shivering, a completely distraught expression on her small face.

This girl seemed so protective of Aki before—so much so that the impression she came off as was nothing more than a pest….and, yeah, a brat. But now that a time came up when she needed to prove her loyalty, she chokes. In the end, the only thing she was good for was revealing that woman's identity…like that really mattered to Tasuki anyway.

"I'm not just gonna sit here and do nothing Chichiri. Either you come up with a plan or I'm chargin' at her."

Chichiri spoke without taking his focus away from the princess. "Don't be stupid. If you just go charging in, she'll get you like those times before. This isn't an enemy that we can underestimate—it's a very delicate situation ya know." The monk turned to face Tasuki so that he could see him out of his good eye. "I am working on a plan though, just be patient—I need some time—"

"We don't have time! I just wanna give that bitch what's comin' to her!"

"Tasuki!" Chichiri's sudden snapping at him appeared to snap Tasuki out of his taste for princess blood. "We can't be reckless here! That woman is dangerous and there are only a few ways we'll all be able to get out of this alive." He then softened up and assured his friend. "I know you're strong and I know you want to help Aki, but there are times when you have to use your head first." He turned back towards the direction of the princess and Aki. "I'm going to need a few more moments. I won't be able to defeat her, but I can get all of us," extending his arm out while holding his golden staff sideways, he closed his good eye and made a sign with his free hand, "and I mean _all_ of us, out of here."

At that moment, Aki finally stirred, but instead of waking up, her body twitched as that ominous purple electricity entangled her and then a second later, the electricity halted, leaving Aki to cough up more blood. But since she wasn't in any position to bring her hand up to take the blood, it sprayed from her mouth, leaving a red liquid trail running down from the edges of her lips. The Princess of Darkness's reaction to this gave the impression that she was genuinely concerned for Aki, her face twisting with sadness as she brought Aki in from the side for a one-sided hug.

"Oh my dear Aki…you suffer now, but it does require a little pain to achieve true happiness. What you're going through now may seem like torture but I promise you that it'll all be better soon. Just wait a bit more sweetie."

_That…bitch…_What kind of person would intentionally put someone they loved through pain? No matter what she said, Tasuki would never accept that woman's feelings as love. She was a damn sadist and needed to be taken down.

Her eyes trailed off to the side at Tasuki. Then she motioned over to him. "Hey, you. Boy who looks like me."

Tasuki braced himself for anything. "What do you want?" He asked harshly.

She gave a wicked smile. "I noticed your anger is at its peak whenever I touch Aki—tell me, does it bother you?" He didn't respond—this just sounded like another game that he didn't want any part in. With a hint of a mocking tone in her voice, she taunted. "So you're not going to answer me? What a rude little boy. Well, maybe I'll just have to do a little experiment to get you to talk." Placing her hand on Aki's cheek opposite to her, the woman asked, "Does this bother you?" And then she kissed her on the cheek. Tasuki's hand twitched as a reflex. Every inch of his body was more than ready to blast that bitch, but he had to remember what Chichiri said. The woman continued on with her playing. "No? Well, maybe this then." Shifting her position so that she stood behind Aki, making Tasuki notice that the woman was just a couple inches taller than Aki, she wrapped her arms around Aki's waist and brought her head down to Aki's neck. Giving Tasuki a provocative glare, she placed her lips on Aki's neck and began to kiss and suck up and down that side. Now Tasuki's eyes flared with rage, his whole body just shook with pure anger ready to burst at any moment.

"You get away from her…" he muttered quietly. Then he shouted. "You better f$#king get away from her you bitch!"

Bringing herself away from the still motionless Aki, the woman licked her lips seductively. "Oh, now we're getting somewhere! You humans are too easy…allowing your emotions to get the best of you—you're _weak_." Her mischievous grin widened. "Luckily I take pleasure in your weaknesses." The hands that were around Aki's waist started to move, sliding themselves along her still, unresisting body, one of them traveled upwards and landed over one of Aki's covered breasts. "If Aki is just your friend, then why would my doing these things bother you so much?" She grabbed then, and massaged what she could despite the clothing material separating her from actual flesh. Tasuki couldn't help but stop and analyze her comment and his anger. His being mad was justified, right? No one…no real man would just sit there and let his friend being taken advantage of—it just so happened that his friend was a woman. He was acting appropriately as a friend. He and Aki had made a deal to watch each other's backs. So this…how he was reacting, was completely normal…

…right?

The woman's hand continued to move and grope _his friend_ inappropriately, an act that allowed Tasuki to set a personal record for longest time gone by without killing someone who had been provoking him in such a blunt manner.

What he didn't expect was for someone else to snap before he did.

The woman's eyes widened with surprise as an odd force dropped down on her, causing her body to go rigid as it braced itself, vibrating from the immense pressure that was attempting to crush her. By this time, she had already pushed Aki away from her enough so that this silent assault wouldn't involve the innocent bystander. Shoulders hunched and her head forced down as the attack pushed down on her even more, she did her best to remain standing, but her knees were progressively lowering, showing that the pressure might have been overpowering her.

"What the hell's going on?" Tasuki asked out loud to no one in particular. When he looked around, Chichiri was still calm as ever, remaining in that energy gathering, spell casting pose from before. Seeing as how he wasn't showing any physical strain at all, Tasuki didn't think that this could have been his doing. But further off on his side, he caught sight of the little girl clenching her fists as tightly as possible with her teeth bearing and grinding, tears forming in her eyes and face red with frustration as she maintained an intense and focused expression directed towards the struggling woman. The little girl's body also had an eerie black and dark violet halo outlining it.

Using her strength, the woman fought against the powerful pressure and struggled to bring her head up, an inch at a time, still shaking as it was tempted to fall again. Once her eyes were brought up high enough to get a full view of her attacker, she displayed an amused smile, even through the strain.

"Well, well, well…what do we have here? You're actually opposing me! Didn't expect that~" Kind of left an uneasy feeling in Tasuki how she was still so calm even though someone was trying to crush her at that very moment. "And here I thought that you were going to just sit off to the side like a good little girl...but I guess that's what makes this such a pleasant little surprise" The little girl…er…_Shokyoku_, didn't dare answer her. Instead, she maintained her concentration. It was a bit alarming how that woman still seemed so confident even after what was being done to her. "I'm impressed and sort of proud of how you managed to catch me off guard. But…" She snickered in such a way that could make someone's skin crawl. "I hope you don't honestly believe that this can hold me. Now I wouldn't want to get your hopes up or anything." Shokyoku's eyes began to gloss even more from the tears forming, but her very obvious and strenuous determination helped prevent them from flowing out. "Hmm but you seem to already know that. You're terrified of me," the woman's eyes sharpened and Shokyoku winced. So…that was fear. That's why Shokyoku just stood there doing nothing for a long time—she was afraid! "and you're right to be so."

Tasuki couldn't help but just gawk at everything that was happening—even despite the woman's over-confidence, it was pretty cool to see Shokyoku getting the job done like that. Gotta give credit where credit was due, that brat Shokyoku was really through for them—guess she did have more to her than he was lead to believe.

"Hey moron!" Or…not. Shokyoku managed to tear herself away from her interaction with the woman and turned to Tasuki. Instant offense was taken at her insult and he was ready to give a comeback when she finished what she was saying. "I don't know if you know what's going on, but I'm giving you an opening here. Get Aki before the Princess breaks out of it! I don't like the idea of leaving this up to _you_, but I don't have much of a choice here." He stared at her—still a bit fascinated with how he could actually hear her, but snapped out of it when she ordered, "GO ALREADY!"

Taking the hint, Tasuki placed his tessen into the harness on his back, then worked his legs and used his Suzaku given ability to dash towards Aki in a flash, the air rushing past him as he scooped her up into his arms faster than anyone else could even see. By the time he terminated his run, he was carrying a sleeping Aki while standing a bit behind a struggling Shokyoku.

He snapped his head at Chichiri who was still engaged on focusing. "Now's a _real_ good time for you to wake up Chichiri and execute your plan!" With that cue, Chichiri shot his eyes open and yelled out as he called forth his energy. In the blink of an eye, a rush of power in the form of a raging golden light emerged from Chichiri's being. While this power illuminated the previously darkened space, the atmosphere did a complete 180, turning from miserable and unpleasant to warm and delightful, creating the familiar feeling that he'd feel when his bond with Aki was activated, although to a lesser extent. The light blazed with a fury as it grew and expanded outwards, forcing Tasuki to shield his eyes from the bright intensity, making sure to keep a good hold of Aki.

When he cracked his eyes to take a peek, he noticed the shadowed world they were trapped in being chased away, with the lit-up Chichiri in the center. Almost as if they had been confined inside someone's giant fist, Chichiri's power was opening the hand, allowing Tasuki and the others to be exposed to the dirt road they had thought was taken from them. And as the pitch-black hand opened up even more, the greenery of the nature from the mountainside lit up and rustled away as it was being influenced by Chichiri's release. Once all sign of the blob that had captured them in the first place had vanished, the monk put a lid over his energy, the light died down and finally extinguished. He fell forward onto his knees in exhaustion as he panted, bullets of sweat dripping from his face.

Tasuki, who still had Aki in his arms, was awestruck at his fellow Suzaku warrior's display which seemed to have scared off the Princess of Darkness and her void. "Damn Chichiri…" That was intended to be more of a thought, but it was said out in the open anyway.

Chichiri, despite being worn out and recovering from such an insane usage of energy, turned to his comrade and smiled, giving him a thumbs up.

Without any warning, the Princess of Darkness's voice echoed out of nowhere, beginning with an amused giggle. "Very impressive monk. Impressive for just a human anyway. Look how using that technique practically drained you of almost all your energy—pathetic. You and I both know that humans aren't meant to call forth their inner Darkness or Light—your bodies aren't constructed in such a way to allow you to do so without consequence. You may be skilled, but you are still _just_ a human. So if that's the extent of what you can do, admirable as it is, then you don't stand a chance. You have no way of defeating me on your own." She paused for a few moments, then added, "I'll let you all go this time. Just make sure to treat my Aki well. For sooner than you think, I'll be back to collect her~!"

Tasuki glared at no one in particular as he groaned. _I really hate that woman. _

After standing there loathing her for a few more seconds, Tasuki took in the smell and view of the fresh scenery and just being thankful that he wasn't in _that_ freaky place anymore. This was when he took notice of something. "How the heck did it get dark so fast?" Yeah…it was weird. When the four of them went into the Princess's trap, it was still the afternoon. Now the sun had already set and the night sky darkened the world, the only source of light being the less than full moon.

Shifting on his spot on the ground, Chichiri went into a cross-legged position, still panting quite a bit as he rested. As he placed his cheery mask back on his face, he explained, "If you recall, the maze we were in before was a bit like this. Time sped up on the outside while it was slower for us on the inside, ya know? Although it wasn't quite to the same extreme as before, that appears to be the case for the connection between where we just were and the outside world which we had just returned to. Luckily, I think only several hours went by instead of months like it had last time, ya know?"

"Huh…" Tasuki sweat-dropped. _Well I guess that makes sense in a confusing sort of way. _He still wasn't completely sure about the mechanics of it all, though he didn't really care all that much to be honest. Tossing his head back, he called out, "He Shoky! You doin' alright back there?" A pretty good distance away from Tasuki and Chichiri, Shokyoku was grouching low to the ground, hugging her legs while facing away from them.

Bringing her head up, she turned her head with a bitter attitude, only so that her right turquoise eye could be seen. "Next time you pull something like that, how about you give a bit of a warning?! Honestly! You monkeys have no class…And don't you dare call me 'Shoky'! Aki named me Shokyoku, so I expect you to refer to me as such…or 'Your Majesty'…or 'Beautiful Girl Who is _Clearly_ more Superior than I'…either one of those will do."

Tasuki scowled at her. _That cocky little…_Then a rewind of what she just said revealed to him how Aki's name had just been said. Looking down at her sleeping face, although with blood still wet from her mouth as it came from the cough she had before, he was filled with a sense of relief now that she was no longer in the possession of that damn Princess of Darkness. _No…_his hand squeezed her shoulder. That woman just didn't seem right—whatever ideas she had about Aki, where no doubt messed up. _She'll never belong to her. Not as long as I'm around. _

Joining in on the conversation, Chichiri turned to the child as well, flashing her a smile. "You did a really great job back there Shokyoku. Thanks for the help!"

"I don't need to hear that from _you_," She bluntly told him. "And don't thank me. I didn't do that for you, I did it for Aki." She suddenly gasped as she shot up from her spot on the ground. "Aki!" Quickly bringing herself over to her oh-so-coveted one, she managed to ignore that Aki was in his custody long enough to reach out for her and bring a softened smile across her lips. "Thank goodness…You came back to me…"

Finally mustering the energy to stand up, with the help of his staff to assist, Chichiri wiped the dirt from his pants then walked up to Aki. "Well, I'd say it's about time to wake her up. How about you guys?"

"What?! You could have woken her up this entire time?!" Tasuki loudly asked.

"Not exactly…the Princess of Darkness had a pretty rock solid sleep spell on Aki, ya know? With me being unable to get close to Aki, and because that woman kept a close eye on her spell the entire time, I _could_ have done it, I guess, but it just wouldn't have been as simple as it is now that she's gone~!" His expression temporarily became grim. "Besides…I don't exactly think that that was the type of memory I'd like Aki to have. At least now she'll never know about it since she was under a spell."

Tasuki lowered his gaze solemnly. "Yeah…" When Aki got her emotions back after everything was said and done, he didn't want to think about how vulnerable and defiled she'd feel if she realized what that woman did to her.

"Alright, I'm gonna undo the spell now—"

"Hold on!" Shokyoku interrupted. The Suzaku warriors looked down at her, both of their eyes widening from how her form was gradual changing. In Tasuki's eyes, from the bottom working its way up, her coloring was leaving, turning her back into the grey-scaled form she had before…and most likely this transformation would take away her ability to communicate with him as well. So she had to talk fast. "You monkeys have to promise me that you won't tell Aki about the Princess."

Twisting his face in confusion, Tasuki told her, "Keep up kid. We just said that we don't want her to know about what happened." _And what's with her calling us 'monkey's'? _

Shokyoku shot him a look. "No, you don't want her to know about the situation. _I'm_ telling you that she can't know about the actual _person_. I would tell you that you could tell her about the Princess if you could keep quiet about what she looked like and what she said, but since I know you monkeys are unreliable, just don't mention her at all." Both men gave her a bewildered expression.

"Why?"

"What makes that princess so special?"

Puffing her cheeks in annoyance, she then replied sternly, "Just don't tell her! It would upset her and if you guys are her friends as you claim, then you'll protect what little happiness she has. Or…" She chose her words more carefully, Tasuki noticing even more how the grey effect had almost reached her neck, climbing to the top fast. "The little happiness _she will_ have once she's healed. Just promise—" And just like that, her grey-ification was complete, the rest of her sentence was muted even though her lips still moved. Bringing her hands up to her face, she inspected them back and forth and then gave a silent sigh.

"Well I guess that's that," Chichiri said. "At least now I know what she _looks_ like. Now I won't be so curious anymore!"

"You really can't see her, huh?"

"Nope! And you _can_ still see her?"

"Yup," he smiled satisfyingly, "but at least now I don't have to listen to that pushy mouth of hers anymore." To that, Shokyoku threw her fists down in resentment and shot daggers at him with her still colored eyes. Completely ignoring her, although feeling quite triumphant, he motioned to Aki with his head. "Can we get goin' with this?"

Chichiri laughed uncomfortably as he temporarily forgot his task. He nodded. "Right!" Without doing anything too fancy, he waved his hand over her face and almost immediately, her still emotionless eyes popped open.

* * *

><p><strong>*Aki's 1st POV*<strong>

_Why am I staring up at Tasuki? _To be doing that, I would either have to be lying on the ground, or he was carrying me. Again…why? Last thing I could remember, Chichiri, Tasuki, Shokyoku, and I were captured by some black mass that consumed us and we were somehow transported to some place that resembled the inside of Shokyoku's ring. And yet…it wasn't that. I recalled not being able to move for some reason…but what I couldn't recall was why I couldn't move in the first place. And then…that's when my mind became fuzzy.

Now we weren't even in that space anymore. So obviously…something happened, a certain amount of time went by, otherwise I wouldn't have been in some different position than I was in before. Not to mention the time of day it was. Before I blacked out, the sun was still in the sky, but now it was the moon shining down on me.

_If that much time had passed…then most likely…_A thought came to mind, so I brought a hand up to my mouth, swiping my index finger under my lower lip. As my finger came into vision, my suspicions had been correct. There was blood on my face, it was beginning to look a bit thick from drying, but it still had some liquid properties to it. Not too long ago, I coughed up this blood, but I couldn't remember when I did that.

"What happened?" I asked, Tasuki finally allowing me to stand on my own feet. The moment that the question came out, Shokyoku avoided eye contact with me while the two Suzaku warriors searched their brains for an answer. If it had to take them this long, then most likely they weren't going to tell me the truth.

Chichiri opened his mouth to answer, but Tasuki came in all too suddenly and enthusiastically. "You imagined the whole thing!" In that instant, Chichiri severely whacked his companion upside the head with his staff. "OW! What the hell?!"

The monk cleared his throat. "What he meant to say, was that after we went into that weird space, whatever was targeting us snuck up on you and knocked you out, ya know? It took a while for us to find a way out of there, but we managed, so there's no reason to think about it anymore than that!"

I just stared at them, Tasuki giving Chichiri an intense glare while holding the back of his head, and Chichiri just giving me the usual smile that came with the mask, wondering if they really expected me to believe that story. Perhaps I would have if Tasuki hadn't slipped up first. More than anything else, it was surprising that Shokyoku wasn't providing me the information I asked for. Hmm… Before deciding that this mystery in the long run really wasn't all that significant (after all, if Shokyoku wasn't telling me, then maybe I just didn't need to know), I figured that I'd bring one more thing to their attention.

"And the reason for it being nighttime now?"

Chichiri showed very little hesitation this time. "You were out for a while, ya know?" _Whatever. _If that was the story they felt like going with, then it was a waste of time to interrogate them any further. Whatever actually happened, it didn't really matter. Nothing mattered to me. With my life still on a clock counting down, in this weakened body, I wouldn't be alive long enough to attach myself to an issue. Keeping up with his perky façade, Chichiri patted my head. "I'm really happy that you're alright, but I've got to get back to the palace, ya know?" He came in closer to make it so that I could hear his next part better than Tasuki. "Who's to say how loud of an uproar is happening over there, what with the 'emperor' being gone for so many hours." Taking a step back, he spoke so that everyone could hear, displaying a somewhat sad smile. "Aki please…don't leave us just yet. We'll figure something out, ya know? I have no doubt about it. So don't give up, okay?" There really was no hope. What Stella did to me couldn't be reversed. Like I said before, they were wasting their time on me—the time that they needed to get a step closer to winning the war and surviving.

However…

I was beginning to see that trying to convince them would prove futile and would only waste what little time I had left.

No purpose…no place to go.

Since that was the case, it wasn't the worst idea for me to just tag along with them. Their efficiency in their business would remain high as long as they didn't pay me much attention. But judging by past experience, they wouldn't agree to that. There was no fighting it.

"Very well," I told him. He and Tasuki smiled in response. I'd never believe that anything could be done for me, but if they could be put at ease by my staying, then at least something would be getting accomplished by them finally focusing on what they needed to do for their country.

My answer finally earned me a glance from Shokyoku, who hadn't talked to me since I woke up. Investing some energy into her palm, she made her hand solid so that she could take hold of my sleeve and look up at me sympathetically.

Bringing out his kasa hat from…well, nowhere really, Chichiri displayed the widened opening towards us, its depths deceptively extensive for it usually served as a means of transportation or teleportation.

"You guys lost some time because of that whole ordeal, so I'll save you the trouble by taking you to the others!"

Tasuki looked at him in confusion. "Hey…you're a warrior or Suzaku as well. Why aren't you comin' along with us?" Oh yeah…no one told him yet about Hotohori being the emperor and Chichiri being his stand in.

Chichiri just smiled at him and started to say, "Well that's because—" The three of us were then rushed into the hat by means of magic, facing a bottomless pit as we fell nowhere. In no time at all, we tumbled out of the portal and onto a new terrain—which must have been somewhere near Choko—in the middle of a field made of what looked like stone and dirt, completely devoid of live plants but filled with scattered tombstones. On the outer rim of the field on most sides were with full bushels of leaves on its branches. But in the field we were transported to, all the trees that were scattered around were dead and naked. Seemed appropriate for a cemetery.

Straightaway, Tasuki angrily got up to his feet and showed a fist to the sky, appearing as if he were initiating a challenge. "You damn monk! You did that on purpose! If ya didn't wanna tell me, you coulda just said so!"

When Shokyoku stood, she also displayed a rather annoyed expression, but quickly wiped it off as she pointed out, "I don't see Yuki or the other monkeys anywhere around. You think the blue-haired monkey missed his target? I don't see why they'd be around a bunch of dead humans."

"No…he didn't miss." Once I was standing, I scanned the area for them. The environment wasn't exactly flat, there were elevations and dips. Those guys could have been down in a ditch or two to four stories above us. Chichiri had never been wrong before, so they were around somewhere.

"Hey Aki…" Cooling down from his spontaneous vendetta, Tasuki's voice became much less hostile as he spoke to me. "We made a promise a while ago to have each other's backs. And since I'm not the type of man to go back on his word, you shouldn't have any second thoughts about leavin' everything to me." Sporting an over-confident smile, he tossed his head to the side and placed his hands on his sides. "You'll be back to your old self in no time at all. We've got this, no problem!"

Not even caring to take in anything he said, there was no remorse, as if there would be considering the circumstances, as Shokyoku and I completely walked past him to proceed with looking for Miaka. At least, that's what my intention was. I was telling my legs to walk, but for some odd reason, I was walking in one place, my body wouldn't go forward. Something was holding me back.

"Ya know, I'm getting' real sick of you walkin' away from me like that." Mystery solved—Tasuki was grabbing onto me in such a way that I couldn't progress with my search. Dragging me back to where we were facing each other again, he let go of my collar, which I guess was the thing that he grabbed onto. "Did you even listen to a thing I said?"

"Yes. You told me to let you handle my condition, giving an empty promise that you won't be able to keep."

Bending his torso a bit so that he could better match my height, he pointed to himself with his thumb. "Look _you_. If I tell someone that I'm gonna do somethin', I see it through to the end."

There I told him, "Do as you like. But I suggest you focus more on your job as a celestial warrior than on me—" All of a sudden, a plethora of varying degrees of grey, decayed arms broke through the gravel of the ground, reaching up for us. Shokyoku's head shot around to all the bits of movement surrounding her, almost like an excited cat, even though realistically, none of the hands could actually touch her, they'd just phase right through.

"The hell is goin' on here?!" Tasuki scrambled around to avoid getting caught as more and more arms spawned from the depths of the cemetery, all of them moving onto the next stage in lifting their complete dead bodies from their graves—most of which were shriveled up, drained of any and all nutrients and mass, reducing them to nothing but skeletons with missing teeth, eyes, and perhaps little to no hair, covered with the thinnest layer of rotting skin. My attention was torn away from them the moment that a bony limb shot up next to my person and grabbed my ankle.

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><p><strong>Well, that was the chapter, how did you like it?<strong>

**PLEASE REVIEW! ****Tell me your opinions, predictions, hopes, anything that spiked ur interest during the chapter—anything! **

**Please continue to check out my Deviant Art account for more pix regarding the story as well as other news and updates ^_^ If anyone ever wants to contact me, it's best to do it there ;)**

**SO yeah! Today is this story's 2nd anniversary! *throws MORE confetti* I'd just like to thank you all for continuing to read and I never thought that the story would progress this far! Back when I first began, I never thought I'd be able to reach the point when Aki and the gang got this close to finding the 6th Suzaku warrior. It seemed sooooo far away and now it's here! By the grace of God and all of your support, I believe that I'll be able to finish the story in a few more years (yes, I already know that it'll take a few years lol). So thank you all again so much for everything. You have no idea how much I appreciate you all and your nice comments on here and DA and for all the help. You guys are part of the reason why writing is so enjoyable. I just hope that someday when I become a legit author, I'll be able to entertain people everywhere with my stories. This is just a wonderful first step towards my dreams. So again I say THANK YOU! *hugs all around*  
><strong>

**If you'd like to see, I've drawn a special pic to commemorate the event. Just check out my latest pic on deviant art ^^**

**Well, until next time, C YA!**

**No questions and trivia and stuff for ya this time folks on account of I couldn't think of any lol Srry~ Feel free to come up with ur own questions and I'd just love to hear ur thoughts! =D**

**Thanx for reading!**


	45. The Healing Factor, Part 2

I'D LIKE TO THANK KittyLynne, MY SENPAI, FOR GIVING ME LESSONS IN HOW TO IMPROVE MY WRITING! YOU'VE BEEN A WONDERFUL SUPPORT AND SOOOOO MUCH HELP TO ME! I KNOW MY WRITING WILL GET BETTER AS TIME GOES ON BECAUSE I HAVE YOU AS A SENPAI AND AS INSPIRATION! So~ THANK YOU!

Here ya'll go! Episode 45!

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><p><strong>*On the last chapter of <strong>_**Love Hurts 5 Ways, **_**Tasuki and Aki finally had a moment to try to reverse what had been done to her. Per Shokyoku's orders, Aki kissed him in an attempt to appeal to their mysterious connection. The surprised Tasuki was sent deep into Aki's psyche, coming face to face with her inner self—the truly honest inner self that was drowning in her own misery and made no effort to hide how much she had been suffering. Although he still didn't quite understand everything she has gone through or everything about her situation, Tasuki made a promise to this skeptical inner Aki that he'd get her out of this mess and make her smile again (even though he had absolutely no idea how to do this).**

**When it became clear to Aki that Tasuki didn't have what it took to help her at that moment, she and Shokyoku walked away from the bandits and their hideout, neither of them having a plan on what to do next.**

**Once Aki had come to peace with her inevitable demise and lack of ability to do anything about it or Stella, Chichiri showed up, taking a break from his pretending to be Hotohori in order to lend his assistance and encouragement. And then Tasuki appears as well, claiming that he wants to come along to help Aki out because he owes her (among other reasons). Tasuki finally figures out about Chichiri being a Suzaku Warrior as well (or rather, he was told). And so while discussing Aki's condition, Tasuki was debriefed about the situation, thus taking away some of his questions from before.**

**In the midst of this, the four of them get trapped in some other dimension resembling the inside of Aki's dark ring. Here, Shokyoku becomes visible and audible to everyone, allowing the two Suzaku Warriors to finally become more acquainted to her. But before anything like that could really happen, a beautiful but dangerous and suspicious woman who resembled Tasuki in a way appeared and put Aki under a sleep spell. Shokyoku remained frozen with fear as she revealed who the woman was: The Princess of Darkness. **

**The two Suzaku Warriors stood helpless as Aki stood being inappropriately handled by this woman who claimed that not only did she care more for Aki—thus knowing what's best for her, also that Aki belonged to her. Chichiri quietly formulated a plan for their escape, but in the meantime, the Princess taunted Tasuki, trying to probe out of him his true feelings for Aki, causing him to question that very thing himself. **

**While the Warriors of Suzaku tried to find a way to get Aki away from this woman, Shokyoku stepped in and used her powers to incapacitate the Princess, but only long enough for Tasuki to retrieve Aki. Once that was done, Chichiri, with extreme difficulty, used his Light to burn away the Darkness and get them out of that dimension. With her last words of that meeting, the Princess vowed that she'd come back for Aki when the time was right. **

**After having their first real conversation with Shokyoku, who soon returned to her ghost-like state, Aki awakened and questioned them about what happened to her. They didn't want to tell her to spare her feelings (the feeling's that they assumed she would have again). Chichiri then teleported Tasuki, Aki, and Shokyoku to the location where his priestess and fellow warriors had gone.**

**Landing in some creepy graveyard, Tasuki, now annoyed by her emotionlessness, once again tries to get Aki to confide in him, to which she brushes off. And before that conversation could get any further, a hoard of dead humans began bursting up from the ground.**

**The story continues to unfold…***

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><p>"…You will never escape from here…"<p>

"Your flesh…"

"…we desire…"

"No hope…submit…"

Ghostly voices seemed to circulate around us in the formerly deathly quiet setting, originating from the abrupt arrival of what appeared to be the living dead come to haunt us.

The bony appendages of the undead spontaneously wrapped around my ankle, firmly rooting me to my spot on the lively graveyard. Even if I couldn't feel anything my brain persistently sent message after message to my leg to get it to move, but to no avail. Despite the lack of muscle definition…or, the lack of muscles in general, this skeleton, which barely had any biologically physical remnant of what it had in its past life had a surprisingly strong grip. While it was sure that it had me anchored in place, I calmly observed the phenomenon of the decaying corpse which was using me as a support to burrow its full form to the surface, crumbling away through the layers of gravel which had been its final resting place for who knew how long.

Bringing my gaze upwards, I witnessed the emerging of more reanimated corpses from their graves.

…It should have been _all_ of their final resting place really…

Despite everything that I've witnessed and been through on this journey, this was definitely the most unnatural…at least in my opinion. And judging by Tasuki's alarmed expression as he reached back for his tessen, this really wasn't a common occurrence in his world by any means.

With all of these bodies popping up like daisies as if in some cliché zombie movie, no doubt they'd target the most vulnerable of their prey. And at the moment, that was me seeing as how I probably appeared to be some animal caught in a trap by poachers. I was a sitting duck being weighted down like that, unless something was done…and quick.

I narrowed my eyes. _Well, I can always use my powers to get out of this…_Splatters of blood manifested in my mind, so seemingly tangible while my imagination dominated my rational way of thinking. If I didn't know any better, it was like I was actually seeing them with my own eyes. The thought would indeed become real if I dared use my powers again. But what was honestly the harm? Most likely I wouldn't have been any worse off than I already was. So…

"_Dark Claw!" _Shokyoku, even though there was small possibility of these things touching her, still displayed an air of distress that flashed in her turquoise and orange eyes when they suddenly appeared. With her having little to no favor towards humans when they were alive and well, she had absolutely no qualms in reintroducing them to their dirt beds, even without my saying anything or giving her the ok. Her small hands emitted Dark energy as she guided a flying swarm of black-ish purple insect-like energy particles. Moving her arms in fluid motions, the swarm followed her directions in aiming for rotten body after body, their touch leading to either partial or complete disintegration. "Filthy creatures!" She announced with great distaste of the whole scene. "My eyes are forced to look upon your living selves day in and day out." Swiftly twirling on her toes to face the danger behind her, she expertly swiped her outstretched arm across her body, sending a signal to her spell to come to her aid and wash away the dead scum that came close to passing through her. "I will not be haunted by you monkeys in the afterlife as well!"

For once her focus wasn't even on me—these guests of ours managed to actually bother her and steal away her attention.

In the meantime, back with my own problem, my face showed no sign of immediate danger or fear, but it was becoming ever more apparent that the outcome of my inaction would probably churn out unfavorable consequences. Past experiences with cinema suggested that zombies weren't benevolent and just wanted to chat.

The head and torso of my captor launched up from the ground after much effort, and I could only imagine that it would have been staring up at me with its voracious eyes if it had any. Instead, the giant holes in its grey, cracked skull allowed me only to see the darkened depths of what I figured was a more or less empty head, topped with what was left if its scruffy hair. This thing had been dead for so long that I couldn't even tell if it was a woman or a man in life. Whatever. That detail didn't matter much anyway.

"…your flesh is mine…"

"Shoo…" I casually told it in a low monotone, trying to jerk my leg away. But it held on with incredible determination. Didn't take long for its "colleagues" to notice my immobility. Not surprisingly, they were becoming attracted to my "distress", coming in from every direction as well as from my periphery. What I didn't expect was for another one to pop up from the ground near me on the opposite side from its buddy. It was a tad alarming how this one emerged with much more speed and urgency than the other one had, immediately latching onto my waist, attempting to pull me down in the process.

The hasty motion caught the attention of Tasuki who, with a fierce and annoyed countenance, was doing a job fending off his own pests. Swinging his arm with the hand holding his tessen in preparation, he shouted out to me, "Aki! Don't move!" My body was already struggling to stay upright with all of the added mass, so I could really only stay still as long as my strength held out. _"Rekka Shinen!" _As I had seen once before, a blast of raging flames torpedoed with the wave of the iron fan. With extreme precision, the fire somehow split down the middle, charging ferociously on either side of me, thoroughly singeing the zombies hanging off of me down to a crisp, the majority of their bodies cracking away to the intense heat. As the flames dissipated, the smoldered forms at my side lost any life which had been given back to them, leading to their hold on me to become weak. Gravity immediately resumed its role in dropping what was left of them down to the dead ground below.

Thanks to the assault on Tasuki's part, I was able to stand erect and move around freely again. Peering around at the area where my imprisoners were, I inspected my own being. "Huh."

He blinked at me in confusion from my response. "What?"

"You didn't burn me this time."

Throwing my worded observation way out of proportion, the flame headed Suzaku Warrior exploded, his fangs more than obvious and face a tad flushed, "Dammit Aki! That was a one-time thing and it only happened 'cause my arm was pushed! Besides, I already said that I was sorry about that so lay off—I don't need to feel any guiltier." Even in all this chaos, this guy still managed to stop and complain about my choice of words. What exactly was it that he was getting riled up about? From what I could tell, what I had said was a positive thing—it was a compliment. "Jeez, can't you just say 'thank you' like any other normal person?"

"Oh. I see. My mistake." _That's what he wanted, huh? _Who would have thought that out of all people, he was a stickler for formalities? Giving him complete eye contact, I expressed as much gratitude as I could in my state. "Thank you for not burning my leg." And to that, his body stiffened accompanied with a small, almost inaudible sound escaped passed his lips, a sound which might have reflected the irritated glare he was giving me. But instead of addressing this matter, I went on, noting something about the situation which I found to be the most significant. "It would have been troublesome if I lost the use of both my arm _and_ leg."

By now he was gritting his teeth…for a reason that I had yet to comprehend. Striding up to me with his eyes closed, he reached out his hand and forcefully grabbed the sides of my collar, yanking me closer to him, leaving only inches of space between us. "Ya know, I'm startin' to get the impression that you're holdin' a grudge against what I did to ya."

I showed no real response to his intrusive action. "Nonsense. I am unable to feel bitterness towards anyone. This circlet around my head takes away all my emotions if you recall." There was something I noticed about this guy: he was really sensitive. He took almost everything personally and would make a big deal out of the smallest things. His zeal made no sense to me—perhaps someone with emotions could comprehend him a bit better than I could. All I knew was that he needed to calm down. Any nefarious person could come along and exploit that weakness of his if he didn't get it in check.

"Yeah, right! That's just a crap of an excuse! Ya wanna know what I think—" Catching something off to the very side of his peripheral, the Suzaku warrior snapped his head towards the direction where his expert senses had detected the threat. Following his gaze, I found that yet another group of the undead had spawned before us. Beginning to encircle us from all around, they weren't exactly moving at alarming speeds, but that didn't necessarily mean that they should be underestimated in any way.

"Aki!" Shokyoku called out as she jumped from the incoming crowd, placing herself and her Dark energy filled hands before us with her back to us. "They just keep showing up! I don't know how to make it stop!"

"If that's the case, perhaps it's not even worth the waste in energy," I added. And to that she nodded, easing up on her battle ready stance and calling away her magic, making the black particle cloud she had been driving to fade away completely. She understood just as well as I did that you could be the strongest spellcaster in the world, but if at some point you ended up exhausting your energy, you'd be in trouble. On the chance that these zombies were the result of something or someone, then it would have been smarter and more efficient to locate the source rather than fight a never ending army.

Just as I was about to offer the question of whether any of them had any idea where these things could have been coming from, Tasuki got an almost excited look in his eye as the grip he had around the handle of his tessen tightened. "F%&k that! If you think you can't handle it Shoky, then leave it to me!" The sudden utterance of a new nickname for my tiny companion prompted her to shoot him a nasty look full of more than just resentment. "I'll torch every one of these sorry bastards if that's what it takes!" Somehow, he managed to totally miss the silent message that had spread throughout our little group—the one about being smart and not wasting your energy. And yet…this didn't surprise me. Then again…judging by the sparkle in his eye, perhaps he did get the message, but was just totally disregarding it because he was high off the fight. Again, another trait of his that could end up getting him killed. While I was still forming my thoughts regarding his excitement, he released my collar, only to wrap his free arm around my waist, pulling me up against him. Without looking at me, he said, "If you're so afraid of bein' burned, then just stay close. Nothin' will happen to ya when you're with me!" I stared up at him, his fierce amber eyes blazing with golden intensity. _He's so sure of himself. _A little too sure of himself…He'd end up being disappointed when it turned out that he couldn't come through with his promises.

Upon swinging his bewitched tessen for a second time, he loudly casted, _"Rekka Shinen!" _thus throwing out a rush of flames which violently spilled out like a roaring river, crashing into each and every zombie that was creeping towards us. The entire setting came to life as the fire's light temporarily ate up all the grey. Tasuki guided the flames has he waved the iron fan a few more times, pivoting us in the process so that he may ensure that all of our enemies were taken out in our radius. Shokyoku made an effort to stay out of the line of fire, keeping close to us and an eye on where the flames traveled next.

The moment it was clear that all targets had been set aflame, the fanged warrior eased back and retracted his energy, thus killing the fire off altogether. Now the only thing bringing any color to the environment were the tiny flames still ignited on the motionless victims of the bandit leader.

Tasuki grinned wide at his accomplishment. "Not too shabby, huh? The bastards didn't have a ghost of a chance!" Almost as if something had clicked in response to that trigger, he closed his eyes and let out a deep chuckle and turned to me, unaware that he was still holding onto my waist. "Get it? They're zombies and they're dead like _ghosts_? It's funny!"

My face remained blank towards his sense of humor. Shokyoku strained in twisting her neck and body around to catch him out of the corner of her eye. Even if I didn't see her whole face, I was sure that she had on a wide, angry grimace. "What a completely clueless moron of a monkey—so tasteless…"

Waiting a few more moments for my response, he just stood there with a more than satisfied grin which displayed his sharp canines. This guy…really was quite an enigma to me…not only was he sensitive, but he also bounced back awfully fast, totally disregarding the seriousness of a situation. It was a wonder how he survived living for this long…

Realizing that I wouldn't reward his joke with even the slightest of a smile, his grin fell into a disgruntled scowl as he peered down at me with his fierce eyes. "You're sort of a stick in the mud without your emotions, aren't'cha?"

Flatly, I told him, "If you were expecting anything more from me, then that's your own—"

"EIHHHHHH!" From somewhere in that area, or maybe just a bit further, the high-pitched squeal of a distressed girl streaked past our ears, catching our attention as quickly as a lightning strike.

"That priestess never makes it difficult for us to find her, does she?" Shokyoku noted.

"Miaka…" She wasn't that far away from where we were. Considering the peculiar occurrence that we just went through, her and her guardians were most likely experiencing something quite similar. If anything, perhaps those zombies stopped attacking us simply because they had new, unsuspecting prey to focus on.

Breaking away from me, Tasuki urgently ran a few steps towards the likely direction in which the sounds of anguish and chaos were coming from. Perching himself on what appeared to be a cliff of some sort, overlooking the rest of the graveyard, a sudden halt in his scanning suggested he had found the ones we had come to rendezvous with.

"Looks like those dead guys couldn't get enough so they're messin' with yer pals." Raising up his tessen-wielding arm, he prepared for another swing. "Those cowards—runnin' away when they knew they couldn't beat us…So they just went to pick on someone else!" Taking a steady step forward, he loudly demanded, "Hey guys! Miaka! Drop to the ground now! I'll handle these jerks!" Launching himself into the air over the cliff, he casted his spell as he fell to the ground, _"Rekka Shinen!" _He had already dropped below the point of my vision while I still stood on the higher elevation, but even so, I witnessed the illumination caused by the flames, bringing reds and yellows to the backdrop of the night sky. But that only lasted for a few short moments and the light dimmed down and eventually extinguished, almost like they had been controlled by an electronic switch on a wall.

In hindsight, even if it was a waste in energy and resources, it wasn't exactly the worst idea to take those things out with fire…if anything else. If it worked for Frankenstein, then why not test it out in reality? Besides, how much energy could he really have been using up by using a weapon?

"Seems like the lesser being did the dirty work for us. Good thing too since this predicament wasn't worth sullying my hands over," Shokyoku said smugly as she joined me at my side, flipping her hair in the process. I just kept my eyes fixated on the spot where Tasuki once stood. "We could give him a treat, but wouldn't want to spoil him just yet~ I guess we should see if he'll flip for us a few more times." Paying no attention to Shokyoku's quip about Tasuki being equal to some kind of pet, I made my way over to the rocky cliff's edge, leaving her a bit baffled. "Aki?"

"I'm checking to see if everyone is still alive." It wasn't until I got a little closer that I started to hear a mixture of familiar voices—the expressing of thanks as well as some curious remarks as to why Tasuki, or "Genrou" would suddenly show up. By the time I was close enough to see that the fall from the top down to the others were was only about ten to fifteen feet high, I had witnessed for myself that Miaka and the others hadn't been killed off by the unforeseen zombie raid. Instead, it was the charred, re-corpsed corpses who were scattered about in the aftermath of the fire, who had gotten the rotten end of the deal.

Taking notice of my extended shadow brought along by the moonlight, the Priestess of Suzaku, who for some reason was rather pale and sitting on the ground supporting herself against Hotohori. She whipped her head towards me, her signature smile right on cue. "Aki-nee-chan!" Nuriko and Konan's emperor followed suit, with surprised yet relieved looks in their eyes. "You're here too!"

"Well it looks like she's well enough to state the obvious just fine," Shokyoku snootily noted while glaring at those she considered being an inferior species.

"Genrou, did you and Akimoto travel here together?" Hotohori asked him.

"Traveled?" Tasuki paused, darting his eyes to the side for just a second to think about an appropriate reply. "I guess you can say that. If you can really consider what we did to be travelin'." The emperor tossed him a look full with confusion, but before he could act upon it, Nuriko shouted up at me, taking notice of my distance from them.

"Aki! Why're you standing around on that ledge for? You didn't come back just to stay away, come on down!" The smile he wore on his face was that of a knowing one. Despite his reaction from my entrance, he somehow might have suspected on his own that I might return to them. Although I don't know how he'd assume such a thing, since nothing was exactly guaranteed.

Intending to follow through with his request, I inspected the less than lethal cliff, but realized that I would have found it to be rather difficult to land gracefully without injuring myself given my wounded arm and less than athletic body. Turning my head to the left and to the right, I couldn't see a close enough slope to lead me down to their level.

"I'll have to find some way to get down," I told them.

"_What_?" Tasuki asked in a rather astonished tone. "Just jump like I did—it's not that big a jump."

"I can't."

"Why th' hell not?"

"Unfavorable consequences are more than certain."

"Argh…jeez…" Tasuki groaned as he closed his eyes and scratched his head in aggravation.

Nuriko just giggled and shrugged to his fellow warrior's reaction. "Well what do you expect? Without her powers you can't expect her to be able to leap from place to place like some kind of animal."

Popping his eyes open, he shot Nuriko a dangerous look. "Who the hell are you callin'—!"

"Calm down Flamebrain," The purple-haired Suzaku Warrior sighed in exasperation and shook his head. "I'm just saying that without her magic, she's a normal woman. So do the chivalrous thing already! We don't have all night." With those last few words, he invested a bit of his strength to push Tasuki, whose expression read more than just annoyance, forward towards the wall of the cliff.

Giving Nuriko one final look of disdain, he lifted his head up to me, both of his arms extended out and palms facing up. "Alright Aki. Jump and I'll catch you." I stared at him. His gaze filled with impatience. "What?"

I turned my head, taking my eyes off him for a second as I said, "Nothing. Just gauging your competence." My body was already breaking down due to the trap that Stella left. If these people wanted me to live longer than I suspected I would, then it would have been to their best interest that I was handled more expertly. However…judging by my experiences with him in the past and with the knowledge of his being the leader of the Mt. Reikaku Bandits giving me reason to assume that he was more than qualified, his hand-eye coordination had to have been more than what was required to ensure my safe landing.

Completely taking what I said the wrong way once again, fanged celestial warrior narrowed his eyes at me. "I ain't gonna drop you, so cm'on!" His anger might suggest that he'd pull his arms back at the last second and I'd end up getting hurt regardless of his assurance.

_Okay then…_

Instinctively, I shut my eyes as I leaned forward, knowing that gravity would catch me regardless of whether I could feel it or not. In my body which had no sense of touch, I could only rely on the smaller probability that Tasuki would actually catch me, for with my eyes closed, I was just an existence floating in the blackened space behind my eyelids. Whatever happened to my soul's container would only be revealed the moment I opened my eyes.

For a little while, nothing happened. But what could have I honestly expected?

Anticipating that the fall should have only taken several seconds, I opened my eyes to find that I was towering over Tasuki's unruly blazing red hair, our bodies pressed closely together as he held me with arms elevated above his head and wrapped around my waist, his eyelevel potentially matching up with my bust if he hadn't been tilting his head so that we made eye contact.

He gave me a more than confident grin, which overshadowed his irritation of the situation a bit. "You don't give me enough credit, ya know that? Maybe next time I'll let ya fall just ta show you how good you have it!"

To that I gave him a straight answer and a flat tone. "Since that action is pre-meditated, I can justifiably call you out on that."

Smoothly sliding himself over to us in a peculiar fashion, Nuriko's hollow glower poked at us as he said, "Funny time and place for you two to be getting _friendly_. But in light of tonight's horrific events I suggest you two wait for another time."

Taking his eyes away from mine, Tasuki gave his acquaintance a look. "What the hell're you talkin' about—" It was at this point that the reality of our physical position came into play, he finally noticing that his face was only centimeters away from my covered breasts. "GAH!" A blush ran across his face faster than the flames from his tessen had spread, leading to his trying to justify what it might have looked like. "Wait a second! I wasn't…As if I would _ever_! This isn't what you think!" On an impulse, he released me. And without prior warning, I hadn't sent a message to my legs fast enough to catch me, so I was left dropping to the ground like a rock, right on my butt. Fortunately this fall was significantly less hazardous than the alternative. _He was just catching me out of the air. Why was it that these people assumed everything to be related to sex? _Right when my bottom hit the rocky floor, Tasuki instantly fell out of his vertigo. "Oh crap! Sorry about that…guess I lost my grip because of _someone_." Nuriko instantly caught the hidden meaning and meekly scratched the side of his cheek while maintaining a nervous smile.

"Guess it was sort of my fault…I didn't quite think it through all the way…"

In the matter of a blink, Shokyoku, who had managed to get down in one way or another, was at my side, kneeling with concern towards me…and then a sharp glare of contempt towards the bandit who dropped me. "You incompetent excuse for a monkey…have you no grace or decency at all?!" _Relax Shokyoku. It's not like I was hurt. _Her frown only grew wider after she childishly stuck out her tongue at him, to which he caught and returned with a dirty look.

"Genrou, excuse my saying this," The emperor came in before yet another tangent to the situation arose, "but you never did tell us why you're here. Although I appreciate your escorting Akimoto back to us, I can imagine that it's something more than that."

"Eh? Oh, _that_." Straightening himself up, Tasuki folded his arms and addressed his emperor and priestess, leaving me to be taken care of by Nuriko, who generously offered a hand that I took without question to hoist me back onto my feet. "Well, I debated over the matter fer a while and asked myself if I _really_ wanted to put off bein' the leader over at Mt. Reikaku for a little while longer." Stepping out of his spot, he steadily made his way over to them. "But then I thought that it was worth it since I would be helpin' out a pal—not to mention than she's the older sis of the Priestess of Suzaku. So~ I thought I'd go and kill two birds with one stone." _Ah. So the secret's finally coming out. _

Having absolutely no clue where he was going with this, Miaka tilted her head to the side in bewilderment. "Genrou? What…exactly are you saying?"

The question made him grin smugly as he brought himself down to his knees at Miaka's sitting level. "You dummy—I've had you all fooled." Sliding down the sleeve covering his right arm, he revealed the crimson glowing character marking his existence as a celestial warrior. "I'm the one you've been looking for—Tasuki of the Suzaku Seven."

…

…

…

"WHAT?!" Miaka's green eyes grew wide as her shriek filled the empty environment with her disbelief. "NO WAY!"

Equally just surprised as his priestess, Nuriko's shock held bits of anger in it as well. Throwing down his fists in frustration, he yelled out, "Why the heck wouldn't you tell us about this earlier?! It could have saved us _a lot_ of trouble! Flamin' bum!" That's true. If Tasuki had just relayed this information at an earlier time, none of us would have had to even come to this village and endure the hoard of the undead. Although, a part of me sort of wanted to believe that regardless of his confession or not, somehow we would have had to deal with this issue in one way or another… Huh…I wonder why I'd think something like that?

Instead of reacting negatively towards Nuriko's accusations of him, Tasuki just smirked and turned his head to the side, obviously amused by how things have played out. "Like I said, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go through with it or not. I had intended to just keep it to myself at first, but since the secret was sort of unravelin' anyway—"

"Wait," Nuriko interrupted, trying like the others to wrap his brain around everything that was happening. "The secret was unraveling? What do you mean by…" Taking a moment to work through the equation, the feminine Suzaku warrior held his chin in pondering. It didn't necessarily take long for him to figure out what the bandit was insinuating. His eyes widened as he snapped his head at me. "Aki! Did you know that he was a Suzaku Warrior?"

Without hesitation, I said, "Yes I did."

"Did you know this _before_ we went out of our way to come out here?"

"Yes, I did."

Placing his hands on his hips in an authoritarian manner, he chastised me further. "You're just as bad as he is! Why didn't _you_ tell us?! I know you don't have your emotions and all, but give us a break! Didn't you once stop to think that this might be important?!" Usually, I'd question why people got so mad about things—after all, that was just one way that an enemy could discover how to manipulate you. But…In this case, I had to agree that my keeping this sort of secret should raise some questions if not some tempers. I still couldn't understand why I simply couldn't just tell Miaka who Tasuki was. Konan was in danger of being overrun by Kutou and Taiitsukun was more concerned with Miaka going through "trials and tribulations" so that she could "grow as a person" and be "deemed worthy" to be Suzaku's priestess. If there was no enemy with a significantly bigger army threatening one's country, then okay, I could see the benefit of making Miaka do things for herself. But since time was not exactly on their side, a lot of trouble could have been avoided if I had just told them the full truth from the beginning. Even though I say this, I still kept the secret because that old woman told me to—because she controlled more of my fate than was preferred. Besides…in the end, it made no difference to me if Konan won or not, so why not just do what Taiitsukun said?

Also…

When I had found out about Tasuki, I sensed that it was important to him to keep his identity hidden. And so…for some reason, I complied with this wish. I couldn't remember why though.

"Because," I tried to explain to Nuriko, "I was told not to—it wasn't exactly my place to do so."

He then gave me more of a troubled look that dominated a bit more over his anger and annoyance. "What? But why—"

"Nuriko its fine!" Miaka smiled up at him weakly, a gesture which managed to make her warrior less tense and soften up. "I'm sure Onee-chan had a good reason for not telling us and I trust her. The only thing that matters is that we've found the fifth Suzaku warrior. Right? That means we're only two people away from getting Tamahome back…" By this point, her complexion had darn near lost most of its color, and she was breathing rather heavily as her body shrank down frailly in her spot—odd considering she probably didn't even do anything strenuous. What was wrong with her? Then she muttered something that was more to herself than to any of us. "Tasuki…"

"So you left the bandits behind to fulfill your Celestial duties," Hotohori stated as he addressed his new comrade. "I commend your decision, even if it was delayed. But is that alright? Will they be fine without your being there?"

"Yeah, ya don't have to worry about _those_ guys." Tasuki assured with confidence. "My men over at the hideout aren't babies. They don't need me around holdin' their hands and their sake bottles. They'll do just fine with Kouji in charge until I get back."

Hotohori then gave him a slight nod in affirmation, almost as if he were sealing a deal. Then his concern turned towards me. "Akimoto, we didn't expect for you to separate from us when you did, but I suspect that you were planning to do that all along, correct? But now that you're here with us, is it possible that you found what you were looking for so soon?" Of the three of them who I had left behind earlier that day, Hotohori was the only one to accept the decisions I had made while in my current state. While I couldn't give him _too_ much credit considering he was just as much of an emotional creature as his friends were, I did have to commend him for being rather rational when it really counted. I mostly credited that characteristic due to his being emperor and it being necessary to be that way in order to make important political decisions. In a way, he was a bit more superior than the others in that regard for he knew when to put his emotions to the side and make the wiser decision. (However I couldn't fail to mention that he did have his weaker moments when his humanity made him fall victim to his emotions. But this was to be expected since he wasn't a robot nor did he possess an enchanted circlet like I had).

In light of this, he questioned me the least regarding the paths I knew I needed to take for me, and he was the quickest to accept them. Without putting up much of a fight, he let me stay with the bandits even though Nuriko and Miaka continued to fuss. He knew, or at least I assumed he knew, that my business was of no concern to him—or any of them for that matter—and that they needed to focus on their objective. If anything, he had my gratitude for that.

Now that it was time to report to him the results of my temporary defecting from their group, it was unfortunate that I didn't have something more positive to say. "No. While I did find _who_ I was looking for, I didn't exactly get what I wanted." And just as a formality, I bowed to him slightly and added in, "I apologize for not telling you of my initial intentions and for causing such a stir back at the bandit hideout." Of course I wasn't really sorry, but I figured that it was polite to say so.

Miaka strained in holding herself up. But despite whatever suffering she was going through, she had enough stamina to give me a reassuring smile. "It's okay Onee-chan, really! I'm just happy that you're here—" Upon the utterance of those last words, her energy finally gave out and she fell forward in a painful moan, her upper body's weight giving way to gravity.

"Miaka!" Catching her in time, Hotohori assisted his priestess in sitting back up, laying her against his chest with her eyes closed while breathing hard.

"Miaka are you alright?" Nuriko asked with worry washed all over his face.

"She ain't lookin' too good…" Tasuki observed, the grin completely wiped from his face as unease replaced his amusement. He then finally asked what I had been wondering the entire time. "What's goin' on with her anyway?"

Cradling her in his arms, Hotohori's hazel eyes were focused as he sat in thought. I automatically took notice of his grip tightening on her as a hard possibility became plausible. "It couldn't be…" _What?_

"Sire! You don't suppose that it's the disease that that old man was telling us about before, do you?!" _Disease? _What was Nuriko talking about?

Well, whatever it was, Hotohori didn't want to take any chances. Taking on a commanding tone fit for a respectable ruler, he demanded with incredible urgency, "Quickly! We need to get Miaka out of here and back into town!" Making sure that he had a good hold of her, Hotohori stood up while carrying the resting priestess in his arms, the other two warriors wearing distraught expressions as they proceeded to follow their emperor on a path away from the cursed graveyard.

Shokyoku watched them tending to the young girl, but her mind was actually elsewhere. "Something really weird is going on around here Aki. I don't know what it is, but humans coming back from the dead is a bad sign."

"Yeah…" Miaka had potentially caught some type of disease and we were attacked by zombies—two events that just happened to happen around each other. I couldn't help but wonder if they had anything to do with each other or if it was all some big coincidence.

"Hey Aki!" Stealing me away from my thoughts, I my gaze lifted up towards Tasuki who was trailing behind the others only by a little bit, calling out for me as he was about twenty yards away. "You comin' or what?" A tiny groan came from Shokyoku, reflecting her dislike of our being included in the Suzaku people's plans. It wasn't exactly my ideal situation either, but it was the cards that were dealt to us, and I was, for some reason, going to play the game. "Miaka needs us, so pick up the pace or we'll leave ya!" Considering how big a deal he made about my staying around, I highly doubted he'd leave me behind.

_But still._ "I'll be right there."

* * *

><p>The village of Choko…Generally, it looked like any other village or city in the Universe of the Four Gods—basically just what you'd expect a modest Chinese-like civilization to appear before hi-tech technology and European influence came into the picture. From the outside looking in, there really wasn't anything special about it. Unless you knew what was <em>really<em> going on, especially in that graveyard of theirs—crawling with zombies out of all things (something to which I wasn't even sure the residents of this place were even aware about). As if it weren't ridiculous enough, Tasuki and I were introduced this this young woman named Shoka, whom the others had already been acquainted with since before we met back up with them. She apparently was the one that we were all told about prior to coming to this village—the one who could apparently raise the dead.

Honestly, I couldn't really judge until I saw it for myself.

Anyway, because we (or they) discovered who the real Tasuki was, then there was initially no reason to even associate with Miss Shoka even more. But since Miaka was ill and they knew no one else in town, we ended up lodging at her home—which was actually pretty big, a nice size anyway that could hold a good number of guests if needed.

"A _human_ who can raise the dead? Excuse me if I have a hard time believing that," Shokyoku leaned against the door sill to the bedroom in which Miaka was sleeping in, eyeing Miss Shoka pretty closely. I just stood near the door up against the wall like a wallflower, choosing to stay out of everyone's way as they discussed Miaka's condition and how to go about it. Miss Shoka was in the room too. She was a relatively taller woman with a fair complexion and soft, pale green eyes and long, olive-colored hair tied up partially in twin, braided knots on the top of her head.

She didn't even seem like she'd be anything special, and yet, Hotohori and Nuriko claimed that they saw her resurrect someone. It would have been unfair to doubt what they said, but there was nothing wrong with some healthy skepticism. There was always a chance that this woman was a fake. And how was it that some normal human who wasn't a Celestial Warrior had powers anyway? True, I hadn't lived in this world all my life so I didn't exactly know all the rules. But by what I'd gathered, the only ones with supernatural abilities were the ones who were blessed by one of the four gods. I supposed there was a chance that Miss Shoka could have been a Celestial Warrior…but, there was also a chance that she wasn't, which made her even more suspicious.

Why would they trust her so easily without questioning her a bit? They were supposed to be Miaka's guardians and they let down their guard. Even Tasuki didn't seem to think that anything was up with this woman—he, just like the others were standing around perfectly comfortable with their unfamiliar surroundings and letting her get close to their priestess in her weakened state. If she were a Kutou spy or assassin, this would be the best chance to kill Miaka while she's down.

Hmm…

It was just really careless for Suzaku's warriors to be so relaxed around a stranger…

As what was expected in this situation, Miaka's caretakers begged the woman to do something about Miaka's illness. But further confirming the details given to us by those who had already gotten fairly familiar with her, she told us, regrettably, that her only power that she had in the village was to raise the dead and nothing else.

"I'm sorry to be the one to say this, but Miaka's condition will only worsen from here on," Miss Shoka informed us as she stood away from the priestess's bed. Nuriko had been tending to the suffering girl similarly to how a mother would—tucking her under the covers, fluffing her pillow, helping her to get situated and as comfortable as she could possibly be given her ailment. Miaka flashed him a weakened look of gratitude past her light, ongoing panting, displaying a smile that appeared to serve the purpose of relaying a message of naïve assurance—assurance that everything would be fine despite what Miss Shoka had just announced. And just as quickly as it had appeared, the smile faded with Miaka being too weak to even keep it up.

"Why did this disease have to affect Miaka out of all people?" The emperor's countenance twisted in despair upon the sight of his most precious one, his fists clenched in frustration, knowing that there was probably not a thing he could do to help her. "If there was a choice, I would have gladly taken all the pain to keep her from suffering like this…" _Wishful thinking. _I couldn't help but briefly think how the world would be if such a thing were possible. Every time a loved one got sick or disabled in any way, someone would wish that they would trade places with that person...and when that happened, the person who got better would end up finding out what the other person did and end up wishing that _they_ were the ones who should be suffering, not the other person, and so _they_ would end up back where they started. And then the whole cycle would keep going on for all eternity.

That would actually be a pretty good way of giving physicians a hard time.

Tasuki crossed his arms, sharing a bit in Hotohori's concern. "So, what? Yer sayin' that there's absolutely nothin' we can do about this? Talk about a rotten deal…"

"Miss Shoka, isn't there _anything_ you can do to help her? Anything at all?" Nuriko asked.

She shook her head, meeting their gazes with melancholic eyes. "No…In order for me to do anything, Miaka would have to die first. And then I'll be able to bring her back to life. In that case, she'll be freed from the disease upon her resurrection." _Hmm…_There was just something about that that just didn't sit well with me. Unfortunately, I haven' yet given this whole ordeal enough thought in order to figure out why.

"C'mon guys, stop looking…so worried…" Miaka breathed heavily while straining to turn her head towards us. Even with the extreme discomfort she was supposedly going through, she still managed to make that smile of hers that had the power to make people believe in whatever cause it was. "I know…that Miss Shoka said that there's no point…but…we can't give up hope. I think…that we should at least try to look for a doctor…no harm in that, right?" If there was a doctor capable of making a difference, wouldn't they have figured that he would have done something by now? There was no doctor who could fix this. This was just Miaka subconsciously trying to rope everyone else into her escaping the reality of her imminent demise.

It was sort of ironic, though. Out of all the things that could have possibly happened, Miaka was going to get done in by a sickness. If this were a book or story, that kind of ending would be rather disappointing.

In any case, Miaka's willingness to fight against this condition of hers pretty much just created more of a boomerang effect more than anything else.

I shall elaborate on this statement.

As per the priestesses request, she, her warriors, Miss Shoka, Shokyoku and I set out the next morning throughout Choko to attempt to find some supposed doctor who had the skills needed to aid Miaka in her time of need. Because she was still suffering from the symptoms of the disease, a high fever and pains that were said to be worse than death itself, Miaka barely even had any energy to keep herself up. She was more of a burden than usual, making us have to walk slower while the others supported her as she kept herself up with a long staff. While I understood her determination, it seemed more logical to me that we could have got a lot more done at a faster rate if we had just left her at Miss Shoka's place.

Then again…my mind was still trying to figure out the enigma that was this town and that woman Shoka. Having been given time to reflect on everything during the night, I was fairly certain that I was close to a revelation. Not having the trouble of worrying over Miaka and her well-being allowed me the luxury of doing precisely what the others could not. And because of that, I only needed a bit more time. Having said that, perhaps it _was_ a better decision to bring her along even though it was rather inefficient. At the rate we were going, it was a miracle that we were able to cover as much ground as we did. Not like there was a lot of ground to cover anyway. It helped that Miss Shoka knew where pretty much all of the doctors were at in this village. However, from the moment that the first doctor turned us down, quite bluntly for whatever reason, the rest of that mission no longer looked promising. One by one, the few doctors that were in that village turned us away, probably on the chance that Miaka's illness could spread to them. Perhaps if any of them actually believed that they could do anything about this, they'd be more willing to risk it. If anything, this just proved more of how much of a futile effort this was in trying to get Miaka some sort of magical cure that didn't exist.

And then, we got sidetracked for a bit when Miaka suddenly and momentarily forsook her illness during an attempt to retrieve a fish that had been accidentally dropped by some passerby merchant. Somehow, her zeal for food managed to distract her long enough to forget that she was supposed to be sick and in pain. During which time she got into an unnecessary brawl with some large, scruffy man whose black hair was outgrown and messy and whose lower face appeared prickly from the lack of shaving, was also pursuing the fish. While those two were preoccupied, Miss Shoka started displaying signs that she was unwell as well—face going pale and her movements becoming less graceful and more sluggish. So instead of sticking round, she retreated back to her place, telling us to meet her back there once everything was said and done with the doctor hunt.

Not to really anyone's surprise, the healthier man managed to overpower Miaka and win the fish. Still ignoring her body's crying out in agony, she foolishly chased after the man, thus leaving her in an even weaker state once the rush of adrenaline wore off. The Suzaku warriors, Shokyoku, and I weren't far behind, making sure that we never let the girl out of our sight. At some point, we ended up at some small shack isolated in a forest atop a hill just outside of the busier part of town. After Miaka's threatening the guy to give her back "her" fish, they proceeded to walk up to the place and take a peek inside an open window. Shokyoku and I just stood back and allowed them to intrude on the man, neither of us thinking that this little charade had any real importance. Our perceptions were almost immediately overturned the moment when Hotohori pointed out the many medicine jars scattered around the one-roomed structure. He then went on to assume that this guy might have been someone they had previously heard of named Myo Juan—the healer. So Miaka unknowingly threw down with a doctor, that didn't necessarily mean that he'd take the time to help us.

And he didn't.

In fact, he was quite adamant about not helping us—growing unreasonably angry for no apparent reason and saying that he doesn't work with humans…whatever that meant.

Upon being kicked out, Miaka's body finally gave way to the worse part of the disease. She no longer possessed the ability to keep herself up let alone walk. And as we were making our way back to Miss Shoka's house, Miaka steadily began to lose her vision which ultimately lead to complete blindness. Something to which, under normal circumstances, she would have freaked out about. But by this point, she didn't even have enough energy to do that.

So here we had come full circle. Miaka had insisted the night before that we go out and look for someone to help her. But all that did was encourage this illness even more, leading her right back in the same place she was at when planning to attempt this feat—in bed. And thus, I have explained what I meant about this being somewhat like a boomerang.

Now, hours had gone by and it was deep into the night. When we had come back to Miss Shoka's, Miaka was assisted out of her wet-with-sweat school uniform into a much lighter white robe, her hair also wrapped in a ponytail instead of its usual twin buns.

From the moment she was laid back into bed, Miaka was forced to endure the waves of pain which seemed to be becoming ever more apparent through how her face would twist with agony from time to time in her unconscious state, and how her body would suddenly tense up as it tried to withstand the surges. And then, the pattern would end with her panting even harder than before. This trend continued on, and was growing more and more frequent as the virus persisted.

I quickly lost interest in watching Miaka as her condition worsened, so leaving the others behind in her room, I took a seat right outside her door, sitting quietly as I continued to work through the conundrum that had been wrapping itself around my brain ever since the zombie attack.

For the most part, I was able to tune everything and everyone out—both the moaning and groaning coming from Miaka as well as the concerned comments from her warriors. It also helped that no one really seemed to notice that I wasn't even present anymore, which was really how things were meant to be. Miaka was their main priority, not me.

My thoughts, however, were interrupted upon hearing the desperate pleas of Miaka's friends, a pointless gesture really since we all knew what Miss Shoka would end up saying again.

"I can't stand seeing Miaka like this. If this goes on for much longer, I can't even imagine the torture that she'll be going through…" Nuriko said.

Tasuki cursed under his breath. "Damn it all…" Raising his voice in that familiar way of his, he addressed Miss Shoka. "I refuse to think that we can't do a doggone thing to help her!"

Even though her answer would end up being the same, she didn't seem to display any sign of annoyance towards their tenacity. She kindly and calmly replied, "Like I told you all before, there really is no cure for this disease other than allowing Miaka to die. If you wish to do something for her and end her pain, then the only true solution here is to kill her. After that, I'll revive her and she'll be healed." At that, my head immediately snapped to the side towards the door. _Kill her…so that Miss Shoka could bring Miaka back to life…huh? _My eyes narrowed at the suggestion. _That woman…_

Fortunately, someone other than Shokyoku and I had enough sense to think that this might be a bad idea. "You've gotta be kiddin' me! You don't think that we'd actually kill her do ya? That's crazy!" Tasuki probably only shared in my skepticism because he, Shokyoku, and I were the only ones who hadn't witnessed Shoka displaying her powers. Earlier, I mentioned how Miss Shoka deserved for us to give her a chance, otherwise it wouldn't have been very fair to her…but after giving it a bit more thought…

Very faintly, Miaka's voice came through, signaling that she had been awake to hear this resolve. "My friends…it's fine. I believe…in Miss Shoka. Hotohori, Nuriko…we saw her use her powers with our own eyes, right? She can do this. Besides…what choice do we have? I need my strength so that…we can find the remaining two Suzaku Warriors…Just two more! We're so close. Don't you…" She paused to catch her breath. "Don't you think that we should do whatever needs to be done?" She then paused again before saying, "I promise you guys, I'll be just fine once Miss Shoka is done with me and then…we can keep going! Please…"

After a few moments of silence that befell once Miaka gave her okay to end her life, Hotohori spoke up, uttering the words that none of us expected him to ever say, "Everyone…can you please step out of the room? I'm…going to kill Miaka." Sure, I could see how this might be a good idea. If all the other pieces in this puzzle weren't involved, I might have endorsed it upon further investigation to prove that this method was legitimate. Even though I couldn't care less as to whether any of these people died or not, I still figured that it was irresponsible of them to be throwing caution to the wind as they were. But instead of protesting, the others slowly evacuated from the site, exiting the room to meet me on the outside, Nuriko and Tasuki's faces noticeably filled with dread. Shoka was the last to exiting, sliding the door closed behind her, thus muffling their voices, making it harder for any of us to listen to what was going on inside.

Before too long, Tasuki and Nuriko swiftly slid up to the door, both leaning firmly against it in such a way that their ears were practically glued to the thing as the eavesdropped on the concealed couple—their faces displaying determination to find out what was perspiring on the inside. Their curiosity was understandable, I supposed…

"He'll never be able to do it," Shokyoku stated from my other side opposite the door to Miaka's room. I faced her. Her arms were crossed and her eyes closed, a slight hint of irritation on her features.

"Huh?" _Why wouldn't he? Because he's her Suzaku warrior?_

"Well, I supposed that that would be a reason, but it's not _the_ reason." She opened her hetero-colored eyes halfway, a small, sympathetic smile formed on her lips although she didn't look at me directly. "I wouldn't exactly expect you to understand right now, but…he loves her too much. And because of that, he'll never be able to kill the one he loves." Even if I couldn't feel the emotion, I still knew what love was, or what it supposedly was if it really existed. To put quite simply, Hotohori found Miaka too valuable to him. Yeah… I could see that…as best as I could anyway. "Also, I assure you, Yuki will not be dying from this illness either."

How could that be? "But it's supposed to be incurable. What makes you think that she'll be so lucky as to escape from this?"

Closing her eyes once more, the little girl flipped a shorter lock of her hair displayed in the front before resuming with her crossed-arm stance. "My dear Aki, it has absolutely nothing to do with luck. It's plain fact. I kid you not. If this disease gets too bad, then I'll have no choice but to intervene and deal with it myself. For I know a secret that can get Yuki out of this without that human performing such an abomination such as raising her back to life."

I blinked at her. "Since I have a feeling that you won't relay such a secret to me at this time, learning from past experience, then would you at least mind explaining why you would do anything to help anyone other than you and me?"

Taking a quickly glance at the door beside me, to which Tasuki and Nuriko were still attached to, Shokyoku answered, "I can't tell you everything at this moment, but I can say that in the grand scheme of things, Yuki is an important factor, even if I don't care about her in the least. And so in this case, I'm ignoring my feelings and would be doing the sensible thing should things come down to that." Her smile fell then as she glared over towards Miss Shoka, who was standing around doing nothing of particular interest. "That particular monkey disturbs me somehow…I really don't like the idea of her having anything to do with Yuki or you Aki." She took her eyes off of the woman and painted a softer expression onto her face as she looked at me. "I hope you don't think that I'm being paranoid in any way…"

I shook my head and kept my gaze fixed on Miss Shoka as well. "No…you're right…something is off about everything…" Almost as if someone were controlling a mini projection slide show in my mind, the facts were presented to me one click at a time, thus allowing me to visualize everything as I were actually able to see it in front of me.

_Zombies…_

_A woman who has the power to bring people back to life…_

_A mysterious disease with no medical cure…_

_The only way to be "healed" is to die and/or be killed…_

_Miaka, Nuriko, and Hotohori all saw Miss Shoka bring someone back to life and they were in full health again…_

_Hmm…_In there lies another problem that I had trouble figuring out.

_If Miss Shoka's method was such a for-sure thing, then death shouldn't be that big of a deal in this village. I mean…in a sense, there is a cure—death and resurrection. Since that might be the case, then why were those doctors who turned us away so afraid? Naturally, people would avoid dying at ant cost, even if resurrection was a choice. But still…_

Well, that answer was obvious: they knew something that they weren't telling us.

_And if Miss Shoka's method was such a for-sure thing, then what happened to the patients that she's "cured" so far? Why haven't we been given testimonies of those who were brought back?_

My brain just had to dive deeper into this. I would have been much more inclined to believe in all this if I had more proof. But where was that proof? What happened to that man that the others saw before Shokyoku, Tasuki, and I showed up?

…

…

…

...

And then, as if a bolt of lightning had suddenly stricken me, the answer invaded my mind halfway through my thought process.

That was when I smiled. Of course, it wasn't a real smile since I couldn't feel any emotions, but this just seemed to be an appropriate moment to smile upon such an obvious epiphany.

_So…_My eyes traveled over to Miss Shoka, who caught my stare and returned it with a kind, yet sad smile. I gave no real visual response other than to continue looking at her. _That's what's going on here. _Probably feeling as if we were keeping eye contact for too long, she broke her gaze rather meekly, returning to turn her concerned attention back towards the room where Hotohori was supposedly getting the dirty deed done.

What was left was my contemplation on what I should do next regarding my discovered truth. But before that train of thought could progress any more, Hotohori abruptly slid open the door with a distraught look on his face as he held his sheathed sword, making Nuriko fumble backwards and scramble into an inconspicuous pose in order to avoid from making it any more obvious that he was eavesdropping on them. And for some reason, one to which I wasn't paying any attention to, Tasuki was sitting on the ground rubbing the back of his head, tending to the wound that was made probably from his impalement into the wall behind him—the wall even had a deep crater-like imprint in the shape of his body that he must have peeled off from. He must have done or said something to upset Nuriko enough to provoke the super-strength Suzaku Warrior to hit him all the way across the room.

Trying to appear as innocent as possible, to hide his recent actions, and returning to a mostly sincere countenance, Nuriko addressed his emperor. "Sire?"

Securing his weapon onto his side once more, Hotohori replied in a manner that was meant for the whole room to hear, not only directed at Nuriko. "I'm going to beg Myo Juan one more time for his help. Even if he says no again, I'll never be able to live with myself if I didn't at least give it another attempt." Now he faced his comrade warriors. "Nuriko, Tasuki, I'd like you two to accompany me."

"Of course!" Nuriko complied.

"If it'll help out Miaka, then I'm in too," Tasuki said as he recovered from Nuriko's assault, walking up to the man he didn't even recognize as his emperor (no one had even bothered to tell him now that I thought about it).

Then I realized that something that I was expecting hadn't been said. I asked Hotohori, "Not me?"

And to that query he turned in my direction and smiled at me, his hazel eyes providing me their full attention. "Akimoto, I would prefer that you stay here." Would I be that troublesome for them? Perhaps…Before I would have assumed that they didn't want me to accompany them because they thought that I was too reckless, which of course wasn't the case, I was just more willing to make certain sacrifices and chances than they were. And in response to that I had to say that they were much too sensitive to acknowledge that they were being irrational. However, in this case presented before me, Hotohori probably didn't want me to come along because with this body beginning to break down, I could imagine that I would start to become a burden as well. My assumption was somewhat overturned when the emperor followed up with, "I'll feel a lot better if you and Shokyoku were here to look after Miaka. I'm sure nothing worth worrying about will happen in our absence, but it'll just give me peace of mind. I trust you completely."

I wasn't quite sure how much I could believe that. For all I knew, he was lying to me thinking that his words would somehow make me feel better—not that it mattered to me one way or the other. But if he figured that my staying put would do the group some good as a whole, what reason did I have not to comply?

"Alright."

* * *

><p>A little bit of time had passed since Hotohori and the others made their way back to Myo Juan's, perhaps half an hour, maybe more. Miaka had once again fallen asleep, her body trying to use her slumber to recover from a disease which was supposedly incurable. And Shoka, after leaving to retrieve something from another room some time ago, had returned and had been with the young priestess, watching over the girl as she slept. I didn't really know when to expect the Suzaku warrior's return, so all I could do was wait and marinate in my thoughts a bit more.<p>

Maybe it was the better idea for Shokyoku and me to stay behind. After figuring out that Shoka was really the villain in all this, leaving Miaka alone would have been foolish. Have I been given a few more moments, I would have become conscious of this myself and would have volunteered to stay instead of having Hotohori suggest it. Either way, I had decided not to do or say anything regarding my findings—at least, not yet. Naturally, I'd step in if the situation got too bad, like if Shoka suddenly decided to stop playing the role of the innocent maiden. Besides, even if I was sure that I knew what was going on, it didn't mean that I had every single piece to this puzzle. There were other factors that I had to take into consideration—

Without any warning, my form spontaneously began to conduct think streams of purple and black electricity, my upper body jerked forward as I released an involuntary, violent cough, my hand already instinctively made its way to my mouth in preparation. Upon opening my eyes, my sight had honed in on the blood splattered in mini pools on my palm. Foreseeing the bodily liquid dripping onto my clothing, I reached into my robe and brought out a white handkerchief that Nuriko had given to me the night before during my first really violent coughing episode. He said he wasn't sure if it would really help at all, but he didn't know what else he could do to help me. So he asked if I would take it, to make him feel like he had actually done something useful. Knowing full well that this piece of cloth would accomplish absolutely nothing other than to shield the world from my blood, I took it anyway and thanked him.

The fact of the matter was that I was getting weaker. But the others had no reason to concern themselves with my condition.

While I wiped the blood away from my mouth and hands, Shokyoku stared solemnly at the blood ridden cloth in my possession.

"It's really unfair…" she said in a low voice.

"What is?"

"It's unfair that not even a doctor, human or otherwise, can save you either…Its unfair that your condition doesn't have as easy of an answer that Yuki's does…" Her head lowered once she tore her eyes from the handkerchief. "What good is the world if Yuki lives but you die?" What kind of question as that? The world wouldn't be much different without my presence in it…Why were these so people so hung up on my probable death?

Just then, Miss Shoka had said something in Miaka's room, although I wasn't investing enough attention onto her at that moment to catch what it was. _Is Miaka awake? _Trying to listen for anything else, a few moments went by before I suddenly heard Miss Shoka yell out, "I'M NOT CHOCOLATE, I SWEAR!"

…What?

Now I was curious as to what was going on in there. "Shokyoku…"

As if we were in sync, Shokyoku took herself away from the wall and went to go investigate, which in retrospect was much more efficient than my going since neither of them would be able to see her. Once Shokyoku reached the doorway to take a look inside, she dropped her arms and widened her eyes in alarm.

"That bitch—no class at all! She's trying to stab Yuki while she's sleeping!" _What? _Immediately standing up in my spot to get ready for anything, I couldn't help but think of how I didn't expect for this to happen. At least…not with me around anyway. This seemed like something she'd do if she and Miaka were left alone. It was either she was that confident about how below the radar she was, or she really didn't consider me much of a threat. Perhaps both.

_Well, if Miss Shoka has finally decided to move the plot along, I guess I have no choice but to—_

At that moment, I discovered that Shokyoku's face had transformed from an alarmed one, to that of a bewildered one. "What's…going on here? Is she serious?"

I titled my head in confusion. "What is it?"

"That human woman has been trying a few times to stab Yuki, but every time, Yuki just rolls out of the way and avoids it somehow…Is she even really asleep?" Turning only her head to me, she pointed towards the inside of the room and asked, "Should we do anything about this?"

Whether or not Miaka was asleep, she seemed to be doing pretty well for herself. Either that or Miss Shoka just wasn't trying that hard and was being insincere about murdering her. And so figuring that the situation wasn't as dire as I has just assumed, I brushed it off and replied, "Nah, she's fine." However, the situation wasn't over. Miss Shoka, even if she was going easy on Miaka, knew that I was right outside the door, so she had to have known that I heard the majority of what was going on, and for all she knew, I had seen everything too. Which of course meant that I was now a witness. And learning from past experience, a villain almost never allowed a witness to roam free. Since that was the case…

We were nearing the climax of our little adventure in Choko.

"She's putting her dagger away and coming towards us," Shokyoku reported, taking a step to the side so that the emerging woman wouldn't walk right through her.

Once she cleared the doorsill to where I could see her clearly, she walked a few more steps ahead of us, landing her in the middle of the room, before stopping and speaking to me without looking back. "Why didn't you try to stop me? Or…why didn't you run to get help? Isn't Miaka your friend?"

Answering her questions in reverse order, I told her, "No, she is not my friend. The only people who'd I'd consider skilled enough to deal with the likes of whatever you are happen to be somewhere else at the moment—chasing after them would have merely given you more time to do what you please. And if I honestly thought that you were going to kill Miaka, I would have intervened…if you _really_ must know."

"To add to that, you couldn't even kill a helpless sick girl who was asleep," Shokyoku taunted with a sneer. "How pathetic." As usual, Shokyoku's snide comment went without recognition since Shoka had no insight about her existence.

During the middle of this interrogation, Shoka spontaneously dropped to the floor, her whole body beginning to shake as her arms crossed over the other in an embrace. Her head then dropped low while her nails clawed into the robe's material covering her arms.

Momentarily ignoring this turn of events, I continued on since it appeared as if she wouldn't volunteer any information on her own. "Who or what are you? Why are you terrorizing the town with this illness and creating zombies?"

Struggling, she turned her head as much as she could and looked at me out of the corner of her eye, that lone eye itself admitting that she had been shocked by my accusation. "Wh-why would you say such a thing? I was…trying to…help Miaka. I already told you…" Breathing heavily now, I could see that she was growing pale. "If Miaka dies, I can bring her back. But not as a zombie as you say, but as a healthy, alive young woman—same as she was before." My eyes narrowed at her. "No matter what you and your friends try, no doctor…i-in this whole village can save her except me—"

"It appears that way, doesn't it?" I blurted out. With her body still shaking for whatever reason, she shifted her position just a tad so that she could face me a bit more. "It's peculiar…a deadly virus swept only into this village. People die of this sickness and then you show up to revive them. Not only that, but my companions and I couldn't help but notice the stunning number of the undead you have crawling along the graveyard near here. While I didn't have the time nor the interest to check the personal data on all of those you have 'revived' or on those zombies, but I think it's a pretty safe assumption to make that those zombies were once your patients. The people you bring back are still dead, even if they don't appear to be so at first. For whatever reason, you infect people with this virus and at some point, they turn into your puppets—probably after the sickness eats away at their life." At that moment, the woman's eyes went sharp as she sent me a dirty look. If nothing else, that reaction alone told me that I was right.

"_Y-You_…" she growled past her apparent discomfort, her hands clenching even more to her arms.

"It might be helpful for you to know a bit about me," I said, guessing at what she was curious about. Pointing to the silver ornament around my head, I told her, "You see, I don't have any emotions." Her eyes widened at that statement. "Therefore, I can think more rationally than mostly anyone. Because of that, I wasn't distracted with fussing over Miaka like the others were. I simply didn't care about her. I was able to see the full picture and make connection. And while I'll admit that it took me longer to figure out than I'd have liked it to, I eventually realized how simple this riddle was." I supposed you could say that I was thinking too hard at first about it, but at the very least, things eventually fell into place. "In fact, when I think about it, you were quite clumsy with covering your tracks. It sort of puzzles me how you were able to get away with it this long…"

Shoka's glare continued to fire bullets at me, her lack of providing a retort even further confirmed my hypothesis. "You want to kill me now, right?" I bluntly asked her, sensing that she was trying to formulate some way to do me in. "You're welcomed to try. However, I must warn you that it won't turn out in your favor." Shokyoku tossed me a knowing look then, nodding at me as she took a step forward in preparation for whatever I might command her to do, shifting her eyes toward the enemy. "To be honest, you're already on the road to termination as it is…"

Giving up on her silent death threat, her anger fell from her face as she lost the will and energy to keep it. Shoka then faced forward again, hiding herself from us as she continued to hold herself as if she were in pain. "I…I never wanted to kill anyone. I _don't_ want to kill anyone…especially not Miaka…" _Huh? Doesn't want to kill anyone? Is she lying? _Burying herself deeper into her arms, she demanded, "Please, get Miaka out of here before I hurt her…" I really expected her to threaten me then, but instead, she was asking for sympathy? And asking me to save one of her victims?

"What's…going on here?" Shokyoku asked, probably just as confused as I was. "Isn't she some merciless witch or something?" _I don't know about her being a witch…but…perhaps there was a detail I missed during the contemplation process…_Apparently there was another factor I had yet to discover…even if everything else I said was true, there was a detail that was missing.

Again, Shoka asks, but this time crying out, "Please! I beg of you take Miaka away from here! Quickly!"

Shokyoku relaxed her stance a bit as she wondered what to do. "Aki?"

_Perhaps I could figure out the remaining parts of this puzzle later…_Shoka was dead serious about my taking Miaka away. And so, without asking any more questions, I headed into Miaka's room, making sure that Shokyoku still had her eyes on the mysterious woman.

Sure enough, Miaka was still asleep through all of this. So to wake her up, I placed my hand on her shoulder and shook her, investing enough force to pull her out of her slumber.

"Miaka…wake up. Miaka…!" The girl just mumbled incoherently in response to my actions. Although I was fairly certain that she mentioned something about a deep fried Tamahome somewhere in there…So I tried again. "Miaka. C'mon…" Still nothing. That sickness of hers really knocked her out. In that case, I'd have to try something that I knew would work. "Miaka, breakfast is ready."

On cue, the Priestess of Suzaku opened her eyes up wide and sat up in the matter of a second, blurting out with a wide smile and some drool hanging over the side of her mouth, "Great! When do we eat?! I'll have one of everything!" Blinking a few times, she sniffed around for the food that wasn't there. "Oh no! Please don't tell me that my sense of smell is gone too! That's one of the best parts of eating!" For no real reason at all, I gave her a few moments to just let her figure it out on her own. Allowing her brain to finally process a bit, she settled down and called out for me, "Onee-chan? There's no food, is there?"

"Not right now…no."

"What's wrong?" Now a sense of urgency has stricken her, as she reached out to feel for my sleeve and clenched onto it while an expression of worry wiped onto her face. "How are the others? And Miss Shoka? Is everything alright? Are the zombies back?" Her eyes darted into every direction, not knowing where to go or what to look at since she was still unable to see.

"Miaka…" Jerking her hand away from my sleeve, I grabbed onto her upper arm. "It's time to go, we can't stay here."

Following my location by my voice, she looked up at me with worry. "Why? What's wrong? What about Miss Shoka?" Tugging more on her arm, she finally complied, although still incredibly bewildered for waking up to such alarm. Even as she stood up, she requested, "Onee-chan, please just let me see Miss Shoka so that I know she's alright. Well, I know that I can't really see her, but hearing her voice should be alright. It's not that I don't trust you—far from that…I'm just concerned, because you're being pushier than normal…" I remained silent. There was no reason for her to find out everything at this present moment. I'd inform her and the others once we got to a safer distance. Miaka struggled very little, but as we walked out of her room, she still showed a bit of resistance, reflecting her concern over Shoka.

Shokyoku met us at the room's exit, her tiny body once again readying itself for whatever might happen. "Something really weird is going on Aki. That woman's hair suddenly snapped out of its hold and her skin's turned into a different color…" It was true. While she still sat hunched up on the floor, Shoka's hair had somehow freed itself and actually appeared to be somewhat spikier than what it originally had been. As we inched closer to the door, I was beginning to see what Shokyoku was talking about Shoka's skin. It had lost its lively color and was reducing to a deadly greyish. The more I noticed her holding herself the way she was, the more I was thinking that instead of being in pain, perhaps she was…actually trying to keep _something_ inside of her.

The door was so closely in my grasp when Miaka decided to rebel and break free of my grip, hurrying closer towards the whimpering sounds coming from Shoka, even though she couldn't see what was going on before her.

"Miss Shoka! Are you okay? Where are you?"

"Mi…Miaka…You…"

"Miss Shoka, please be alright." Holding her hands up, Miaka tried to feel her way around, just like anyone would if the lights had suddenly gone out on them and all they could see what pitch-blackness. "Onee-chan, I'm sorry for breaking away like that, really I am. But I can't just leave Miss Shoka here." I was actually not that surprised that she did that. But still…it didn't make her actions any less foolish.

"Miaka…you must…get away from me!"

"But Miss Shoka, why—" With Shoka's metamorphosis seeming to have been at its end, the "woman" shot up from her spot and spin around, revealing just how much she had changed. Her previously healthy skin had shifted into the grey, lifeless complexion of a corpse, becoming so tight that the blue veins under her skin seemed to have created ridges along the surface. The iris and pupil in her eyes had now become so beady that they were barely even visible, almost making it appear as if she didn't even possess them to begin with.

Possess…Possessed. _I wonder…could that woman be…?_

Bearing her sharpened teeth like a wild animal, she reached her arms out towards the clueless Miaka, her nails grown out like claws as she slowly advanced.

"Miaka…" Taking no further time to wait this out, I quickly stepped in front of Miaka, wondering both why my body reacted like this and why this girl couldn't just do what she was told.

"It's too late!" The woman hissed, rushing up to me, planting her palm over my face.

"Aki!" Shokyoku called out in panic, but nothing could be done, for in that moment, used some supernatural force to blast me backwards. The whole action was like a blur. It was too fast. I could barely see the world pass me in the instant I flew, but reality slowed down again upon my sudden halt. Somehow, I had ended up on the ground and my body was having difficulty moving. Deducing that I had been hurt, I carefully, tossed my head to the side to see what had stopped my path.

The wall. Well, that made sense. At least the attack wasn't powerful enough to send me through it. So fortunately, I can hope that my body is only stunned for the moment.

Bringing her hands to her moth in worrisome shock, Shokyoku uttered my name in a low tone…"Aki…" With a violent glare, Shokyoku tuned to Shoka, her body vibrating, and began to produce a dark indigo aura around her body which grew as the seconds went by. "_How dare you hurt her_!"

Using a little of the remaining strength I had, I tried to calm her down. "No…Shokyoku. You can't do an attack yet."

Her aura diminishing a bit, she tossed me a baffled look still mixed with anger. "But Aki…"

"Miaka is standing in front of her…it's one thing to attack knowing you'll hit the mark despite the sacrifices. But…it's another story when there's more of a chance at your not being quite as successful. Wait…for a better opening."

The door to the building suddenly flew open then, Hotohori bursting through the door with his sword unsheathed. "Miaka! Get away from that monster!"

His priestess only heard his voice and turned to where she thought she heard it, still feeling around the air with her hands. "Hotohori?"

The urgency never left his voice as he gripped both hands onto the sword's handle. "Miss Shoka died almost a year ago!" _What? She died? _I had to admit…I wasn't expecting that to be another detail.

"Wha-What did that monkey say?" Allowing a slight shiver to crawl up her spine, she quickly regained her composure. "I _knew_ something was wrong with that woman!"

"What?" Miaka blinked in confusion, still not comprehending the severity of the situation. Before she even had a chance to do so, the evil being behind her smacked her hand atop Miaka's head and used her claws to keep her grip.

In an airy demonic tone which still had remnants of the human Shoka's voice, the monster, droned, "Your warning came a little too late! And now I shall devour this girl and then I shall devour all of you! No one will escape!"

The moment reality finally hit her, Miaka struggled ferociously, waving her arms and kicking her legs, trying to break out of her captor's old. "No! Please don't eat me! Miss Shoka, I promise you I'm not very appetizing! Let me go—" Shoka then silenced Miaka by harshly wrapping her hand around the girl's throat, squeezing harder in an effort to suffocate her.

In the midst of all this, the door came open once more, but this time, three people emerged from it, quickly shutting the door behind them. Two of them were Tasuki and Nuriko, who were backing up some tall, muscular man with short, black spikey hair—two cloths colored light purple and yellow tied around his forehead to match the rest of his attire. And for some reason, he had a white cloth wrapped around the palm of his left hand. _Who's this guy? _

"Vile demon! Release her at once!" Raising his sword to the ready, Hotohori prepared to launch himself at his priestess's imprisoner. But his plans were overturned by the sound of a command given by the unrecognizable voice of the new member.

"Enough!" Oddly enough, the monster actually stopped what she was doing and gave her attention to the new guy, her eyes instantly going wide once her inspection of him was over.

Hotohori peered over his shoulder at the newcomers to the party. "Tasuki! Nuriko! You made it back alright. But who is this with you?"

Nuriko just shrugged, also not knowing what to think of the situation. "We don't exactly know Sire. He really helped us out back there with those possessed people and just insisted on coming here."

Suddenly remembering something, Tasuki looked around for something. "Hey…I see the brat over there," he said while motioning his head over to Shokyoku, "but where's Aki?" His searching finally came to a halt when he spotted my motionless body lying against the back wall. He gasped, "Aki!"

Nuriko followed his gaze and shock appeared upon his face as well, "Oh no, Aki!" Both of them rushed over to me, Nuriko crouching down to my height with distress written all over his face. "Are you alright?!"

"I don't really know…" I told him, "I can't imagine that I would be though…" My body was still apparently stunned and had trouble moving on its own. Such a bother that was…this circlet around my head, according to Taiitsukun, was supposed to allow my brain to control my limbs and other parts of my body by unconventional means—metaphorically extending out strings to all my parts so that I could manipulate my body as if it were a marionette since because of what Stella did making it impossible for me to move on my own on a normal basis. In a way, I figured that this would give me an advantage. Despite my injuries, I should have been able to still move a bit more that other people normally would because I couldn't feel anything. Even if hurt, humans or beings of the like had the capacity to do so much more than they think their body really could. But most people don't even know that because they aren't put into situations where going past their "limits" were even called for. However, since my situation was different, I was hoping that I'd be able to tap into that hidden potential because I had no other distractions preventing me from doing so.

Clearly though, I was expecting too much from this headdress…or maybe I wasn't. After all, when I thought about it, my body was reacting exactly to how it should have been after all its been through…Perhaps…I had already gone past my limit and was experiencing the physical energy decline…

Either way, it was hindering me from doing things for myself.

"Here…" Nuriko took it upon himself to lift my arm around his neck as he wrapped an arm of his around my waist, pushing up with his knees to support me and help me up from my spot.

"Damn it…" Tasuki growled and looked towards Shoka in disdain. "What are we supposed ta do about this dead broad?"

Immediately after that question was asked, the demonic woman had still been paused from her actions upon seeing the man who had confronted her. She uttered in a low voice, "Juan…"

Still unable to move from the woman's grip, Miaka decided to take the time out to figure out the riddle. "Juan? Now where have I heard that name…?" Her green eyes trailed upwards as she rattled her brain on this one, as if she were digging through a chest filled with a bunch of old thoughts and memories. She squinted her eyes, giving all she could to regain enough of her vision for her to see this mysterious man. Some of it must have returned, for her expression immediately lit up into that of surprise. "Oh! It is! It's Mr. Myo Juan!" _Myo Juan? Do they mean that doctor who was supposed to be the best but refused to treat Miaka?_

"What?!" Tasuki and Nuriko blinked at the guy with intense disbelief. "How could that old scruffy guy from before be this young guy?!" I couldn't exactly blame them, I mean…this guy had really cleaned himself up from that poor hermit we had seen earlier that day. But what I wanted to know was why he had shown up here? And now?

"Shoka," Myo Juan spoke up again. "You've died, but now you've come back as a monster who has spread a horrible disease amongst the villagers—a monster who feeds off the souls and flesh of her victims." His hands clenched at his sides. "You must put an end to this now." Alright, so these two had some kind of history, that's what I had gathered. My attention suddenly then got diverted to the window, where a hoard of zombies were attempting to climb their way in, most of them either taking hold of the window sill or lifelessly reaching out their arms in an attempt to grab at something. While I was aware of the seriousness of the situation, all I did was blink at them and give an uninterested stare.

I knew two guys though who might not have shared in my nonchalance. "Not to alarm anyone, but the reanimated corpses are trying to get inside…" Nuriko and Tasuki immediately snapped their heads towards the threat in alarm.

"WAHHHH!" They both shouted out. Releasing me to be on my own, Nuriko, along with his fiery-haired ally, found it more urgent to run up to the window and shut it immediately, making sure to keep their bodies up against it to prevent the mob from getting in. Without the support, my body fell to its knees, still needing time to recover from Shoka's blow.

"Aki we understand that you can't feel anything, but could you at least _pretend_ to be normal and be a little more alarmed next time?!" The purple-haired Suzaku warrior yelled out.

"Yeah! Warn us before it gets this bad!" Tasuki agreed with obvious irritation.

Tilting my head similarly to how Miaka did earlier, I asked, "Are you expecting this to happen again anytime soon?"

"THAT'S BESIDES THE POINT!" They yelled out in unison. From behind them, the walking corpses banged on the window's doors, each attempt becoming more persistent and forceful than the last.

"What the hell is with all of these people anyway? Why do they keep bothering us?" Nuriko asked to no one in particular.

This was when Myo Juan said something that proved my theory. "Those people are no longer living. They're the townspeople that Shoka had resurrected. Even if they seemed alive and well after she 'helped' them, the fact is, they're no more alive now than the moment they passed away to begin with. Now, they are only zombies under her control." He paused for a moment and then said something that sounded like a spoken thought. "If all of this is true, then all I want to know is why? Why are you doing this Shoka?" His tone insisted that he was demanding an answer out of her.

"Huh, so they _are_ only zombies! Man! I coulda taken care of them on our way here with my tessen!" Tasuki complained.

"But you didn't," I said as Shokyoku ran up to me wrapping herself around my arm.

That statement irked him a bit. "That's only because Mr. Proper over there thought that they were alive and worth sparing!" He motioned over to Hotohori. "It was my idea to toast them in the first place! I _knew_ I shoulda followed my gut!"

"Silence!" The banter was immediately ceased once the demon keeping hold of Miaka spoke with much contempt in her voice as she addressed Myo Juan. "Upon my death bed a year ago, I suffered beyond anything you could have ever possibly imagined. The pain was unbearable…Every night, I called out for you, but you never came! But I still had faith in you and I put every ounce of my strength into waiting just one more minute after the other hoping you'd come for me. And despite all of my effort and suffering, you weren't there. You allowed me to die alone…" The red veins in the corners of her eyes accentuated even more. "You have no right to question me now when you have done _nothing_." Myo Juan said nothing in response to this, so Shoka continued while resuming strangling Miaka. "I guarantee that you'll never come close to feeling my pain, but once I'm done devouring this girl, I'll give you a horrible death worthy for what you did to me!"

"How sad…" I commented straightforwardly, prompting everyone to turn my way in what seemed to be disbelief. "All of this because of some pointless vendetta? So many people have lost their lives all because you let your emotions get the better of you, even after death. Were you honestly so weak as to throw away all of your morals and become a monster? This is a prime example of why the world would be better off without emotions. History doesn't lie… Such strong emotions such as love and hate only lead to sacrifice and destruction—they show weakness and prevent progress and make people behave in unacceptable ways due to irrational logic and poor decision making—"

"No Onee-chan, you're wrong!" Miaka, even in her predicament managed to get the opportunity to speak her mind. Her voice strained with the contraction of her wind-pipe due to Shoka's strangling, but still, the girl persisted, peaking at me out of her half-closed eyes. "I-I know it's…difficult for you to grasp onto what I'm saying, but please try! Emotions aren't a sign of weakness and…they aren't unnecessary or useless! They are important parts to living, without them, how else can we truly experience life? I mean…sure, sometimes they slip us up and make us make foolish decisions, but…isn't that what makes us human?" _Humanity…huh? But…I'm not… _"Miss Shoka…I don't think you're a monster at all!" Shoka's eyes widened at Miaka's note of sympathy, causing the demon to weaken her grip as she became tamer. And with this, Miaka relaxed a bit, but turned to face the woman to continue her point. "You…You just made a mistake! You shouldn't have to die because you're guilty of loving someone as much as you did. And it's…perfectly understandable why you did all this. Your heart was broken because Mr. Myo Juan wasn't there for you in your time of need. Of course you'd want your most precious one to be there by your side when you die, but for some reason, he wasn't. And that made you sad, didn't it?"

Miaka turned to me for a moment, "Onee-chan! You said that an emotion such as love displays weakness, right? But when you think about it, Miss Shoka's love for Mr. Myo Juan was so strong that she came back from the dead just to see him! Can you honestly call that weak?" I couldn't really say that it was "love" that brought her back—I'd be willing to bet on a more tangible answer, but if Miaka was so insistent on being zealous regarding this issue, then there would be no point in trying to talk her out if it. By this point, tears were forming in the priestesses eyes, showing just how much of herself she was willing to give towards this issue. She really was taking this a bit too personally. "Miss Shoka. Love isn't perfect, but it is strong. And when you lose it, it feels like you died inside—that's the impact it makes. So…you have to understand that it's not okay to get back at Mr. Myo Juan just because you're sad! Because…Because I'm sure that he suffered too! No, I know he did! For he was just as much in love with you! His heart broke just like yours did. So please, reconsider what you're doing!"

"Miaka…" Shoka's expression had transformed into that of a sad one, which was apparent even past her demonic features. But slowly, Miaka's words somehow got through to the monster, causing her to calm down and revert back to her human self—her skin returning to its normal, healthy color, her irises and pupils enlarged and became visible and distinguishable again, and her hair lost its edginess. Shoka's eyes were willed with much regret and tears as she seemed at a loss for words. Out of fatigue, she fell forward, only to be caught by Miaka. "Juan…I never…meant to hurt you or anyone else…but Aki was right. In my moment of desperation and emptiness, I was weak and allowed myself to carry this demon within me—it possessed me—and it just fed off of my sadness and anger. So…please…" She cried, "I know you couldn't help me then, but please, I beg of you. Help me now!" Something on her back started to crack and expand then, moving in a very unnatural way.

Hotohori must have caught onto this detail as well since he shouted out to his priestess, "Miaka! Get away from there! It's not safe!" But it was too late. From the depths of Shoka came out a large, abominable red creature shooting out of her back with a single yellow eye and long, razor sharp silver teeth which could probably rip through anything. The monster had slimy looking skin and a plethora of skinny tentacles each with a small mouth sprouting from its body. The sound of shock spread throughout the room, not even I was expecting something this drastic. But even in all this madness, I was content, as content as an emotionless person could possibly be, to discover that what I was beginning to think earlier was correct: that Shoka had indeed been possessed and it wasn't exactly her will for everything that has happened to have been done. And…at least we finally knew how a human such as herself, or in her case, a dead human, came to own such a power such as raising the dead.

Without a moment's hesitation, the monster reached out with its appendages and coiled themselves around Miaka's limbs as well as wherever her limbs met her body, leaving the priestess to shriek out in terror.

Shokyoku gritted her teeth as her hold on me seemed to have tightened. "What a repulsive creature…such an eyesore…I can't believe that that thing managed to conceal itself this whole time." _I guess Shoka finally found a reason to repel it. Too bad there had to be so much pointless bloodshed in order to get here though. It really is a pity…and such a waste. _

Tears streamed down Shoka's cheeks as she was forced to endure and witness this creature using her for its own ravenous desires. "Juan! You have to put an end to this! Only _you_ can! Please! You must do something before the demon devours Miaka!" With its mouth opening wider, the monster hung the priestess over its head and began to lower her into its depths. All she could do was scream.

Myo Juan actually did nothing in this moment, only stood there in shock. Well, actually I'd been in back of him this entire time so I really had no idea what facial expressions he was displaying, but given the circumstance and the response that most people would give, I could only assume that he was paralyzed with shock.

By chance, the tentacles seemed to act on their own accord and found me as a next target. Launching themselves at my immobile state, I did nothing, only watched helplessly while that knowing I couldn't react in time.

"Aki! Watch out!" Much to my surprise, Hotohori, Nuriko, and Tasuki all volunteered to put themselves in the line of fire, denying the tentacles their access to me. But in doing so, they were effortlessly caught into the trap as well—leading them in the same tangled predicament as their priestess. _Why would they do something like that? Surely they could have done more if they kept their distance from the monster and figured out a plan. _

"Well, at the very least," On shaky legs, I mentally demanded that the strings hold me up. I was being met with so much resistance, almost like gravity had just increased in my spot alone, still, I knew I needed to at least be able to stand and move. Otherwise, what was the point in even having this circlet? "Those guys gave me enough time to counterstrike. Shokyoku!"

Standing up on command, the little girl nodded, "Right!" I didn't exactly know what this woman was expecting from Myo Juan, but since he wasn't making an effort to even move, I would have to step in in his stead.

"Here we go. _Dioga Gravid—" _Luck not exactly playing in my favor, my body's ongoing meltdown chose now, in the middle of my spell-casting, to act up again. As always, the unwanted surges of Darkness electricity held me in place and once it dispersed, the after effects lead me to cough even more into my hands, the sudden motion leaving me unbalanced on already shaky feet, causing me to fall forward. Mid-fall, the tentacles seized their chance once more and this time, it got its way. Within a swift movement, several of them reached out and took hold of me, lifting me up into the air, facing the ground, away from a more than distressed Shokyoku, who was outstretching her arms upward in a pointless effort to grab for me.

'_I can't attack now that it's got you! What do I do?' _Shokyoku asked inside my head.

_You can attack just fine. Just be careful. _With the monster continuously moving us around, I had to admit that it was a tough target, but it could be done. Perhaps someone would have had to get hurt in order for it to have gotten done, but at least it would have gotten done. A few injuries are nothing when you look at the grander scale.

She begrudgingly lowered her head in a pout, apparently not favoring the order I had given her. _'I'm sorry Aki…but…I…I can't put you and the people you care about in danger!'_

_Huh? _

Since when did Shokyoku ever care about what happened to anyone other than me or herself? I continued to look at her, but she still had her eyes low, avoiding my gaze as a slight blush spread across her cheeks.

Hmmm…_This might be something I'll have to explore later. _Especially if this decision of hers ended up hindering us in the future.

But as for this present moment, I had to accept that she wasn't going to be useful to me—my safest way to perform spells in my current state and she backed out. Lifting my head up, I could see the others struggling for dear life, doing everything they could to break free. Unfortunately, the tentacles, which were now beginning to take tiny nibbles out of everyone, restricted their movements, a bad thing for Tasuki and Hotohori who both needed to swing something in order for anything to get accomplished. However I was a bit surprised that Nuriko wasn't able to break free considering his monstrous strength. This monster was not one to underestimate.

I supposed I could always use my own power and suffer the consequences…For all I knew though, that might not even have been necessary…

_So I guess, for now, I'll leave it up to Mr. Myo Juan himself. If Shoka is so confident in his abilities, then there must be something to him that none of us had seen yet. _

"Juan! You must destroy me!" Shoka cried out from behind her ears, the monster coming from her not caring at all for how upset it was making her. "Killing me is the only way that the demon will disappear and leave everyone in peace. Please…before it's too late—use your power and destroy me!"

Giving it some heavy thought, and I had no idea what there was to think about, if he really had this power, he needed to use it, Myo Juan clenched his fists even more, like he was enduring some type of pain or something. But eventually, his inner conflict must have resolved itself since he finally decided to make a move. Unwrapping the cloth around his left hand, he opened his palm out towards the possessed woman…who actually appeared to be smiling at his decision.

For the first time in a while, Shoka's voice became calm and gentle, reflecting gratitude and acceptance towards her imminent demise. But first, she felt it necessary to say her good-byes. "Lady Miaka…thank you so much for your kindness. I promise that you will be healed soon so do not worry anymore. You'll be healthy enough to live happily with your loved ones. Suzaku Warriors, I thank you all as well and I'm terribly sorry for putting you through all this. I wish you all health and happiness. And Miss Aki…" She actually had something to say to me? "I hope you…come to learn of true love and its importance one day…And when you find this love, never let them go." _…What a pointless thing to say…_

From the center of Myo Juan's left hand, a bright green light materialized along with what appeared to be bubble-like energy that shone in reflection to that mysterious light.

She closed her eyes one final time, allowing the rest of her tears to fall as she said, "Juan…I have missed you so much. To see you here one last time makes me so happy….I wish you all the happiness in the world, all I ask is that I'll always have a piece of your heart. Even if you should fall in love with another, and I hope you do find someone who can bring you such joy, just please don't forget about me! Farewell my love!"

Choosing not to respond to her parting words, Myo Juan only invested more of his bower into that beams of light being produced by his hand, keeping intense concentration as it stroke Shoka and the monster all at once. Of course the whole room illuminated a bright green from such a display, some of the bubbles even floated around a bit without any care in the world, but the true target were really the only ones to feel its wrath. _What is this power? _Once the monster was able to marinate in Myo Juan's light, it instantaneously erupted into an even brighter light before bursting into pieces, not a remnant of it to be found.

Upon its destruction, my comrades and I found ourselves being freed, with nothing to catch us out of the air except for gravity, which sent us to the ground below. Testing out my arms and legs, I thankfully discovered that they were all still useable, my right arm to a slightly lesser extent since it had been burned, but at least it wasn't broken. Good thing for us that it wasn't that high of a drop. And just as we were coming to terms with our victory, the house we were in suddenly vanished into thin air, taking us back outside to the darkened sky of Choko, which, off in the distance one could see the first color gradients of morning beginning to lighten up the horizon. _Was all that…?_

"The place was just an illusion!" Tasuki said, pointing out the obvious. All around us, the resurrected villagers all fell to the ground, thus severing the rest of the ties they had with this world and returning to the position they were never supposed to have been taken from: death. Both the newly dead as well as the ones who had been gone for quite a while, finally they could all rest in peace.

"Aki!" Shokyoku flew herself onto me as she came out of nowhere, using enough of her power to solidify herself and embrace me. "I'm so happy that you're alright! I don't think that I would have been able to show such restraint if that revolting creature had done anything dire to you!" Cradling my head, she began stroking my hair, which I could only tell she was doing by how rhythmically my bangs were being pressed against my head. "My precious Aki is nice and safe with me again~!"

Tasuki, who was witnessing the whole scene, tossed the little girl a look of disgust. "Such a weird, creepy kid…"

She shot him a deathly glare, which he seemed to have ignored, before returning to what she was doing. "I shall ignore that this time monkey, for I wouldn't want to risk my proper, ladylike air just because of your immaturity. And plus, I don't wanna separate from Aki!" As she said that, mini hearts started swarming around her head.

"Miaka…Miaka!" Shokyoku's hearts all popped once her fawning was interrupted by Hotohori holding an unconscious Miaka. "Please wake up!" Nuriko and Tasuki also grouped around her to investigate the state of their priestess, both of them looking pretty apprehensive while awaiting her diagnosis by Dr. Myo Juan. Immediately jumping into the role, the man squatted down to take a look at her, ultimately concluding that she'd be fine she was only suffering side-effects from being too close to the demon. Holding up his left palm, he held his hand only inches away from her face, alarming me a bit after seeing what that hand was capable of doing. But instead of some big, intense beams of light shooting out, it was more like a warm glow of that same color as before, bubbles emerging once more as he displayed his power in front of Konan's priestess.

Surely, her eyes slowly opened to the man curing her of the illness that had been plaguing her…with that mysterious power of his…how come he—?

Miaka abruptly woke up out of her trance and took hold of Myo Juan's hand with bugged out eyes. "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! IT'S A SIGN OF SUZAKU! ON HIS HAND!"

"Look who's got all of her energy back! It's such a relief!" Nuriko pointed out while he and his fellow warriors all smiled knowing that their priestess was okay.

Getting up from my spot and out of Shokyoku's embrace, I decided to stroll over and see the sign for myself. And sure enough, in the palm of that man's hand was the glowing red kanji sign signifying his being a Suzaku warrior.

The sixth one…Well, since we did end up finding him, I couldn't help but entertain the idea that it wasn't such a bad think that Tasuki had tricked Nuriko, Miaka, and Hotohori into coming to this village. If he hadn't done that, then we would have had no reason to stop by here at all. So in a way, the credit for the success of this mission went to him.

"Well that explains it," I said out loud. Finally everything that had either happened to us or come before us since coming to this village had been clarified. I was beginning to think that the mysteries would just keep piling on and on without any hope of discovering a solution.

"So…your being able to defeat that demon and heal Miaka…was all because of a power that Suzaku gave you?" Hotohori asked.

The sixth warrior nodded. "Yes…I am the Suzaku warrior, Mitsukake—given the power to heal…" Figuring that Miaka didn't need his help anymore, he turned his back to us and made his way over to the lifeless body of the woman who had caused us trouble since the moment we arrived in Choko. Crouching down, he delicately took her in his arms and continued on with his story. "Because I was given such a wonderful gift by Suzaku, I felt that it was my calling to use this power and become a doctor. All I wanted to do was help people, and for a while, I got to live my dream and be with the woman I loved. But the dream started to chip away once Shoka developed a deathly high fever. I had been called away to another village to treat someone while I left her here suffering all alone. If only…" He held onto her tighter, his own tears falling onto Shoka's face, making it appear as if she were still crying. "If only I had arrived sooner…but it was too late! I was supposed to be a doctor, yet I couldn't even save the one I wanted to save the most. I had no right to even affiliate myself with that title anymore! I didn't deserve it."

I parted my lips to speak, but from behind me, Nuriko's hand swooped up and landed over my mouth before I could say anything. He whispered in my ear, "I have a feeling that I know what you're about to say. So I'm asking you in decency and respect for other people's feelings not to say it." What was up with him? All I was going to say was how even as a doctor, it didn't mean that you could save everybody all the time. That was just improbable. Things happen and you can't really change that, sometimes, something happens that is just out of their control. Mitsukake just had the misfortune of the person closest to him being the one he couldn't save. Perhaps this was a life lesson for him. If he couldn't take that fact of reality then maybe a doctor wasn't the right career path for him.

"And so…because I couldn't look at myself as a doctor anymore—all I saw was a failure," Mitsukake told us. "So I decided to turn my back on the world…at least until I found a way to where I could improve upon myself as a healer and never let anyone down again…That day…seemed to never come though…" I stood by my statement in saying that he wasn't suited to be a doctor.

"But it did!" Miaka told him with her usual optimistic tone, walking up to him to show him her support. "You might not realize it, but you were able to save Miss Shoka this time around."

"I…saved her?"

"Yes! Can't you see…?" Her voice began to crack a bit, making it sound like she was tearing up. "Look at that smile on her face…she looks so peaceful. And that's because you were here and that's…that's all she really wanted…for you to be there with her in her last moments. You had finally given her most precious gift Mitsukake…" She proceeded to wipe away her tears which weren't shy to flow any more. In fact…I observed our whole group and it looked like every one of them was crying for some reason. Was there something I was missing? Looking down to my side, I could see that even _Shokyoku_ was crying. _Since when do you cry at things regarding human affairs?_

Trying to appear strong now that I've taken notice, she couldn't do everything to hide her tears. She was still sniffing and her cheeks were all puffy—some stray tears even managed to still escape. "I really couldn't care less about these people…It's just that…I couldn't help but think if it were _you_ in this situation instead of that woman. What if…wha-what if you had died in the same way that she had that first time? All alone…and suffering." Using her hand to wipe away her tears, Shokyoku told me, "This whole thing just reminded me of how I can't do anything about your current condition. But…I just don't want you to have the same fate as her…it would be so sad…"

Sighing, I disregarded the fact that people were still around to hear me say this, and patted her on her still tangible head. "Believe me, at the rate I'm going now, I won't suffer one bit since I have absolutely no sense of sorrow. So don't worry about it."

Without looking up at me, she said, telepathically, _'That…really doesn't help me all that much…sorry…'_

* * *

><p>After finding that Shokyoku's inner grief was temporarily laid to rest for the time being, or at least it was being suppressed, the six of us remained relatively silent at day break, while Mitsukake mourned over the loss of Shoka, taking the time out to give her a proper burial. Instead of just standing around watching him, the others had decided that it would be the right thing to do to help re-bury all the rotting corpses and to give burials to all those who appeared to have been revived just recently—or at least contact their families or enlist the help of any villagers who also felt the responsibility. That demon's sickness had captured so many people in the village, I wouldn't have even been surprised if the population had reduced to half…maybe even more than that. I couldn't help but think that all of this could have been avoided quite easily. But others say that it was much more complicated than that. It was a matter of opinion I supposed. Either way, as all of the dead had been buried, it was also the final burial of the plague. So now this village could move on, recover, and people could get on with their lives.<p>

With any luck, Mitsukake will have come to terms with everything and would agree to fulfill his Celestial duty. In that way, we wouldn't have to spend any more time in that village than we honestly had to.

… "we"? That was a slip of the tongue so to speak. There was no "we". And soon, there wasn't even going to be a "me".

…

…

…

_That's life…I guess. _

Before I knew it, I found myself staring into space, standing next to a dead tree while watching the sun make its ascension—me almost completely disconnecting with the world, thinking nothing in particular or…I wasn't thinking anything that I hadn't thought before. I had simply just…detached myself. I barely noticed anyone walking by, and I was pretty sure that no one had called out to me. The more I had invested myself into this Suzaku Seven business, the more it was becoming ever apparent to me that Miaka was overshadowing my existence. Her warriors were paying her more attention as well as the affairs in Konan.

_Finally._

Of course I didn't matter because I had nothing to do with their equation. I had my purpose, and they had theirs. I couldn't achieve mine…but Miaka had sort of surprised me so far not only by the fact that she was still alive, but also because she was actually a petty competent priestess. And all of her warriors so far seemed to all have their uses…If they all assembled before the Seiryuu Seven managed to, then Miaka could just get rid of all the problems if she wanted to, so the whole Stella issue was most likely going to get solved even if it wasn't by my hand.

So…things had worked out for the best.

"…ki"

My vision started to shake unnaturally, bringing me back to the world. And upon my return, someone was calling my name.

"Aki-nee-chan!" I spun around to face a smiling Miaka, who was now at one hundred percent health wise and back into her brown school uniform and familiar hair buns. She stood in front of everyone else, Hotohori, Tasuki, Nuriko, and now Mitsukake, all of them smiling at me for some reason. Given the events of the night before, I didn't expect for them to be at such high spirits yet. Even more curious than that, why were they all grouped up beaming at me like that? Things became a bit clearer, or maybe they became more confusing, when Miaka asked, "We're sorry that it took so long, but, are you ready to be healed?"

_What?_

* * *

><p>It didn't take long for them to explain what she meant by "healing me". Apparently, during the time when everyone was helping out around the village, getting everything said and done, Tasuki had herded everyone together since he suddenly had a "brilliant" idea. Oddly enough, he had made a similar connection towards my condition and needing the proper "doctor" that Shokyoku had mentioned before. And before anyone else could even think of it, the bandit himself thought of using the Suzaku-blessed healer Mitsukake's powers to…well, heal me. No one really knew if it was going to be a sure-fire thing, but…I guessed it wasn't that bad of an idea. Mitsukake wasn't a normal man. His powers to heal came from Suzaku, so they were probably nothing to scoff at.<p>

I couldn't really say that I had full faith in this idea, but for an idea from Tasuki…it was actually worth trying. He even told me, _**"You can thank me later. But keep in mind that if this works, then I'll be one closer to fully repayin' ya for your help. Never say that I'm not a man of my word!"**_I never really held him to any of those times I came to his aid, but whatever.

There was also to consider how Mitsukake's powers worked. While he said that he'd be more than happy to help me, we would have to wait until the next day because he could only do really serious healings only once a day. That wasn't much of a problem for me, and so…I waited until the next day break. But on the night prior to our testing out this plan, I began to ponder on what would happen if this actually worked. I mean…I already knew what was going to happen if it didn't…But if it did? I just didn't know what to think…

…but something _did_ stir within me for a split second. I wondered what that could be?

And so, morning had come once again, with all of us facing our fourth day in Choko. If all went well, it would most likely have been our last.

We had all traveled just to the outskirts of the village for my examination. Conveniently finding a boulder with a flat enough surface, Mitsukake instructed that I sit atop it so that he could inspect me before initiating anything. For some reason, this process took even longer than waiting twenty-four hours for this day to get here. He had really only been asking me questions about everything that had happened to me since the incident with Stella, as well as checking my vitals and current physical state. All standard things really…even if this was an ancient Chinese world, doctors were still doctors.

Then…

What was going on with me? There was some kind of constant beating of a deep drum assaulting my ears. No…wait…I wasn't hearing that at all…It was coming from me! I refrained from bringing my hand up to my chest, but there was no doubt about it. How was it that I could feel a beating in my chest? I recognized this sensation…I was…anxious? That… shouldn't have been possible. I couldn't feel anxiety. And I was positive that I still couldn't, and yet my heart was acting on its own.

This was my last chance at survival.

The others just sat around and found miscellaneous ways to entertain themselves while the doctor was doing his job. Just before we had arrived to that location, Miaka had been displaying her regained energy by jumping around and laughing, saying how wonderful it would be for me to be myself again. I glanced over at her, playing with a small white cat with a brown patch over its head almost looking like it had bangs, and its tail's tip was brown as well. The feline supposedly followed Mitsukake all the way here and Miaka decided it would be a good addition to the group.

She sometimes acted like she had no cares in the world…like she was just so sure of herself…and the others shared in her optimism. If they could see things more rationally like I could, then they'd know that this wasn't a sure-fire plan. Or…maybe they did know and were only putting on smiling faces somehow thinking that their positive energy would contribute to anything.

That notion wasn't even worth commenting on.

Finally, Mitsukake completed his inspection and sighed. Not exactly a promising sign. "Alright, I think that I've gathered the information I needed. Thanks for your cooperation in all of this Aki."

Ignoring the beating, I gave him a smile customary of such an occasion, although insincere. "If you're somehow able to fix my malfunctioning in any way, then I'll have to be the one thanking you, now won't I?"

Our conversing served as a signal to the others, who all flocked towards us with increased interest.

"How does she look Mitsukake? Do you think you can help her?" Hotohori asked.

"This is a very peculiar case," the sixth warrior admitted. "I could always try using my powers and hope for the best, but I have a feeling that something extra might be needed. Basing my knowledge off of what Aki has told me, doing anything to mess with her system might set off something else…maybe even another trap. So to be honest, I'd rather be careful while going about this so that I can make sure to get it done right."

Appearing at my side like a loyal dog, Shokyoku intervened the perplexed healer and told me, "Don't lose hope Aki. I'm pretty sure that I know what needs to be done here~. Tell them to call the fox-faced monkey here."

"Hmm…Chichiri?" I said out loud.

Miaka mimicked me while she continued to tease the cat with a long piece of grass. "Chichiri?" Then she dropped the grass for the cat to finally catch and clapped once as the borrowed idea suddenly stroked her. "That's what we should do! Get Chichiri here! I'm sure he'll know what to do—"

"You called priestess?" The blue haired monk wearing the cheery, fox-faced masked appeared next to her without any warning whatsoever, the rings on his golden staff clinging together as if wind had blown through them, even though in that instant, I was positive that no wind had passed our way. The sudden addition to the group caused Miaka as well as her other warriors to jump with surprise in their spots. Sporting a rather cheery smile, which was what made that mask so notorious, he held up a hand in greeting, "Hey everyone! I can see that you've made progress on your journey, ya know?"

The others were still standing in guarded positions with their eyes bugged out wide from the intrusion.

"Wha-Where the heck did you come from?!" Nuriko asked in a quick, panicked tone.

"From the palace! But you already knew about that, ya know, so I don't exactly know why you wanted to ask that…"

"Chichiri you damn monk! What did we say about poppin outta nowhere like that?!" Tasuki loudly chastised. "You nearly gave us all heart attacks ya jerk!"

Playing innocent, Chichiri placed an index finger under his lip as he pretended to recall something. "Did you really tell me not to do that? Guess I forgot all about it, ya know!"

"That's a damn lie and you know it!"

Completely disregarding Tasuki's frustration with him, Chichiri nonchalantly slid over to Mitsukake and extended out a friendly hand in greeting. "Hey there! My name is Chichiri! I'm a fellow Suzaku Warrior, ya know!"

"Hey! Don't ignore me!"

The benign giant looked down at Chichiri's hand and immediately extended his own out to comply with the gesture, saying, "It's a pleasure working with you. I'm Mitsukake."

Shokyoku, who by this time was crossing her arms and closing her eyes, had been tapping her foot and was beginning to growl in annoyance. Not being able to take it anymore, she threw her arms down and stomped over to Chichiri. Jumping at quite an impressive height, she solidified her hand to catch hold of his dangling bangs, thus bringing him down to her height as she landed.

Making sure she had a good enough grip on his hair, she tugged a bit more to get his attention—the attention she was striving to get even though he still couldn't see her let alone hear her. "Listen monk! We didn't summon you here to go around in a circle and say hi to all you friends. You are here for one thing and one thing only," using his bangs to guide him, and this whole performance was being rewarded by peculiar faces by everyone else mind you, she jerked his head to the side to face me, "you're here to help my Aki get better. You promised to do everything in your power to help, so, here's the time to match your words with action! Got it?"

Even while his face was twisted into that of a rather discomfort-filled expression, given the position he was in, he still managed an uneasy smile. "Yes, yes Shokyoku, I understand."

Releasing him, her eyes popped wide in astonishment. "Did he actually hear me?"

"Oh wow Chichiri! You've become able to see and/or hear Shokyoku as well?!" Miaka asked, sparkles in her eyes showing just how impressed she was by the concept.

Adjusting his bands back into the correct way that he wanted them, Chichiri denied the assumption. "No, I've just become used to her presence and deduced that what was happening was because of her, ya know? Besides, it was rather obvious what she wanted after she turned my head towards Aki." To that, he tossed me a smile, to which I gave no real response. Tossing his arm towards the back to his head, he smiled anxiously and said, "I guess I've overstayed my welcome a bit, huh? Then I'll get right to it! What can I help out with?" Chichiri was debriefed about the situation and about Tasuki's plan. And to that, the monk was impressed and patted the flame-headed warriors head, "Wow! That's a pretty good idea! You never cease to amaze Tasuki!"

Getting annoyed once more, Tasuki muttered an order, "Stop it."

The monk complied and took his hand away. "Alright then…" He crossed his arm and concentrated as he searched his mind. "Give me a second to think about this…" We all just stared at him until the moments he requested were up. Snapping his fingers, in realization, he relayed his knowledge onto us. "Okay, so earlier, Aki sought out Tasuki on the hunch that he might be able to do something to help her. But the fact of the matter was, he couldn't heal her because he didn't know how to exactly utilize his bond with her in such a way to take care of the problem, ya know? And to add to that, Tasuki had to compensate for Aki not contributing—through no fault of her own. But even with his efforts, it didn't work, ya know? The job was just too precise and sophisticated for their present levels."

"A bond?" Nuriko curiously wondered out loud.

Chichiri turned to him. "It's a long story. One that can wait for another time, ya know?"

"Akimoto, is this why you stayed behind back at Mt. Reikaku? Because you were hoping that Tasuki could help you?" Hotohori asked me and I nodded.

"A _bond_, huh?" Still Nuriko stayed fixated on that point of Chichiri's explanation. Leaning over to his brother warrior, Nuriko, with a mischievous grin, nudged Tasuki with his elbow. "What exactly _did_ you two do when we left you alone?"

Tasuki's cheeks started to redden, as the memory of our time there etched itself back into his short-term memory. Taking his arm out of Nuriko's reach, he turned his head to the side and closed his eyes—acting rather aggravated which was obvious by the volume of his voice beginning to rise. "Nothin' happened so don't start assumin' things. And even if something did happen, it wouldn't be any of your damn business." _I don't see why it's that big of a deal. So I kissed him. It was merely for scientific purposes. There was no need to get all flustered about it. _

"Aww…Red's getting mad, how cute!" Nuriko tauntingly cooed.

"I am _not_ cute!"

"So like I was saying…" Chichiri interrupted, probably figuring that those two had the capability to keep that up for longer than any of us really wanted to stick around for. They returned to more serious demeanors as they listened intently to the monk's words. "Aki's situation is a very delicate one, ya know? So I figure that with the convergence of Mitsukake's great healing power and Aki and Tasuki's bond, it should be the proper boost needed to heal what mess that Shadow Maiden left inside of her."

_This…might actually work…_

_The malfunctioning…might actually be fixed. _

…_**my constant unfeeling nature wasn't as constant and iron clad as I initially thought. I had experienced…I guess you could call them hiccups. Those hiccups had opened my eyes to a flaw that was buried someplace…**_

_**I could see cracks…**_

…_**pieces of something that wasn't filled in…**_

…_**broken shards of something…or somebody…**_

_**Buried deep inside…**_

_**Something was missing.**_

_**I wasn't complete.**_

_The thing that I had lost…whatever it was…_I was reminded of what I had told Shokyoku that day before we set out to find the remaining three Suzaku warriors.

_**"I can't feel my body… I can't **__**feel**__** anything at all. You're right when you say that I shouldn't be able to feel anything. But now even I know that something isn't right. I don't know what it is…The only thing I have right now is my life—my…existence. I function only to ensure that I maintain this existence. However, I don't know why. When I destroy Stella, then what? What's to become of me? There has to be a reason for me to automatically be programmed to ensure that I go on. Otherwise, it wouldn't matter if I lived or died. But since it does matter for some reason or another, I think…I think that whatever I'm missing is important for my survival. And…I need whatever it is to fully function, so that I won't be threatened…I need to be complete."**_

_Will I be completed again?_

And so, I gave my answer. "I'll try anything."

Tasuki nodded as well. "Me too. This time, we'll get it right!"

Exchanging glances between Tasuki and I, Mitsukake gave a similar reply. "I'll do anything in my power to help."

"I'm glad to hear you all say that!" Chichiri smiled, then reached inside of his sleeve to reveal a small, smooth silver ring. _What's that for?_ Offering it to Mitsukake, he said, "Here wear this, it'll protect you for what's to come, ya know?" The tall warrior complied without question, slipping the piece of jewelry onto his right hand's ring finger.

"Hey…how come yer not givin' me one of those things?" Tasuki pointed to himself, a slight hint of complaint lathered on his words.

"That's because you don't need one, ya know?"

"_Oh_…really?" He looked around and made note of his companions. "What the heck do they do anyway?" I sort of wanted to know that myself. This was actually my first time seeing those rings—I hadn't even realized that everyone was wearing one. How long had that been going on?

"You see Tasuki, you weren't there after Stella was finished with Aki…you really don't know what state she was left in afterwards." Tasuki's countenance suddenly became solemn upon the news he was hearing. Chichiri too had lost the air of cheerfulness that usually came equipped with that mask, thus becoming more urgent. It was a magical mask after all, so it did have the potential to change expression when appropriate. "Aki's Darkness suddenly became an overwhelming, dominant force—and that's a very dangerous and destructive element, especially when left with no control." Now addressing everyone, he seemed to have been re-affirming information that they had already received before. "These rings had been enchanted to protect you from the effects of Aki's Darkness which will return once we take that knotted circlet from her head. And that will be necessary for her cure, ya know?" So…they had those things since the beginning of all this. Chichiri didn't necessarily need to say it, but I had a hunch that it was Taiitsukun who had those rings at the ready.

Smart move.

Taking a moment to pause, his fox-faced mask immediately transformed back into that of a cheerful one as he held out his hand for me to take hold. "Having said all that, are you ready Aki?" My answer lied in my actions as I placed my hand in his and he helped me to my feet. Extending his golden monk staff out towards Nuriko, he asked, "Can you please hold onto this while we're getting this done?"

"Umm sure, no problem."

Next, Chichiri instructed Hotohori, Nuriko, and Miaka to get a safe distance away—probably at the least, twenty yards. At first, they all refused, saying that they wanted to be here for me and support me through this.

But to that I replied, "Fools. This precaution is for you not me. I can just _barely_ handle my own Darkness when it's that bad, what hope do you have? Besides," I met Miaka's gaze for a second, as she held the small cat in her arms, she gave me such a look of concern in those wide green eyes of hers, them alone telling me her desperation to stay with me. "You guys have a duty to protect your priestess. You'd be failing if you allowed her to get caught up in what's about to happen. Go…and watch from afar until its safe for you to approach me again." With my demand, they reluctantly obeyed and swiftly made their way away from us towards some direction. I lost sight of them once they exited my periphery. I wasn't going to babysit them and watch to see if they followed my orders. I warned them. Chichiri warned them. It was up to them if they decided to listen or not.

Grabbing Tasuki's hand, Chichiri said to the bewildered bandit, "I'm going to need you to put your hand…here," In a swift motion, Chichiri tugged Tasuki hard enough for him to step closer towards me, his hand then pressing up against the space in between my breasts. In immediate panic, Tasuki's eyes popped wide with his complexion reddening more and more by the second.

He struggled to pull away but somehow, Chichiri's strength was too much for him. "What the hell Chichiri! Are you out of your mind?! I can't put my hand there!"

Shokyoku popped up right in the middle of us, her hetero-colored eyes blazing with fury while witnessing the position that the monk had put us in. "I don't approve of this either!"

The monk then shot him a look that instantly shut him up. "You want to help her, right? Then get over being shy and just do it!"

Although a bit taken aback by Chichiri's outburst, Tasuki reluctantly did what he was told, a blush still spread all along his face and to his ears, as he allowed Chichiri to make him press even harder on my chest. Even though Shokyoku supposedly didn't like nor respect him, she understood the importance of every aspect of this ritual, and refrained from blowing up again. The masked Suzaku warrior then trusted Tasuki enough to keep his hand in place as he let go, moving on to the next phase. He took his place behind me, preparing for _something_ that he was expecting.

"Once I take the circlet from around your head, you'll lose your ability to hold up your body, ya know? So I'm back here to hold on to you when you fall." _Temporarily, I'll lose the freedom to be able to move around on my own. But hopefully, this plan will work and I'll never have to worry about being helpless because of my immobility ever again. _"Mitsukake, I'll extend my power to you to ensure that that ring does its job. I'm really praying to Suzaku that this will only take a matter of seconds, but even then, be ready for anything." The healer of the Suzaku warriors grunted in acquiescence, his expression turning hard as he already began to concentrate on supplying his end of the deal. "The moment I remove it from her head, you need to activate your power. And Tasuki, try to do the same thing you did before. Search for that spark and keep at it until you find it."

Slowly, he brought his hand over my head and I anticipated what was likely to happen next. I'd no longer be emotionless—everything would come back to me and I would be miserable again.

_Well, if that's what it'll take for me to get back what I lost, then I have no other options. _

'_I'm here for you Aki, so everything will be fine.' _Wrapping her thin arms around my bandaged one, she anchored herself onto me, determined not to let go.

"ONEE-CHAAAAN!" Miaka's voice echoed out to me, from which direction, I couldn't really tell. But the message came through to me all the same. "WE'LL BE WAITINIG FOR YOU! COME BACK TO US, OKAY?!"

Chichiri gave one final shout. "EVERYONE BRACE YOURSELVES!"

In the drop of a dime, a black, raging whirlpool began drilling itself into my head, the intensity of its cyclones already weighing me down so much that I thought that it would crush me faster than I could even blink. As much force as it was, for some reason, my body wouldn't immediately give in…It hadn't yet caught up with the reality of what was happening. I…didn't even know what was happening. Only that the whole world, except for the whirlpool draining its trapped contents into my being had slowed down. A never ending film strip, or what resembled one, rushed past with incredible speed, too fast for anyone to possibly distinguish any of the pictures.

And yet…I knew exactly what was on them. They were my memories. The memories I was cursed to always remember.

Each one of them played itself over in my head day…

After day…

…after day…even if I chose not to acknowledge them, I always knew they were there.

Just as quickly as the ribbons had presented themselves before me, they vanished, but their imprint never left my mind.

My knees finally began to budge, and I found myself beginning to drop even if only by less than a centimeter, but ever so slowly, my lips began to part, as if they were preparing for something to say…what was going to come out? The whirlpool that had claimed me as its own finally began to thin, preparing to dissipate altogether.

Then…it happened. The last remnants of its existence dissolved into nothingness while the world became reacquainted to normal time—moving forward from the mere second that had gone by since Chichiri had removed the circlet from my head.

The marionette strings had been severed…I lost all ounce of control.

Like an atom bomb making impact on ground zero, a shriek escaped past my lips and a fierce storm of dark indigo and black energy exploded from the cursed ring that had once disappeared upon placing the circlet onto my head. But now, it returned, and although compact, practically hugging against my body, it spun rapidly like a razor, each rotation creating smoky gusts comparable to speeds like that of the worst hurricane ever caught on record.

It wasn't, however, this outrageous burst of immense power and the terror it must have caused that had me screaming out in bloody murder. No. It was…_pain_.

The overwhelming combination of so much negativity…

Sadness…

Anger…

Fear…

I had all my memories but the emotion had been sucked away from them because of that circlet that Taiitsukun bestowed upon me. With the blasted thing being taken off my head so abruptly, it all came rushing back in one full force! Over the years...they had all built up and I could take it. But this? Having them fed down my throat all in one sitting…it was unbearable! My body was heavy, scary heavy, as if someone had filled me to the brim with sand and all I'd be able to do was sink further and further into this chilling, abysmal Darkness.

Shutting my eyes tightly, a waterfall of tears displaced from them, like they had been held back for so many years and just now they decided to burst. The feeling of shame that originated from knowing how others were witnessing this pathetically low point for me added to the list of emotions that were causing me to suffer.

My head…

My heart…

Both felt they were being squeezed like a grape. I could only take so much pressure until…!

"Please! Let me die! I can't take this anymore!" The cries that escaped were eaten up by the black hole that I knew I'd always be stuck in. No one would ever hear me. No one would ever help me. I would often deny the latter in my past. But now…I didn't even have the option of receiving it.

Because I was alone. No reality was ever more apparent than that one. And every day, my memory would only reinforce that thought into my head until the day I died.

After much hesitance, I slowly opened my eyes. Only to find that I was no longer in that field with everyone else outside of Choko. I was by myself, enveloped by almost nothing by pitch blackness. Upon an unexpected flash of lightning, I found my body hovering over what appeared to be a raging sea victimized by some perilous storm without rain…or wind…and yet, the water was so active, like someone was shaking it around in some giant, cosmic bottle.

Right after I was lead to believe that it wasn't present, I finally found the wind in all this chaos. But…it was howling. Continuously blowing past my ears, the rest of that world had been tuned out. All I could hear was the insistent howling. It sounded…so sad…almost…unsettling.

_This isn't how things are supposed to be…_

"Make it stop…please…please, please…" Being met with an uncomfortable amount of resistance, I used every ounce of my strength to lift my arms, fighting against the force that was trying to keep me immobile. But now, even if it hurt like hell, and even though my arms kept dropping after reaching a new milestone in height, I kept at it, refusing to stop.

_Keep going.._

_Keep going…_

After what felt like forever, I found that my hands had reached my head. But to keep them from falling, I actually had to use my nails to claw into my hair to keep my grip.

And then there was that howling still haunting me.

This world…was crying…it was in pain too.

This time, I prayed more silently, my voice filled with much strain, but sincerely asking for a miracle.

That was when a completely unique sound met my ears. Some type of…crackling?

…

There it was again. It sounded almost…electrical.

Making sure to keep my hands on my head, I looked up and found a crack in the black sky. The crack had a golden light shining behind it. But it was so small.

Another crackling sound. Suddenly, an electrical surge filled the entire sky, followed by someone shouting out my name. "AKI!" The crack in the sky got bigger, its golden light beginning to shine through and onto me.

My eyes grew wide. _It's so warm…_My body was actually beginning to feel a bit lighter the longer I basked in this light. I needed to reach for it. I needed that Light!

"AKI!" Reaching out one of my arms to the light, the feat was becoming easier and easier. "AKI!" The voice called out again.

Taking in a deep breath, I let it all out in a yell that filled the whole world. "I'M HEREEEEEEE!" Just then, my whole body somehow flickered a bright gold—as if it had just…sparked! The blackened sky couldn't take any more of this invading force whatever it was, and the whole thing suddenly shattered into incredibly tiny particles…but golden particles resembling snow.

Lowering my arms, I kept my neck bent back as I stared at this world's true sky. It was a rather soothing grey with fluffy clouds floating on by in the faint breeze that blew. The golden particles came from a place even higher than them…or so it seemed. Following the path of the gold snow, I lowered my head up until I noticed the sea. Or…a sea of some sorts. It was some kind of shallow clear liquid that extended on and on for as far as the eye could see…Upon further inspection, I found beautiful silver crystals displaced at various intervals between one another while shining just below the gently rippling surface.

Bringing my head back up, I resumed my inspection of this mysterious place.

_Where…am I? I feel like…I've been here before._ Suddenly feeling very weak, my body fell backwards with me half-expecting to splash into the water. But…no. No splash. And yet, I was on my back facing the never ending grey sky.

Fighting back the urge to shut my eyes, I couldn't help but think, _This…is how it's supposed to be. And if not, it'll get better…_Eventually losing the battle, my eyes closed and I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p>'<em>Hey Aki! I hope that you can hear me.'<em>

It was Shokyoku's voice…

'_Your friends were able to fix you, Stella's contamination is gone! So now I know that at least for a while, you'll be just fine.'_

"Friends"? Fixed me? What did she mean by…?

'_The dark ring has returned to your possession, and so, it's time for me to go back inside. I guess I am a little tired…So much has happened and I got to spend all that time with you! Even though it wasn't exactly under the best circumstances, I still loved being with you and knowing that I could have been a help to you in any way.'_

Being with me? When had she ever stepped foot out of that ring?

'_I had never experienced the world before…not in that way and it was…interesting. But now I'm exhausted from all the excitement. I'm sorry to say, but it'll be a little while before we can talk to each other again. You see, I have to regain my strength, so I need to sleep. Try not to miss me too much, alright?' _Before her voice withered off completely, she added in, _'I'm overjoyed that you're back!' _Right as she said that, I swore that I could feel a small pair of lips lightly kissing my cheek.

Or maybe that was all in my imagination…

What had happened to me?

More voices were able to break past my thoughts. These ones also familiar.

"Aki!"

"Aki-nee-chan!"

"Akimoto!"

"Aki! Wake up already!"

My eyelids slowly rose and I found myself laying on my back, staring up at a clear blue sky and birds soaring across it. _When did I come outside?_ And… I was surrounded by people I knew….well, I knew most of them anyway. One of them was drawing a great big blank for me. Not only that, but…When have all these guys met each other?

With all of the eyes on me, I was becoming a little more than self-conscious, feeling my cheeks heat up as I trailed my eyes off to the side to avoid their gazes. _How the hell did I end up the center of attention here?_!

Taking in a deep breath, I sighed, putting on the cool, calm, and collected façade that I was so used to, even with the apparent blush on my face. Failing to resist the urge, given everything I had woken up to, I couldn't help but ask, "So…what did I miss?"

* * *

><p><strong>*With Shokyoku, before she went to sleep*<strong>

Dear Mother,

Not taking into account our recent reunion, it's…been quite a while since you've last come into contact with me.

Although I am sort of used to it.

Ever since you created me, I've always been in second place in your heart—that is, if there was any room for me at all. Because of your favoritism towards Aki, I used to resent her with every fiber of my being. I truly wanted to make her life miserable. But not for the reason that you wanted, I wanted her miserable solely so that she could pay for stealing you from me.

The fact of the matter is, though, that I never really had you, did I?

The truth became clearer and clearer to me as the years went by. And even though I knew that I was only created for the purpose of achieving your goals, I still did everything you said just so that I could win your love.

For the longest time, I also hated Aki because of her existence…because she became so important to you, she took away the life I could have had.

So naturally, I was more than happy to see her life become Hell. And I was happy to know that what I did pleased you.

However…spending a little over fourteen years with Aki, I couldn't help but sympathize with her. I couldn't help but idolize her for putting up with everything the way she had. Her attitude, her style—I became enamored with the person that she had become, so much so that I become angry when people don't realize just how wonderful and special she is.

I guess you've always known how wonderful she was, right?

And then, something amazing happened: I finally got to meet her. She was everything I hoped she'd be. It was just wonderful being in her presence. All these years I never even had a name. But she was so kind and thoughtful as to give me one.

"_**Shokyoku…"**_

*squeal* Ooooh I just love it so much because it was my first gift from her!

From the very beginning, you made a promise to me—promised me something that I could have if I fulfilled this duty of mine. And it was because of this promise that I forced myself to be completely okay with what I was contributing to Aki's life.

However I have to be honest with myself now, and with you.

So now…mother, I want to protect her happiness. Even if I can't reach my goals, and I pretty much know that by the time you read this you'll take back the promise you made me. And that's okay. Because of who I am, I know I'm limited to very little in my life. (However, even though I'm only working with very little, I've still come out as one of the most beautiful, smartest, and talented beings in existence! I don't give a damn about what those Shadow Maidens say about me. They're all just jealous and petty)

But Aki…she has so much potential and it would be wonderful to be able to see that potential finally realized.

I know you had plans for her…but I'm sorry, I cannot allow you to make those plans a reality.

So in case you haven't realized, I'm breaking away from you. And I am now determined to make Aki's future bright.

Maybe I will always be a curse to Aki, but I can always tone down my effects on others so that she can be free to become stronger and build more relationships. (Bleh! That is still so difficult to say since I still don't like the idea of people taking away Aki's attention from me…But! I'm doing it for her!). I'm not sure how much I can do by this point since it's not quite as simple as I'd like…*shakes head* No matter what! I'll help her achieve her wish! Even if I have to put up with those damn monkeys…

Mother…I can imagine that on some level, you're probably upset with me. Just know that I'll always love you and I'll always hope that someday you can return that love. Realistically though, I'm not expecting much from you.

Just think mother…now that I'm no longer on your side, I could really make a difference in Aki's life. It's a late start, maybe. But better late than never!

And you know what? I feel pretty confident about myself. Now, I know that _I_ could never defeat you, but I have a feeling that when the situation eventually calls for it, Aki _will_. And if you even try to do anything to me, she'll get mad and come after you. She'll protect me…

…because that's just the sort of person she is.

Also, even though there are certain things I can't tell her right now. She'll find a way to get the answers.

One more thing. Think twice about the decision to kill me. I know you could do this at _any_ time, but…I know you won't and you know I know _exactly_ why you won't.

Mother…

…

….

…

I am your only successor yet I know that I'll never be able to measure up to you. *smiles* and I never want to try to…I just hope that being who I am is enough. And...I know that my tone has only been one of defiance but...I do still love you. Even though I know what you're doing isn't right. You're my mother after all. I'll always love you...

Forever walking in your shadow,

Shokyoku

* * *

><p><strong>*It appears as if Aki is back to normal…or is she? How much have things changed since her time of absence? Will things change now that she has her emotions back? Or will it be the same as before Stella got to her? And how WILL she react to what's been done to her? <strong>

**I guess we'll have to find out next chapter!***

**Well, that was the chapter, how did you like it?**

**PLEASE REVIEW! ****Tell me your opinions, predictions, hopes, anything that spiked ur interest during the chapter—anything! **

***ahem***

**In this chapter I had Tasuki say a joke, ya know, this one: "****Not too shabby, huh? The bastards didn't have a ghost of a chance! Get it? They're zombies and they're dead like **_**ghosts**_**? It's funny!****" That one is both dedicated and inspired by my Senpai, KittyLynne, who has Tasuki saying similar humorous things in her Fushigi Yuugi fic, **_**The Promise: A Tasuki and Miaka Love Story. **_**I'm pretty sure if you've ever read her story, you'll see what I mean ^_~ I saw the opportunity and I took a chance. I hope that was okay senpai! And I hope you enjoyed!**

**Also, for those of you not very familiar with Fushigi Yuugi or its English Dub, you might have been a bit confused when Shoka yelled out "I'M NOT CHOCOLATE, I SWEAR!", right? Well, that part was Aki missing the whole joke since she wasn't in the room to witness the whole thing. You see, in the anime, while Miaka's asleep and Shoka's trying to kill her, Miaka suddenly sprouts up from the bed, while still sleeping, and puts Shoka's arm into her mouth, trying to eat it. This is when Miaka says "Mmmm chocolate~!" Implying that she's dreaming about food. Shoka is freaking out, trying to convince the sleeping Miaka that she's not chocolate. And then, Miaka lets the woman's arm go, and lies back down saying, "Potato chips then~!"**

**Lol. This is from episode 16 if you wanna see that part X3**

* * *

><p>EDIT * September 5, 2014 *<p>

This is the last prose chapter of _Love Hurts 5 Ways. _It has run its course on this site.

BUT the story IS NOT over.

Head on over to my Deviant Art account (link on my profile) to check out updates about the soon-to-be-implemented LH5W project where i tell the rest of the story, Chapters 46 and on, through pictures and dialogue (think of it as a visual novel like thing...)

This transition is still new and will take a few weeks to get started, but its definitely going to happen. If you would like an explanation for the change, please head on over to DeviantArt and read my journal dated 9/5/14 with a title starting with "ATTENTION LH5W READERS..." and you'll get the full story.

Sorry for the inconvenience...

I hope you decide to continue following the story on DA! Please +WATCH me (on DA) so that you can be updated on the status of the story as well as to experience the rest of the story (if you choose to do so X3 I wont blame you if you dont...)

Thanx for reading! *hugs you all*


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